Sunday, August 9, 2009

To the East

From Carlisle, I drove south on a random road, seeking out something interesting to get a picture of. I went past miles and miles of farmland, and past a lot of debris from the storm that passed through earlier that day. I tried to stop at any old building I could, and found this one along the side of the road. It was an old gas station, which still included an old Exxon sigh. The old gas station looked to be long-closed, there probably haven't been too many customers at this old vending machine.
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There was a shiny Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper box there, which is still in use. It had a few editions of that day's paper still for sale.

There was an incredible amount of dragonflies zooming about along the road, though unfortunately a good number of them are still plastered on the front of my car. I don't think I've ever seen that many dragonflies out and about. But I drove on south into the town of Stuttgart, which is a big farming town. As you drive into Stuttgart, you see a bunch of looming buildings that look like the skyline of a far-off big city. It isn't skyscrapers you're seeing, instead it's a good collection of silos and grain elevators. I drove around in Stuttgart for a bit, but didn't get any good pictures, so let's move on...

I headed back towards Little Rock, passing through several little towns. On the road, just outside one of those small towns, was a huge swamp. The brackish water was covered in a sheet of green, with cypress trees popping out of the murk. I turned around and parked on the median, and took some shots out of the passenger side window of the car.
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A few minutes later I stopped at this old house along the road, and carefully checked to make sure that no one actually lived there still. I hoped that it was empty, and got out to take a few quick pictures. I added a texture to this shot, which I hope goes well with the subject matter.
Home Sweet Home

I drove closer to Little Rock, going by the towns of England, Keo and Scott. Now this area is ripe with old buildings and barns. Looking back now I wish I had just driven out there first. I drove down a dirt road and came along an interesting stretch of old buildings being slowly taken over by nature, which were surrounded by farmland. It was starting to get a bit dark, and this was the last shot of the day, but I think it might be my favorite. Again it has a texture added to it, I tried not to go too overboard on the processing here.
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5 comments:

Matthew Kennedy said...

We need to steal Zach for a weekend and make a trip down to my place in De Witt. Tons of swamps and old building and junk to take pics off. Plus there in nothing to do down there at night except build fires and drink beer. My birthday is Tuesday and I may need a weekend away soon.

Matthew Kennedy said...

by the way that swamp looks nasty. I saw one like it today golfing off Faulkner Lake Rd. Mosquitoes suck!!!

Zack Andrews said...

I'm up for the trip!

=D

Windy Richardson said...

I really like the last picture. Nice to finally see your texture efforts. You had told me about it, but I think this is the first time you posted it.

Mosquitoes do suck!! Literally... I'm covered in bites despite the use of bug spray after about a 10 minute stop at the Louisiana Purchase State Park... Which...is just a swamp with a marker where the LA Purchase surveying started.

Cormackphotos said...

Matt - that sounds good to me, especially the beer part...

Windy - woah, I had been thinking about going out there. But that park might be a "winter" place to visit.