Tag Archives: Outdoor Guy Photography

Abandoned, Destination, Photography

Forbes Abandoned Farmstead | ND Drift Prairie

This abandoned farmstead was located just North of Forbes.  This property has several out building along with a house that was partially hidden by trees.  I did see this on the way to Forbes.  Cyndie was too busy surveying the gazetteer to notice this nugget of abandonment.  I wanted to stop, but figured we would on the way back through – our first goal was to get to the school.

It was already 1:00 p.m. when we got to the abandoned school in Forbes.  I wanted to burn some of the harsh mid-day light there and hope for a tamer glow later on at the farm and hopefully other sites.  We spent some time in Forbes shooting the sites.  There were several other locations of interest.  It was 3:45 p.m. by the time we returned to the farmstead and there was still plenty of bright light.  It was a gorgeous day; sadly we spent a fair chuck of the day in the car getting here.  It was all good though as we were in the middle of an abandoned haven of sorts.

Abandoned, Destination, Photography

Forbes Abandoned School | ND Drift Prairie

I’ve been following Ghosts of North Dakota for a while now and have been eyeing up various locations to photograph.  This site has no shortages, but only seeming endless supply of possible places to shoot.  Cyndie and I had an opportunity recently to go to North Dakota and search for abandoned structures to shoot.  We used this site to pick out a few areas of interest to begin.  We figured that we would wander around from town to town.  We found numerous abandoned homes and farmsteads outside of the various town listed on this site.

Our first stop was Forbes, ND.  This teeny tiny town is situated right on the border of North and South Dakota in Dickey County.  The abandoned school there looked very interesting.  A bright sunny afternoon provided for some great light to photograph this wonderful mess of an abandoned school.  At some point, someone must have played some paint ball in the school or just walked around shooting paint balls everywhere.  It added a titch of interesting color to an otherwise fairly drab interior.

Destination, Photography

Eau Claire County Amish | WI Driftless Area

It was a beautiful day for a “Sunday Drive.” Our sights were set on Amish country; this time in Wisconsin.

Augusta is two hours nearly straight East of St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN. Amish farmsteads dot the landscape from Augusta in the North to Osseo to the Southwest and Fairchild to the Southeast. This Amish settlement was founded in 1978 and consists of six church districts. Seventy-five percent of Wisconsin’s forty Amish communities are one or two church district.

Augusta is home to the Yoder family. Wisconsin vs. Yoder was particularly significant in regards to Amish educations. The local conflict reached the U.S. Supreme Court which resulted in a landmark 1972 decision which granted Amish and other religious groups the right to remove their children from school upon finishing the eighth grade.

It wasn’t much of a mystery as to where the Amish might be. All you have to do is look for buggy tracks or horse poo on the road. I love driving through Amish country. Their farms are very well-kept along with everything else, including beautiful vegetable and flower gardens. They are a simple and hard-working people. For the most part, they just want to be left alone to live their way.

This settlement had several sawmills and timber processing and furniture making appeared to be their Forté. Their sawmills were not the only thing visible on this rural landscape. There was something else here; something I was not aware of – something that many communities, including the Amish would rather not see at all. Something that is significantly impacting their way of life already. More on that later…

Destination, Photography

Vernon County, WI – Day 2 | Driftless Area Weekend

Vernon County, similar to Monroe County, is full of rolling hills and deep valleys.  It reminded me of a continuous roller coaster ride.  It was an extremely lovely Spring day, although the scenery reminded us both of Fall with the color of the trees budding out.  The entire Autumn pallet was present and accounted for – the yellows, oranges and reds were extremely vibrant.

Our primary goal for the trip was to seek out the round barns in the area;  I think we were able to shoot most of the 13 round barns 1 of the 2 covered bridges.  It was a great 2 day trip and I look forward to a return trip soon.

Destination, Photography

Monroe County, WI – Day 1 | Driftless Area Weekend

Cyndie and I traveled East to a driftless area in Wisconsin over April 21st & 22nd 2012.  Our first afternoon we traveled through and took in a good portion of Monroe County.

Read more about Driftless Wisconsin.

We headed Northeast out of La Crosse to the West Salem area to begin our backroadin’.  Our goal for this trip was to capture all of the round barns (mostly in Vernon County – Day 2) and covered bridges in the area.  Upon arrival in Monroe County, we were met with so much more than round barns; the regular ones were just as picturesque if not more so.  These rounds barns were either in really good (restored) shape or, as it were with one of them, covered with a tarp or the scene was just too busy for a good photograph.  My preference is the old, the decay, the moss-covered  and weather wood, missing boards…you know, falling apart.  I realize these structures do not exists purely for my photography pleasure and the owners concerns are more with form/function and perhaps the grips of a local or national historical society guideline or two.

I was instantly locked onto the very different styles of copulas that adorned the tops of these Wisconsin barns.  There was quite a variety than what I have noticed thus far and they were very different from the ones around home.   The barn windows and doors were a wonderful highlight of the trip as well.  We ran into a great property just East of Mindoro, WI.  Ten of these thirty-six images were from that one farmstead (Images 4-13).  We slowly made our way to Sparta, WI – running parallel to and just North of I90.  It was a great start to the trip – gorgeous country sides and a nice Spring day.