even more dilapidated buildings and a junkyard @grantville (nikon d70)

A few years ago, I got up early on Thanksgiving day and headed down to Grantville, Georgia. I intended to explore the inside of the old cotton warehouse and figured no one would be around to bother me at that hour on a holiday.

Prior to visiting the warehouse, I snapped a few pictures of buildings in the downtown. One of my favorites is this photograph of an antique store.

While there is a lock on the door of the cotton warehouse facing the street, around back I discovered a gaping hole in the wall. Inside what remains of the warehouse, the roof and floor are completely gone, is a junkyard. Among old refrigerators and other debris, I found a first generation Honda CVCC and a station wagon of unknown make. Interestingly, the CVCC was a more upscale model than my family owned - ours did not come with luxuries such as a tachometer. The cargo area of the station wagon contained a large piece of what appeared to be electronic equipment, the function of which I could not determine. Because the walls were blocking most of the sunlight, I used a remote SB-800 to add some light to both flicks of the cars.

After finishing up in the junkyard, I wandered down the street. A City of Grantville cop car pulled up and parked at the old train depot. The pig was quite obviously watching me, and followed me for a ways after I got in my car and pulled out. Much to my surprise, he did not pull me over and gratuitously Taser me.

a chair, a plymouth, and ruins @oakhurst (nikon d70)

In the fall of 2006, I attended an oyster festival at Steinbeck's in Oakhurst, Georgia, with a couple of friends. While there, I made a mental note that Oakhurst might be the kind of place worth photographing sometime. Then I proceeded to get crocked.

Mulligan's was a bar in Oakhurst famous for serving the Lutherburger - a cheesburger with an egg on it, served on Krispy Kreme donuts instead of bread. By the time I got to Oakhurst, the establishment had closed, so I wandered around back to see what I could find. I was rewarded with an abandoned chair behind the former Mulligan's. There wasn't enough light on the chair to suit me, so I used an SB-800 left of the camera to throw a little more on it.

After hitting Mulligan's, I tooled around Oakhurst looking for more interesting stuff to photograph. I found this Plymouth Cadillac, likely the only one ever made. While photographing the Plymouth, which was parked on a public street, an old lady sitting on her screened porch kept asking, "Do you have permission?" As a photographer, clueless wankers who get up in my grill when I am in the public right-of-way irritate me to no end. The law is quite simple - if you are on a public street, sidewalk, or anywhere else publicly owned, if you can see it from there, you can photograph it.

On the way home, I picked a random street and took it northbound. I discovered the ruins of a house. Adjacent to the ruins was a sketchy looking sort of backwoods shack. The kind of dump inhabited by well armed rednecks with anger management and xenophobia problems. So, I did not linger long.

All photographs were taken with a Nikon D70 and a Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8 constant aperture zoom with a Silent Wave motor.

construction equipment @the wrong side of the tracks (nikon d70)

Some time ago, the City of Atlanta repaired the sewer lines along Bishop street, which is fairly close to my apartment. Being bored, I grabbed my Nikon D70 and seized the opportunity to take a few photographs of heavy equipment.

I took this photograph of heavy machinery with Atlantic Station in the background. Just past the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, a now completed Target is shown under construction. Because the setting sun was brightly illuminating the buildings in the background, I used a Nikon SB-800 Speedlight held off camera in my hand to light the hoses in the foreground, which was in shadow.

While taking this photo of a backhoe, a cat came flying out of the cab when the flash went off and startled me. I jumped about two feet in the air and nearly dropped my camera.

All photographs were taken with a Nikon D70 and a Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8 constant aperture zoom with a Silent Wave motor.

more dilapidated buildings @grantville (nikon d70)

A little bird told me the state of affairs in Grantville would be improving. So I packed my Nikon D70 and raced back down to get some more sweet flicks of decay.

Setting up a shot of the crumbling wall of a former cotton warehouse was a pain in my ass. The full light of the setting sun falling on the warehouse wall in the background was fucking up my program, because the brick in the foreground was in shadow. I set up one Nikon SB-800 Speedlight as a remote firing at the bricks, which worked well. Explore the rest of the cotton warehouse.

Across the street, I found an old hotel and took this photograph of an old window on the building's porch. I took another shot of the interior of the old hotel. Based on the lumber and tools strewn about inside the old hotel, at least one attempt at renovation has been started.

Down the street from the old hotel is a former bank. Remembering Ken from Lithonia's advice to look up, I took this photograph of a bank. I liked the results, hence this similar bank flick. Finally, I decided to get a bit of sky in this last shot of a bank in Grantville, Georgia.

All photographs featured in this post were taken with a Nikon D70. The lens used for the bank flicks was a Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 with a circular polarizer.

mitchell's service @porterdale (nikon d70)

All the cool kids have peeling paint shots - here is my take: peeling paint at what was once Mitchell's Service.

For this photograph of the office at the former Mitchell's Service, I used a remote SB-800 on the floor firing into the room to even out the contrast ratio, since the sun was shining directly on the bricks.

I used the same trick with the SB-800 to bring out the whites in this photograph of the bathroom at the now defunct Mitchell's Service.