As some of you have noted, I'm kind of fond of setting my camera on the ground and pushing the button. Focus be damned, I just let the camera grab onto whatever it pleases to get that odd, low perspective.
I mean, you really don't have to always peer through the viewfinder. In fact, you can even hold it a couple of inches off the ground, snap the shot, and see what comes of it. Usually, it's nice to have a line or some edge to help get a sense of what's going on. Give it a shot, and let me know how it turns out.
Anyway, as for the photo itself, this is a very old road that ends at the bluffs above Lake Michigan. At one time, many years ago, tucked away along this road were some really awesome and old Victorian houses. Some belonged to the farmers who worked the land in the area, and some were people who bought lake shore land for nothing but the view.
Unfortunately, as the years passed and the lake gnawed relentlessly upon the shore, the eroding bluffs collapsed and took a few of the houses with them. Eventually, the houses were abandoned as people fled the hungry lake. Some houses were actually picked up and moved, and others were torn down, and the whole area embraced its destiny to be nothing more than farmland.
As for the road, it's been closed for almost thirty years. In summer, the growth along the edges encroaches upon the dotted yellow line, turning it into a narrow path of old, unused and nearly forgotten pavement. Perhaps the greatest memory I have of this road is growing up in a childhood seasoned with the tales of broken-hearted teenagers, fed up with living, barreling full-speed down this road to plunge head first into the end (a girl I went to school with ended it here).
It's a strange and somber walk along this patch of old, gray roadway. When the winds fade, there is a silence that bears down upon you with the weight of one ton of Detroit steel free-falling over the edge into oblivion.
It's a fascinating area.
-DP
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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/18/2008 11:01:00 AM
... this was a fascinating entry ... thanks for sharing it ..!
ReplyDeleteReminds me a lot of some sections of Route 66, the ones that they've closed off. There's one section in Illinois that runs right down into a lake. (They formed the lake after the highway was decommissioned.) It's all overgrown, but you can still see the yellow lines as they lead into the water. It's one of the coolest and spookiest things I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteBeth