LENS ARTISTS CHALLENGE#344: ABANDONED

Being alone, lost, forgotten feels like abandonment. Can we project our human feelings onto inanimate things? With a little imagination, we can. How many times have you passed an old rundown house and wondered about the people who lived there? Or passed an old barn on the roadside and let your imagination run wild?

For instance, old farm equipment always has me picturing a farmer riding a tractor through a field or a horse drawn plow left by the wayside when a motorized version came along. They were abandoned for the sake of progress.

When things are of no use anymore, they are carelessly left to fall apart like these two old boats that are beached and never to enter the water again.

Homes, once a place of joy and laughter now sit alone in decay. What games did children play in their yards? How many families occupied the dwellings?

Old vehicles left to decay in covered structures and an old theater that had to be vacated because multiplex cinemas took over.

And our animal shelters are full of animals left by their owners. Or feral like these little kittens abandoned at Knight’s Landing, and who were being fed by a caring individual.

And last our current homeless problem. Have we abandoned their needs for a bed to sleep in?

Your challenge is to tell and show us your thoughts on abandonment. I hope I’ve given you some ideas to get you started. I love old rundown things, especially when they are rusty. But when I got to thinking about what they would say if they could talk, it brought me to a solemn place. Where will it bring you?

I’m looking forward to seeing how you feel about being abandoned. I like people too much to enjoy being alone. When you respond, please link back to this post and use the Lens-Artists tag—anything that helps me find your post!

Last week, thanks to Ann-Christine, we shared the fun of our last outings. I enjoyed seeing the varied places you visited. Next week look for John’s post because he will be leading our challenge.

Until then, stay safe and live in gratitude.

A morning at the museum: The California Agriculture Museum, Woodland

When people think of California they visualize Los Angeles, San Francisco and maybe San Diego. They don’t see California as an agriculture state, but it is. Most of the produce we bought during our 2013 cross country trip was from California. Farming and ranching is a big deal for this State.

So, it makes sense to have a museum dedicated to agriculture: The California Agriculture Museum. Five of us visited this recently re-opened museum in July. It was fun to see the old tractors. Featured at the museum is the tractor collection of Fred Heidrick Senior, consisting of rare examples of tractors, harvesters, trucks, autos, horse-drawn implements and other artifacts that tell the California story. For me, the most fun were the wheels.

I’ll admit that I have trouble shooting in museums because you just can’t isolate an object. In this case the tractors were close to each other. I decided to focus in on wheels–big and small. Once I did that, it became fun.

Shooting inside was also interesting. The lighting was more even than we found at the California State Railroad Museum. I tried shooting with and without the tripod and with and without the flash. I think I ended up mostly with the tripod and no flash. There were instances where using the tripod was impossible, getting the right angles, etc.

It was a fun morning, and I hope that after seeing these pictures you’ll have a greater appreciation for the agriculture we have in California.