Outside of Shaniko | Eastern Oregon
A couple of weeks ago I went back for the fifth time to an old homestead that I call “Outside of Shaniko” because it is off Highway 97 about 20 miles from the old ghost town of Shaniko in Eastern Oregon.
Although I have been here many times, not all of them were successful shots since I feel that having interesting clouds in the sky is important in adding drama and interest to the photos. Luckily, this time the weather cooperated and I had a brief moments of dark skies but with some sun breaks to light up the subjects. Some sad news however, the windmill that has been so prominent in the photos in my prior trips appears to be damaged from this last winter. It looks like the wind broke one of its supports and the windmill is no longer spinning.
As I have visited this location multiple times in just a couple of years period, each time I visit I see that the structures become more and more dilapidated. You can tell that this place has held on strong for maybe 100 years but not too many good years appear left. Maybe I should head out that way again in a couple of months to see the changes and hopefully capture some new shots.
I have many more pictures of this old homestead outside of Shaniko in my photo gallery at Oregon Foto | Pictures of Oregon. I would consider a few of my “Shaniko” shots to be some of my best work and certainly a project that I have enjoyed. I hope you find this work as memorable as I do.
Here are some recent shots from that trip…….
This is a shot of the main house:
This is a quarter angle view of the main house:
Here is the back view of the homestead with a clear view of the windmill:
This is a closeup of the barn that is on the property:
Stumble It!
If you want drama in your sky, it is simple. Use a red or orange filter and optionally under expose and then expand your highlights during development of the film unless, of course, you’re really not shooting B&W but desaturated digital color. Usually those can be spotted off a mile away. But yours I can’t tell. Good work. I truly believe you can’t beat sliver for monochrome images. It would be nice to see larger image sizes. These are pretty small on a 2560×1600 monitor.
tuco said this on May 14, 2008 at 9:17 pm |
I think this is good black and white pictures. I do like them.
Morten Pedersen said this on September 3, 2008 at 2:18 am |
Great work. Ilove Black and white but would love to see the colour shots as well
Regards
Adrian
Adrian said this on October 15, 2008 at 10:26 am |
the abandoned homestead I shot my self back in the 80s, Your Eyes saw the exact same views I took then with my 4×5. I thought I was looking at my own photos except there’s more deterioration to the place now Nice seeing the old place again Nice shot.
shadow said this on March 9, 2009 at 5:20 pm |