Toad Hollow Photography

In a previous post, we’ve been discussing planning and scouting for photographic opportunities.  Today we explore what happens when you plan for something only to arrive at the scene to do the shoot, and find that things have completely changed.

This entire situation has really driven home the point to me on how important these sorts of documentation projects truly are.  The scene I had scouted and was really looking forward to shoot was a warehouse type building with what I believe to be apartments above.  The building was very weathered, had tons of textures and details, and had some really great surrounding elements that would have made for an incredible scene.

It was not meant to be.

As I arrived and took in the entirety of the surroundings, I realized that my previous plan had just changed from a documentation exercise to a demolition scene.  The only thing that remained was the side walls and the doors to the original business.

From this angle we get an interesting contrast to take in, the color of the new car matches the color of what remains of the building behind it.  It also poses an interesting irony inasmuch that the car is pretty much brand new, and the building, well, isn’t…

I just love the light that is coming through the remaining windows, it just really sets a striking scene.  The boarded up window is something of interest as well; inside these walls you will find absolutely nothing, so I am not sure why the added level of security is in place.  If you have a pair of tin cutters or a sturdy set of boots, you could get in no problem.

I absolutely love this door.  It is the epitome of weathered and worn, the red paint is naturally antiqued.  The details and textures in the boarded windows and surrounding panels also really add an old feel to the scene.  The odd part here is again that light that is coming through the window in the door.  If you were to open this door, you’d be greeted with a 40 foot deep pit that is full of heavy equipment.  This site is probably destined to be developed into another monster condo project or a new business building of sorts.  I am definitely not one to stand in the way of progress, but it also breaks my heart to see all these character filled and historic buildings in the city disappearing only to be replaced by buildings that have zero interest architecturally.  No character at all, nothing of note, they all are starting to look the same.

I think the biggest lesson I derived from this whole experience is that this sense of urgency I have to get out and document as much as we possibly can is not to be taken lightly.  This building was here 2 weeks ago, and when I was scouting it out there was no clue or notion that it’s life was almost over.  It was a big shock to encounter this scene, and in all honesty I needed a couple of minutes to discard my original plan and take in what I was seeing…  and come up with a new plan.

A post-mortem, if you will.

We really hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post, it really means a lot to us when our visitors leave us comments so please feel free to do so!  Thanks so much for visiting today!