Photo of the Week 2021-08-30

Digging into the archive this week ...

 

' door no more '

I shot this image in an abandoned farmhouse almost 12 years ago to the day. It was during my "rurex" period, where weekends  consisted of visiting many of the local abandoned rural buildings and properties.

 

There were a few of us from the local photography community that shared an interest in exploring these structures. Unfortunately, my participation in such activities came to an end when arson claimed many of the structures ... including this one. I've written of other nearby buildings lost to arson at the hand of a disturbed individual who was ultimately identified, charged and convicted on several counts ...

... though the beauty of these structures and this door in particular are no more.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-04-13

Eight years ago I had the opportunity to photograph a now all but gone location. Canadian thoroughbred racing icon E. P. Taylor's Windfields Farm had sat abandoned for a few years and was deteriorating rapidly when I stumbled upon it on a drive south on Simcoe Rd. in Oshawa.

I had heard of E. P. Taylor and Northern Dancer but never much of the famous farm Taylor operated breeding his horses on 6 square kilometres of farmland in Durham Region. It's a fascinating story and piece of Canadian history for anyone who has an interest to dig into it. We all have time now in our cocoons of COVID isolation.

On four separate occasions at the end of winter 2012, I photographed here. Twice from just along the road, capturing the gates, related offices and dwellings associated with the operation. As I became more fascinated with it's story, I decided to probe further and onto the property. Each time I visited, the conditions were different. I was able to capture very different moods. The last visit, on a foggy March morning was my favourite. I spent a few hours there photographing around the property and in the buildings that were open and accessible. Although not readily identifiable as Windfields, the image above is a favourite.

Dark Hedges of Windfields

I set up on the long entrance lane just inside the main gate with my 70-200 f/2.8 on a EOS 50D (camera long gone now) and shot at 200mm, f/4 to compress the perspective and narrow the DoF looking off into the fog. I think the effect creates great mood and an interesting image.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-04-06

As days begin to blur together in COVID isolation, the already less formal in retirement daily routine has been further defocused. Now too, the weekly rhythm weakens, becomes less important with external activities curtailed, and getting ready to go to bed last night, I realized it was Sunday, that I had not prepared a regular blog post for the morning.

I have been spending a considerable amount of time these days at my computer in the basement, reviewing images, most from 10 or more years ago and you would think that I might have a collection of images flagged for posting ... you'd be right.

Fortunately I have, and I've wanted to keep to the stream of Urbex / Rurex images that I've been posting. Coincidentally, I had begun work on a series from Windfields Farm, a location steeped in Ontario history, particularly in the equine community.

the light beyond

The grave of Northern Dancer

I have a fairly extensive catalogue of images from a few visits to this location and will likely be posting more on my social media feeds in the coming days.
NOTE: 
As I sat down to wright this post, I was shocked to see a news article about a fire at an abandoned structure in my social media feed. Just the other day, I saw a significant collection of images of this place posted to a FB page I follow. It was a grand log home that I was previously unaware of, and apparently very close to developed Brampton.
This is an all too familiar scenario, remembering the fires resulting from arson in Wellington County and surrounding area several years ago. It was at that time I stopped visiting and photographing abandonments. The increased security and police presence aside, publicizing these locations was very probably attracting the wrong type of attention. In the case of the structures in Wellington, a troubled mind, now charged with setting several of the fires. In the case of this recent Brampton fire, cause or those responsible yet to be determined. Whether accident, carelessness, misadventure, stupidity or sickness, I'm again left contemplating to what degree posting images of abandoned places contributes to the frequency of these fires.
Final Note: I understand that Windfields Farm is no longer abandoned or standing as it did, that the property has been developed or repurposed and as such no longer exists as I experienced it.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-03-30

I'm glad to have photography to help keep me busy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every time I get the urge to go out as I would in "normal" life, I head to the computer and click away into my image archive, ultimately finding something to occupy my time for a few minutes and possibly hours ...

Already, I've been reminded of so many people, places and things from early in my over a decade of digital shooting ... and I've only really been concentrating on the Urbex / Rurex content that I have.

Fascinating to me are the details to be found in abandoned locations ...

low fidelity

DJE