More of Rural New Jersey and LJ Herman

The Agway Silos below were photographed in Flemington, New Jersey back on September 2nd on one of my Sunday photo trips with my sister. We stopped at a few churches, at some at some farms where I got a few great barns and some horses.

On the way home we stopped at a couple cemeteries and a 2nd hand shop that will make you laugh when you see some of the details. :)

I finally had a chance to start editing the photos that I took that day tonight.

I love rural feeling photos so when I saw these silos I made sure my sister and I pulled over to photograph them. I love the conversions on some of these. The brownish tinted one is definitely my favorite action lately.












The next place featured below from our stops along the way home is LJ Herman's Second Hand Shop in East Windsor, NJ. "Second hand" prominently displayed with a giant painted hand on the front of the mossy green colored building.

I had to photograph this place...I passed it so many times throughout my childhood while traveling down Route 130. I don't know why...maybe it's my love of old places with peeling paint that look abandoned but once I really got into photography last year I promised myself that I would stop and photograph it one day. This was the perfect day with the most perfect blue sky all day (the circular poloarizer made it even more of a perfect blue sky that day).







My favorite part of LJ Herman's 2nd Hand Shop isn't that it's FOR SALE - it's the sign on the door where you would normally find someone's shop hours. Looks like the hours used to be there on the poster board with an additional note that says "and whenever my truck is here." Now how great is that!? It just had me giggling!



The other door on the shop has what looks like the owner's phone number along with another great sign that only says "Open when my truck is here." I guess if you were interested in visiting the shop you had to swing by to look for the truck. :)

Not sure if you find it funny but some reason it cracked me up.



There's just something about this green old second hand shop that I love.

I better start capturing all the places I've always loved around New Jersey before they are all gone!

To view more of my rural feel shots (barns & abandoned buildongs galore) click here:

http://jenweaverphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/3228604_XJiob/1/257337223_cPaqT

More of Abandoned New Jersey

I'm still catching up on the editing... This time I was working on photos of an abandoned warehouse I noticed on a photo hunt with my sister back on August 5, 2007. I have been wanting to edit this shoot for a long time but never got to it.

I don't know how I seem to find places like this but I do and I'm always drawn to them. For some reason I love old, abandoned buildings, structures, barns, ets...I guess there is something about the cracks in the windows, the curiosity behind the former use...being able to peek inside to see what was left behind...the disrepair...all of that intrigues me. On the other hand sometimes it can be a little creepy!!! Although creepy can be interesting in a strange way too! If you looked at a lot of my photos on my website you'd think that New Jesey seems to be full of abandoned buildings, barns, etc...or maybe I just seem to find all of the ones that are!

For the photos below of the series I chose to apply a few different Photoshop actions to some of them and I'm really liking the results. You know the feeling you get when you look at your final work and you're completely satisfied? It doesn't happen often for me but that's the feeling I had when I was done editing this series. The results really portray what I was aiming for in my eyes.

I got to thinking about the fact that I'm happy that I ended up being delayed (for months) on editing these. If had I edited them back in August I would not have had the Photoshop actions (that I have as of today) so the post-processing might not have provided me with the satisfaction I got from what I did below.

So, I guess in this case I can say that sometimes good things come to those who wait. :)



















I took this shot at the warehouse pictured above...I liked the DOF and even though it has a different feel than the rest I wanted to include it with the series...



To view more of my gallery that includes Barns, Churches, Abandoned Structures, and photos with a Rural Feel click here: http://jenweaverphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/3228604/1/245598776

Homemade Air Conditioning

These photos area also from my photo excursion from 10/28/07 from out trip to the Mulica River and the Pine Barrens.

On our way home we stopped to take the barn and silo from yesterday's post and I noticed this house on the farmland across the street. I might not have given it a 2nd glance until I notice the roof was completely missing on one side. I took this from across the street:



Then I decided I wanted to get closer we drove up the long driveway and I took some shots from my car (I always get worried about trespassing...how do I explain... "Oh sorry, I just like to photograph old abandoned things" LOL!)

I love this conversion!!











Some details on the house:

I love the fall leaves reflected in the window:





I always find it a shame when you see houses like this....so sad to see homes go to waste like this...

The GREENHOUSE effect

Ok, this post is not about global warming (as the title might suggest) but it is about a Greenhouse!

I stumbled upon this lovely broken down greenhouse the same time I found the old barn that I posted yesterday. They were both on the same abandoned street.... I'm tellin' ya...it was creepy!

It was completely fenced in all the way around with no way to enter (darn it) but I stood in the field that was next to it because it was a bit of higher ground and I was able to get above the fence in a lot of the shots. Other ones included the fence in the photo but I didn't mind it at all (kind added to the strange abandoned place).

"Not so long ago, an evil doctor genetically engineered some plants in the greenhouse. Shortly thereafter, the evil doctor, his plants, and the entire neighborhood vanished...." (written by a fellow forum member for these pics LOL!!!)



That's a huge turkey buzzard on top of the chimney...

Photographing Snow/Photomatrix Tutorials/Abandoned New Jersey

How to Photograph Snow and Sand

Ever wonder why blizzard or snow photos made on overcast days almost always look dark gray and not snowy white like real snow? Click HERE for more information on correcting this from Ken Rockwell.

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Photomatrix Tutorials?

I was just searching the web looking for some Photomatrix Tutorials and found this (what I am really looking for is more in depth tutorials on using the sliders to my best advantage. I haven't found exactly what I'm looking for yet...and this searching and reading takes up soooooo much time!):

HDR Tutorial: How to create ‘High Dynamic Range’ images using Photomatix

If anyone knows any other good Photomatrix tutorials for free - let me know!

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Below are today's favorite works of mine...all are 3 exposures HDRs tonemapped in Photomatrix and tweaked in Photoshop.

Found these abandoned houses just by chance a couple weeks ago and I went back to shoot in this area yesterday in order to capture them. There are a handful of these abandoned houses on this one street and I can't figure out why they are all boarded up (since they look like they were in good shape).

It felt like such a ghost town...very strange being in this deserted place alone I must say. It's hard to explain...it was an eerie feeling as if they had fleed the area leaving in a hurry...parts of their world were left behind...items were still in the barn like someone was still working at the workbench.

Abandoned New Jersey
Old Barn....and a clothesline

Out and About in Princeton

Today I had to run some errands and decided to bring the tripod camera. I headed towards Princeton, NJ and parked on the main street and decided to focus on one area of the campus with beautiful architecture.

I did everything with 3 exposures so I could create some HDRs in Photomatrix with the photos taken.

I spent about one hour on the campus and got what I think are some great shots but then my $1.25 for our hour on the parking meter was up and I had no more change so I had to leave or get a ticket!

Before I headed home I stopped back at 2 areas I wanted to revisit (both were on the same rocky road). One was an abandoned nursury/green houses of sorts that is huge and strangely is completely fenced in around it -- and the other was right down the rocky path which eventually turned into paved road -- a was a number of abandoned homes.

I photgraphed the abandoned nursery in the most pleasing way possible (due to the chain link fence around it) and I found a bit of higher ground in the field next to it where I could get a better look and some better photos that were all behind a fence.

When I was done there I explored the street with the abandoned houses although I wasn't sure if I'd find anything worthy of photographing. I make a turn and found that one of the houses had a huge barn that was somewhat falling apart - which is right up my alley (and oerfect for HDR photography)!

I photographed there as quick as I could because I'm sure these boarded up homes were "no trespassing!" The barn made some great photos along with a falling down clothesline that caught my interest.

After I edit them I will post away!