I left Brenham early on Sunday morning after crashing in a tiny roadside motel. The motel was pretty sketchy, but sometimes I like that style of drive-up-to-the-door, ditch my camera stuff in the room, crash for 6 hours, then leave in haste to catch the sunrise. Sunday morning turned out to be rainy and freezing... pretty horrible for a lot of outside photography. So I ate in downtown, read a few chapters of Ananthem, drank a lot of coffee, chatted with a waitress who was an aspiring photography student and gave her some golden nuggets of truth, then drove on to Houston.
Several miles outside of Brenham, I saw this strange collection of houses and stores that were all brightly colored but recently abandoned. It was still raining, so I put it on my list to hit on the way back later in the evening. Luckily, the weather was dark and moody when I returned. I spent about an hour walking around this old abandoned place, shooting a bunch of cool and creepy things. I have no idea why everything was boarded up and empty... there might have been some squatters in one distant house, but I was kind of freaked out by some strange music coming out through some of the boarded-up windows, so I decided it was time to leave...
I'll post more shots of this place later... it was very strange... reminded me a little of a mid-80's Texas version of my visit to Pripyat (the little town right by Chernobyl that was also abandoned).
From the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
matt_carr, Leo Druker, stellar63max66, photosbysavs, and 72 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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Steven Martin 53 months ago | reply
Interesting that the place has been decorated with an assortment of Christmas lights. Thanks for sharing your adventures.
fotophriendly 53 months ago | reply
Way k00L kapture!
jaynesav 53 months ago | reply
Beautiful
J
Scoutress 53 months ago | reply
Maybe, somebody owns the property and only uses it for guests or to have parties on holidays? I used to party with a pretty large, regular, group on New Years and they would bring tepees and all manner of lodging to a 6000 acre camp just for that one event (which lasted a week minimum) each year. A week after New Year's day passed....the place was deserted except for the ranger's home and family.
Maybe it was once a movie set.
This is a beautiful shot.
stevewhis 53 months ago | reply
great story and a fine capture, well done
Stuck in Customs 53 months ago | reply
Thanks!
Orang - I am not sure! Usually I try to make sure the clouds are composed in such a way where I won't get a halo effect -- or make sure the halo at least looks natural... or remix with an original RAW the way I do in the tutorial
when_night_falls 53 months ago | reply
Spooky !
No. 1 KUMAG [deleted] 53 months ago | reply
This is Perfect!
This photo has been selected for The Perfect Photographer Award
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"Mr John" 53 months ago | reply
Wonderful colours...
you are a visual poet
you are invited to post this amazing work
and join us at
PhotoPoetics
*Yεss* 53 months ago | reply
Ohh, look at those reflections!!! Perfect!
Pete foley 53 months ago | reply
Terrific shot, enjoying your stream as ell. Some of the best, most subtle HDR I've seen anywhere - nice work
John E Adams 53 months ago | reply
A great spot and image -;0)
Meta-Man 53 months ago | reply
You're right, some places in the American 'desert' can be just plain scary. It's that weird mix of sparse housing and dry geography, and the feeling that you've stepped into another century by accident. What on earth brought you there though? I got stuck for a few hours in a town called Realto near the Mojave desert, but that was an emergency landing!
Patti Sullivan Schmidt 53 months ago | reply
I like this very much.
allstarlover09 52 months ago | reply
Could you tell me were it is???? thru Flickermail?????
skocaine 36 months ago | reply
I recently found this while driving to an obscure town to pay for a speeding ticket. Here's a preview of what I got from this amazing deserted place:
fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/164/f/6/Regentrification_...
Excellent shot btw!!
fables98 36 months ago | reply
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Cool Old and Historic Places in Texas, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
ououuouo. 26 months ago | reply
scary!, someone wrote "Help " in the window of the building on the far right
I love JOHNNY2011 18 months ago | reply
hey i live in somerville texas like 20 miles from brenham ive never seen this town before but am interested in learning more about it
Laura Villarreal 6 months ago | reply
Can anyone give a more precise idea of where this is at?