Ghost Post!

Ghost towns and other freestanding historical structures and relics are hard to come by in Western Washington. I am not sure why this is, but I would hypothesize that this is due to extensive development in settled areas; and, in areas allowed to revert to a more natural state, the wet climate, relatively rapid rate of plant regeneration, and, in many areas, events like landslides and washouts. But, with that said, there are a few things here and there remaining from bygone days; usually, it seems, associated with some sort of extractive activity (e.g. logging/mining equipment).

Faithful followers of this blog will note that I usually post pictures of exclusively natural subjects. This post is unique, then, in that I am posting some photographs that show evidence of a couple of natural areas' human past. All but one of the images in this post, which is separately noted, come from the Lime Kiln Trail in Robe Canyon Historical Park.

The first two feature the Lime Kiln itself, which, according to this website, was used to fire limestone (quarried nearby) into lime, which was used in mortar and plaster for the construction of the adjacent Everett & Monte Cristo Railroad. With the first image, I wanted to definitively place the kiln in its natural setting and framed it between two mossy trees. I used a wide aperture of f/5.6 to blur the trees as much as I could and direct attention to the kiln. The second uses a wider angle and a wide depth of field (aperture of f/22) for a different approach.

This…is a thing. From the looks of it, I'd like to say it's a saw blade, but I really couldn't say definitively. I was intrigued by how it was broken and the way moss was growing on it.

The next set of two images comes from Meadowdale Beach Park in Edmonds. As I understand it, the notches in these stumps held boards that loggers would use to stand on while they cut the trees; that way, they wouldn't have to cut it at the much thicker base.

Of course, I would be remiss to omit any of my standard landscapes. They were a bit experimental; such is winter. These first two feature the South Fork Stillaguamish River; I was intrigued by the way the river itself was shaded but reflecting colors from sunlit slopes and trees above it. For both of these images, I used long shutter speeds (5 seconds and 3 seconds, respectively) to blur the motion in the water. I don't like the tiny overexposed spot at the top of the first; otherwise, these turned out reasonably well.

This last image looks down a slope to the aforementioned river. I used an aperture of f/29 because I wanted to get the licorice ferns in the foreground as well as the background trees in focus. The trickiest aspect of this image was the lighting; the contrast between the shadowy foreground trunk and the bright background (particularly the river) was high. I tried using a flash but at a shutter speed of 4 seconds, it wasn't making much difference (I would have needed a floodlight!). Still, the end result wasn't too bad.