I Married a Photographer

After writing my last blog entry, Dean and I began discussing the differences in one’s perspectives as a child v. an adult.  For instance, revisiting places from childhood and noting that the setting isn’t quite how you remember it.   Think of your  school play ground , specifically the sets of monkey bars  you played on when they were shiny with a fresh coat of paint. Now after years of weather beating down on them they are rusty, crusty, and much shorter than you remember.  Similarly, stepping into a tree house as an adult with barely enough room to turn around in. Once  inside, you think back on the days when you gathered with friends, made pacts and swore that it was as big as a  mansion.  There is a lot to be said for gaining knowledge,  but with that one loses the innocence and wonder of  being a child.

Dean setting up to take a shot of an old building in the middle of nowhere. The coal region has such a feeling of lonliness.

In the most recent blog entry, I  wrote about an experience that molded a younger me.  Our approach to the  Shamokin /West Cameron  area was a unique experience for me.  I wasn’t afraid of tables falling on me; I hoped to never relive that horrifying gym session with the cafeteria tables stacked high while children ran about (for full story refer to the previously posted blog entry).  Things were not how I remembered them -at least not exactly.  We drove around areas familiar to me, and not.  With each turn it was an adventure.  I returned to that nostalgic locale and what it meant to me; a step back in my life.  Yet as we explored , the majority of our findings were completely new and strange.

It amazes me that one can be in a specific area and not really see anything.  Hence, our fascination with the rediscovery of this particular area.  Both Dean and I spent a good portion of our lives in as a part of the coal region and now we are able to see and appreciate the life and culture it offers us. For Dean, it was going to High School  in Shamokin, but living outside the coal region. He would hear the stories of the other kids ‘going up on the mountain’ to party, or the multitude of stories about other well-known locations that he never got to see. Now things were becoming real and tangible to him.

Our adventure took us to what is commonly called the ‘Third Patch’ area just outside of Shamokin.  We ran across The Wash House going out of Shamokin, PA, up Market St. and out Rt 125. Past the Shamokin Filler and instead of following the highway to a sharp left (all less than 2 miles outside town I suppose) we took an unmaintained ice-covered road up the side of a coal hill. This was less than a half-mile up the hill I suppose.

That was the beginning for Dean, who was just enthralled at the history buried in these back trails.  He took out his Nikon D70 and began setting up to take several HDR (High Dynamic Range) photographs. Dean mentioned trying to capture the mix of beauty and grotesque; the myriad forgotten stories of lives that touched these locations.  Several of the shots, Dean used the normal 50mm lens while for dramatic effect he used the Sigma 10-20mm wide-angle.

If you’d like to view our images from out journeys they can be found at  Dean’s Flickr page

If any one reading this knows of any areas that would be great to photograph, please let us know.  In addition, if you have a vast untapped knowledge of the Coal region and can help us be historically more accurate, it would be appreciated!