My Town Shoot-out: Aged and Weathered

The idea of the My Town Shoot-Out is to post photos of your local community every Friday. This week's assignment was chosen by Pauline, from New Zealand: "aged and weathered."

All photos shot in Corvallis, Oregon.

This sounded like a classic photography assignment to me. Cool! I felt like a real photographer. I did wonder-just a little-why I couldn't be from St Augustine, Florida, a site in the UK, France, or other aged-and-weathered shooter-hangouts. Corvallis, except for our yard, seemed rather new-looking.

So all of these shots were taken in our yard. Well, I am lying about one of them. There is one which was NOT taken there. Hmmm, which one?

We have a gargantuan piece of driftwood in our front yard, dragged to Corvallis by an elderly friend, and bequeathed to us just before she passed away. Like most weathered things in this part of Oregon, it has begun to cover itself in moss. I like to look at it.

The ferns are just beginning to fade in the back yard, which you will see best if you click on the photo. Ferns remind me of Henri Rousseau, who was decidedly not from Corvallis.

Our tomatoes are in season; the bowl I use to collect them has been personally aged and weathered by my youngest son.

The peas were dead a month ago, but I am a negligent gardener and never pulled them out. I now thank myself for this because it was fun to take their picture.

These marrow bones are actually not that old, but Ed and Reub have helped them along.

We have a big oak tree in the back yard, and it has begun to lose its leaves. Here they are, all caught up in a dewy cobweb.

I shot a bunch of b&w pics, figuring they would all look old. But they came out creepy, and I quit. A family of squirrels attacked our old shed this year. I thought it was odd that they went through the side of the building rather than just chew the screen out, which is what I would have done. If I had to get out. Or in.

Vegetation grows extremely fast here in Oregon. Really, it does. You should get somebody to move your vehicle around if you plan to be gone for a month, like we were this past summer, otherwise this kind of thing might happen.