It's A Good Day To Shoot

And why, you might ask, is today better than other days? As I have stated more than once, I have such an aversion to winter that mere words fail me. Even bright sunny days are nothing more than nature taunting me into thinking it's nice outside when in fact, as we speak, it's 32 degrees. I must say I feel bad for those of you who feel as I do and still have to go out in to winter's cruel embrace in order to forge out a living. Be that as it may, if I have to endure the cold (pun intended) hard reality of winter I might as well use it to my advantage. As such, I need it to be dark and dreary. I only use available light and at least when it's overcast I'm not fighting the sun. I couldn't begin to count the number of times I had to change my position because my shadow was in the frame. Add to that that the winter sun is much lower on the horizon and this becomes an all day ordeal. I say all this to say today was cloudy and dreary. Just a miserable day. But from my point of view the first good day I've had since I started this season.




Today was day two of my foray into northeastern Alabama. Mostly Madison, Jackson and Dekalb counties. In fact I was so far northeast the GPS sent me through South Pittsburg, Tennessee to get to Bryant, Alabama. I started this morning working my way up through Jackson County. One of the early things I found was in Scottsboro. A large inverted cone shaped thing. And no...I have no clue what it is. It can best be described as an igloo made out of concrete blocks. Most things I can figure out but this one is a mystery.






Further down the road was this piece of machinery sitting on the side of the road just outside of Stevenson. While I have never actually seen one I suspect this is machinery from an old cotton gin. Why it's sitting here is a mystery but it was adjacent to an antique shop so maybe for display purposes.

While in Bridgeport I had encountered a police officer who wondered what mayhem I was causing on the other side of town. I laughed when I saw this a few minutes later as it could have possibly been my new residence had I indeed been up to nefarious endeavors. This is the town's old  jail across the street from Bridgeport City Hall. I shot this through the bars of the front door.The front door was just that....bars. I can only imagine how miserable that would have been on a cold winter day but it would be easy for the town's folk to come by and "see" you.

As I was heading up Lookout Mountain to find something on the other side of Mentone I happened to glance down into the valley to my left. The area, appropriately named Valley by the way, had been clear cut and was mostly barren save for a couple of lone structures. You'll notice the steeple on top which is what caught my eye. I debated turning around right then but figured I would come back this way instead. As it turned out the GPS led me back this way to my next target. What I had thought was an old school was actually a church. It was old for sure. Named "The Spoken Word Ministry", it was now just a run down old building clad in classic fake brick, asphalt shingle siding that has to have been abandoned for quite some time. The steeple was added on much more recently as it's made of particle board and was attached to a tin roof. I suspect whoever ran this little church was trying to make it more homey and appealing.

My last stop of the day. An old dock on the Tennessee River at the base of the mountain from Section. I was happy to see it because I was done for the day and heading home. By this time the temperature was hovering just above freezing and the wind was blowing a good 15mph.

I did see something that amused me. I was never one for fishing. I understand why folks do but I just never really got into it. But as I was leaving I saw this guy out on his boat. In full coveralls with a hood. It's cold, windy and miserable and yet here he is seeing what he can catch. There's the old expression "One man's junk is another man's treasure" to which I amend to say one man's crazy is another man's perfectly normal I suppose...