Looking from Lee St. towards Main and Franklin: Yadkin Junction Not Long After Sunset

Urban landscape in Salisbury, NC, shot after dusk. Strictlydocumentary, nothing done but cropping and resizing. Commentswelcome.

 

--Lannie

The glimpses of the buildings make you wonder what else is beyond the curve........

 

Well, there's Grimes Mill (visible), Church St., Fulton St., Ellis St. (at the old bridge they are trying to preserve), Dairy Queen, Innes St., Brenner Ave., Jake Alexander Blvd., Hurley School Rd., etc., etc., and then finally Asheville, Franklin, Murphy, and then into Tennessee, I guess. . . .

Notice the sign on the right with its code for a grade crossing: two long blasts, then a short, and finally another long.  The next grade crossing is Main St., then Church St., then Fulton, etc.

As former head of Historic Salisbury Foundation, however, I am quite sure that you know this town better than I ever will.

--Lannie

everybody does this, though.  you've progressed past that kind of thing, i think.  it is pretty, i admit.  best, j

Thanks, Jamie.  It's just that I have been meaning to shoot this "Y-shaped" junction for years.  There is no way to get it all in one frame, of course.  The old RR freight depot, the converging tracks, the adjacent buildings, etc., together paint a picture of this side of this small town--nothing special, nothing that can't be seen in a thousand small towns across the country. 

I'm really just trying to capture a few slices of Americana is this series of shots.  It's straight documentary  photography, for the most part.

--Lannie

Here is an attachment showing Yadkin Junction in Salisbury.  This shot was made from N. Lee Street looking toward N. Main St.  The buildings on the extreme left front onto Franklin St.

--Lannie

it's a lovely picture, and the complaint 'it's been done too much' always seemed mean-spirited to me, but you know, when you show pictures to other people, you invite comparison to other people.  a photography professor was shockingly scathing about a very nice abstract i took of the twin towers.  still carry the scars.  best, j

I understand, Jamie--I must have taken a dozen exposures with the very same framing/composition.  I was not only adjusting aperture but also exposure compensation in the tiniest increments I could.  This is admittedly on the dark side, of all that I have, but I felt that a darker treatment better conveyed the atmosphere of that place on this evening.

The professor you spoke of sounds plain old mean to me.

In all my years of teaching, I have never found a single instance in which humiliation had any educational value.

--Lannie

but...  My first computer science professor started his introductory programming class with something like, "There are no dumb questions; if you have a question then ask it; ten other students will have the same question."  This class went so slowly that I once skipped an entire week (it was early in the morning).  On my return, the professor was discussing exactly the same issue my previous notes ended with.

One morning a student asked a question that he had just explained the answer too very slowly and clearly.  Exasperated, he said something like, "I know I said there were no dumb questions, but that was a dumb question."  I thought he was right.  Really, I suppose, I should have taken the class for computer-science majors.  How was I to know?  I didn't want to major in computer science.

He was such a nervous person.  My next CS professor was wonderfully laid back. I told her about another professor who was so nervous he seemed to shake while he lectured.  Damned if they weren't married.  Opposites attract.  How was I to know?  I could walk with my foot in my mouth.  best, j

I suppose that only someone totally laid back could deal with him on a daily domestic basis  I am often taken aback by what students think passes for college work.  I have said the same thing that he said ("no dumb questions" and "If you have this question, others do, too), but I still don't believe in basing a class on the lowest common denominator.  The fact is that many students want the grade, but they either have no natural curiosity, or else they have not really done any serious thinking on their own about scientific or philosophical topics.

When I was a chem major (in another life, going into my senior year), the best professor I ever had was deemed a terrible teacher by most students--but he was theoretically oriented and absolutely brilliant.  I guess some persons are simply more oriented toward abstract theory than others.   Others expect someone to bring them up to speed on something that they have invested little or not thought in.

Then, of course, there are those who simply do not do any work. . . .

--Lannie

Enjoyed both the picture and the running commentary. It's always a boon when a picture nets some stories such as EP's rememberances. Also interesting to hear about your approach to taking this picture which I think is perfectly exposed.

Thanks, Jack.  I was torn between this one and one just like a half-stop brighter.  The rails converge into darkness here, not so much on the brighter ones.

--Lannie

Gosh, it is painful to look at this picture a bit over a year later.  Grimes Mill (barely visible to the left of a telephone pole near the center) burned about two months ago.  Behind me and to the left of where I was standing was the old freight depot, which was torn down last year as well.

 

I think that some of us (and I am worse than most) just want to get pictures of things before they change, so that we can remember them.  Sure, we try to make them interesting, but the real impulse is still, after all these futile years and efforts, to try to freeze time.

 

--Lannie

they'll fall in line.

 

i was often shocked at how hard some students worked.  j