One day last June, I was driving around the back roads and I discovered this beautiful old house, abandoned, in the middle of no where, desolate and lonely and kind of spooky:
It was about an hour away from Spokane, but I knew right then that I wanted to do a shoot there–late evening, maybe towards dark–play around with some off-camera lighting.
I also knew the look I wanted: desolate, bleak, hopelessly lonely. I even had some ideas for props: old suitcases, maybe a hat case. My wife was able to procure those from the theater department at her school. I just needed a model.
I was after a certain look: someone who could look haunted, abandoned, cold, as if she had been waiting for a ride, but the ride had never come, and here she was, years later, stuck in time, still waiting.
I had one shoot set up. But the model never committed to a time. Then another model was interested, but had to cancel at the last minute. I thought Elly might be perfect, and we had a shoot set up, but then something came up and the shoot was postponed for several months.
But finally–finally!–the day came. I was afraid the weather might be inappropriately cheerful, but we “lucked out” by scheduling what turned out to be the coldest day in a couple of weeks. On the hour drive out there, we rain pelted the car. And then we arrived.
No house.
Maybe I hadn’t remembered right. I drove up and down the road. But I was sure I was in the right place. Finally, I called my wife, who looked up at the old images I had taken, and the time-stamps on them, and I was able to determine that I was very, very close indeed. But there was no house. And then we saw it: a bit of rubble around a foundation. The house had been razed.
The light was dying. We were an hour away from Spokane. More rain seemed on the way. So we improvised. I knew of another abandoned house, another 30 miles or so away. So we drove like crazy to get there.
It was cold, especially with the wind, and Elly was a super-trooper who only asked for a single coat-break (the high-resolution images reveal goosebumps throughout). She was patient while I fidgeted (in my warm fleece) with the lights. And she delivered exactly what I was hoping for.
So all’s well that ends well, I suppose. But wish they hadn’t torn down the house, just the same.
This post is in: Photoshoot, Rural Washington
what a greta place for taking photos, wish i could go there some day…
Comment by elaine — June 20, 2008 @ 2:19 am