Sunday in Salem

Some days you go out with your camera and nothing comes to you. Other days, you get overwhelmed by the compositions that unfold before you. Sunday was one of the latter. A cloudless, perfect day in Salem. The following is only a very small selection of the pictures I took...

The first two are among the shots of the Boise Cascade Mill that is in the process of being demolished. Visit http://www.oregonlink.com/then_and_now/paper_mill.html to see how it looked in 1924 and in 1996.

It is being torn down and will become a "mixed use" space. For now, it has all the charm of a victim of a German Blitzkrieg. The company doing the tear-down has a number of signs on the sight, referring to themselves as purveyors of "the art of demolishing."

The two photos above were taken on Commercial Street, next to the Oregon Tattoo Company. Garry Larson, the owner was outside, having a conversation when he saw me crouch before the wall and pop some snaps. "It's art, isn't it? I mean... people walk by and they don't think it's art or anything, but it's art." Garry said. Astute fellow, Garry is. The point of fact is that most people who walk by don't see it at all, let alone think of it as art. I took the series in black and white mode, but the RAW file of the top image caught me and I just had to go with it. I named it "Wallflowers."

Window. Treasure Island Antiques & Gallery. State Street. Single exposure.

From a parking lot, State Street.

The Capitol Building.

Steve Anchell, contributing writer to Shutterbug and The Rangefinder magazines. Mezzanine of the Capitol Building. Sometimes breaking most of the rules yields some very interesting results.

Oregon State Hospital, Salem. Another historic landmark that is being demolished. In another part of the hospital, patients still live and are treated. The hospital was the location for the filming of Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.