Saturday, February 25, 2012

A ghost town and a photo challenge

Let me preface this by saying, I love my job. But it has been a long time since I have done a photo shoot just for fun. for creativity. for friendship. I think that's what every session used to be before I knew what I was doing. And while I'm very grateful to be able to now make a living at something I thoroughly enjoy, I still miss those days. 

So I'm extremely excited to share this image (and a few more tomorrow) from a session that was just for fun. An opportunity to explore and pursue adventure. And laugh. Laugh a lot. 

My gorgeous friend Shelby told me about a place called Centralia

In short, it's a ghost town deep in the heart of the coal mining country of PA. It was evacuated due to an underground coal fire that's been burning underneath the town since the 1960's and is still burning today. It's caused parts of the highway to be completely unusable. You can even see smoke coming up through the large cracks in the asphalt. 

CRAZY. I know. 

Who knew this stuff actually happened outside of movies? Not californians, apparently. 

Well we decided it would be the perfect place to do a photo shoot. So here's Shelby standing on a broken highway with a fifty year old coal fire burning beneath it...

This one is also perfect for my friend Laura's weekly photo challenge. The theme this week is "broken". (You can see her sweet blog and read more about her photo challenge here).

I'm going to be honest, we didn't plan this. In fact, I didn't even know about the challenge until a few days after I took this image. But I doubt I could have come up with something more appropriate if I'd had months to plan and shoot! 


Our Reflection Weekly Photo Challenge


Be sure to stop by our-reflection.blogspot.com and say hello to Laura for us :)

More to come from our crazy Centralia shoot soon.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous shot girl

Laura Hernandez said...

Beautiful! We must visit there for a portrait session together. Pretty please. :)

Liesl said...

What a beautiful picture and I'm loving the idea of this photo challenge! Off to check out Laura's blog now...yours is lovely! I hope you have a Super Sunday ahead! :)

Amira said...

Oh.My.Goodness. That is a gorgeous shot! You are talented girl!

Unknown said...

That is so crazy! Beautiful picture. This makes me want to go there. You button is up on my blog, thanks for putting mine up :)

bridget anne said...

this is a wonderful, wonderful photograph.

and i absolutely know what you mean about having time to photograph the things that are special to you! once you start doing it professionally, it kinda takes over. but hey, it's all waves & eddies, right? love your blog! i think i'll have to grab a button : ]

Fashionobsession-mieni said...

Great pictures! I like your Outfit! Great colours! looks perfectly together! WOW!

Hope you visit me on my Blog
fashionobsession-mieni.blogspot.com

Laura Hernandez said...

Again your work is just stunning. Thanks for linking up in my first photo challenge. Hope you checked out the results. ^_^
http://our-reflection.blogspot.com/2012/02/photo-challenge-winners-broken.html

Jess said...

you're so sweet bridget :) Thanks for grabbing our button. I'll have to get yours too, I love your blog and your photography!

I'm trying to be more intentional about photographing our life. Having the blog to share the photos on helps a lot :)

Jess said...

of course!! Thank YOU for hosting such a fun challenge and I cannot wait for the next one. yee!! ;)

jas said...

what a great picture!

http://forallthatjas.blogspot.com/