SF0 / WoundedIllusion / Disobedient Nature

25 + 45 points

Disobedient Nature by Thain Stormbringer

February 19th, 2008 1:05 PM

INSTRUCTIONS: Search for, find, document an example of nature refusing to yield to or blending itself into a construction of modern man.

Document with photos when possible.

Examples should document situations where man has put up some restraint for nature and nature has disobeyed. While trees or other permanent plants are preferable, a basic example would be plants that grow in the cracks of the sidewalk.

Most of these shots were taken on a hike I did yesterday in the Columbia River basin, just east of my new hometown of Portland, OR. In addition to some amazing waterfalls, the hike took us past several abandoned buildings in various states of decay. I'm sorry for the poor quality of some of these shots, but the light was low and I made the mistake of only bringing my telephoto lens. After the pictures from yesterday, I couldn't resist posting some older shots that I have taken in the past year. This sort of subject matter is one of my personal favorites, so I had to sneak in a few of my recent favorites.

- smaller

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The side of the building that is most intact. I'm still not sure what the deal is with the huge loop of metal cable.

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The other side of the building

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The chimney was still standing proud.

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About as much of a wide shot as I could manage.

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This is a side view of the building. As you can see, it is almost totally absorbed into the earth at this point.

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This was one support of a bridge that used to cross the road. I think that it was part of a path that went up to the collapsed building.

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The support on the other side of the road.

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It is hard to tell from this picture, but the whole base of this building is overgrown with thorns. Not sure what it used to be, but it is very close to total collapse.

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I love how hard it is to tell where this building starts and the hillside ends.

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The first section of the old pipe system. I'm not sure if they went to the two abandon buildings or not, but they clearly have been out of use for some time.

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I think this was once a support bar for one of the buildings' walls.

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Roofing?

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Sorry for the blur in this shot, but it was starting to get dark by this time.

Royal Botanical Gardens - Kandy, Sri Lanka

If you look carefully, you will notice the large slab of concrete in the middle of this tree. There used to be a building here, clearly the tree won, and now that slab is all that remains.

Train car - North of Unawatuna, Sri Lanka

What was disturbing at the time, is that this was shot from our train during a 12 hour journey. As we pulled into a station on our way south I looked over to notice this on the side of the track. Almost as bad as the numerous flipped train cars we passed on the way. They had rolled of the track and just been left to rot.

Winchester Gun Factory - New London, CT