Digger's
The first road trip of the season
seemed like I'd picked up right back from where I left off last fall.
Back to Maine for some good old fashioned Urban images. The first
stop on this trip was a junk shop. It even said so on the front sign.
Just past the front door was the owner, proprietor and CEO of the
joint. Enter Digger. Here was a man in beat up, filthy muddy ass
clothes. Seems digger was into digging for bottles. He was looking
for that diamond in the rough. That rare 1812 bottle from the
pharmacy that still has the label intact. Digger was for certain one
of the hardest working locals I have run across. That is to say when
he was out digging for bottles. Right now he was busy holding down
that front desk while reading the paper.
The shop had the usual junk. Nothing
screamed unique. That is until I spotted some old wooden doors out
front off to the side. There were stacks and stacks of doors. After
digging past the first fifty or so doors I found the all might jewel.
The door was still in the frame. Time and water had done a serious
number on this hunk of wood. The paint was cracking and peeling in
ways I'd never seen. Beyond the paint there was much more to the
door. The real uniqueness of the door was the cross. Right down the
center was a cross pattern. I'm not sure if there was so significance
to the cross. The door did look out of place. I checked with Digger.
His take was about what I expected.
“Well......not too sure about that
one”.
And with that, Digger went back to
reading that newspaper. Such is life in small town Maine.
The 8"x10" set in up for the shot.
I went back to the business at hand.
Getting that door out from under the heap of the other doors. This
was not easy. The various critters were not real happy with the
relocation efforts as well. I worked as fast as possible to set up
the 8”x10” with the 4”x10” reducing back firmly attached. At
this point my 4”x10” film holders were still being fabricated so
I was out of luck. The 4”x10” back allowed the basic composition.
I ended up shooting the door on 8”x10” and cutting the negative
down to size. This shot was simplified by the use of the 8”x10”
camera. Composing the image on my 8”x20” would have involved a
good hour or so. Within 20 minutes I had my shot and was headed down
the road. The irony here is in the destination for the day. My intent
was to focus on the rocky shores of Two Lights state park. Digger’s
was one of those freakish finds.
Digger's Door
Just past Digger’s I came upon to
Cape Porpoise. The town was like many small coastal towns. Nice
inlets to photograph the levels of tide. This day’s weather had
made all images next to impossible. I did find a very unusual truck.
Too bad the light was dead as a door knob.
Down the road, the shores of Two Lights
came into view. A break for lunch and we were on the first trail on
the cliffs. The weather was disappointing to say the least. After an
hour I decided to cut bait and head further north. The weather proved
to be even more frustrating. The northern skies were particularly
angry this day. After a late lunch stop I did a fast map check. This
was not looking good. I decided to head toward the mountains of Maine
and look for some other scenery.
Two Lights State Park - Maine
Pete's Place
A few more hours into the trip and the
weather decided to open up to blue skies. Too bad the coast was
behind me. Driving past another junk palace I discovered a cornucopia
of broken down junk. This junk was for the most part housed in
abandoned tractor trailers. Any junk not in the trailers was
scattered about the grounds. Toward the back was a herd of old doors.
These doors were heavy, heavy wood with lead pain flaking off. The
one door that caught my eye was in the back of the stack of a dozen
or so even heavier doors. Beside the doors was a mob of angry bees.
Not a good combination. I think the sweltering heat kept the bees at
bay. The next 30 minutes were spent digging the door out of the mess
and setting up the camera in 95 degree heat. I had the usual glaring
stares, comments and general curiosity from onlookers as the door was
burned onto film. This was the last shot of the day, and the last
shot of the weekend. All in all It was a good weekend. A great first
road trip. In time I’ll head back to Cape Porpoise for that old
truck.
Pete's Place - 5 Panel Door
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