Street Scenes Photo Challenge

I had great plans to go to downtown Staunton, Virginia for this challenge. Staunton is about 45 minutes away, and is a photographer's dream in many ways. It's filled with beautiful architecture from a bygone era, making for a myriad of photo opportunities. The weather, however, had different ideas! Frigid temperatures and merciless winds made tramping around city streets, camera in my shivering hands, not so enticing. I did make one attempt in our little county seat of Monterey, and dug into my archives for some photos a little closer to home. I might do my own street photography challenge during the summer months when I'm not shaking in my boots and can hold the camera still enough to get a decent shot!

Monterey is a tiny town of less than 300 people, probably. Don't let the sunny day fool you: it was about 12 degrees! I braved the cold long enough to get a few shots, none of which were what I had in mind. These are the best of a ho-hum group of photos.

This photo was taken looking east; that's Jack Mountain in the background. When I first moved to Monterey a little over 30 years ago, I rented an apartment above this store in the foreground. Its official name is "H & H Cash Store," but most everyone calls it "Jack's." No matter that Jack, who ran the store for many years, has been dead a long time and his son, Mike, is now the proprietor. As far as I know, no one calls it "Mike's" store.

Just down the street from the photo above is this woodworking shop. David, the master craftsman here, is the husband of Julia, my friend and fellow school librarian for 20 years or so. I thought the paper snowflakes in the windows created some visual interest. I bet daughters Grace and Mary Winters had something to do with putting them there!

Next door to the woodworking shop is the oldest building in town. It's a log cabin, dating back to Highland County's formation in 1847. You can see the wooden posts of the front porch above. Below is the side door to the cabin, which now houses a second hand store that benefits our local humane society. Too bad I didn't have this one for the September challenge on windows and doors!

I poked around in my archives for these next two photos. This is the closest grocery store to my house, It's about five miles away, in the village of McDowell, whose claim to fame is a Civil War battle in May of 1862, when Stonewall Jackson turned the Yankees away and declared that, "God has blessed our arms with victory at McDowell today." This photo was taken when the sunshine matched the air temperature!

 These last two were taken during the winter of 2010 when the snow was measured in feet more often than inches. That's the road in front of my house, which until a year and a half ago, was a dirt road.

There you have my humble attempts at street photography. I hope I have more opportunities to practice this photographic genre. It's a fascinating one, with endless possibilities. Check out the fantastic offerings from all the participants at:

Personal Photo Challenge

Thanks to Donna for organizing it each month!