Title • Photo Friday: Neglect

It’s Photo Friday time again, and this week’s theme is ‘Neglect’ …

Earlier this week I took a different route home from work. Normally I drive along the M62, and it takes me about 35 or 40 minutes to get home, but I had a bit more time so thought I’d take a more leisurely route. And I’m glad that I did or I might not have found this wonderfully decrepit caravan. It was partially hidden from the road in a yard adjacenct to a pub, and I nearly missed it.

For me, caravans bring back many happy memories. When I was younger my parents used to take me and my three younger sisters touring around the UK and Scotland, and when the caravan got less roadworthy it was permanently sited at Lytham St. Annes – which was not the most exciting place in the world, but it was ok to visit as a kid. And I suppose, at some point, that the caravan was either sold or scrapped, but I don’t think it ever ended up looking quite as sad and neglected as this one.

As for this shot: I think this has to be one of my favourites of the stuff I’ve put up in recent weeks, and there isn’t really anything I don’t like about it (which is unusual). The only thing I couldn’t really decide on was the overall contrast/tonal range of the image. Time and time again I’ve been tempted to lighten the image, but I wasn’t sure that it worked that way. And I think that my desire to change it in that way is probably a consequence of posting a lot of high contrast, relatively bright shots recently. Anyway, whatever the reason, I decided that this version worked so have forced myself to leave it alone.

And thanks again to everyone who voted for my entry for the ‘Clean’ challenge. I normally have between 500 and 600 hits a day to this site, but last Tuesday, when the results were posted, I had 901 visitors … which is nice :-)