I spent a lot of time this last year just getting to know my newest camera… and learning/relearning some techniques about photography. I was looking for a photo challenge for this year. Think I have found something to provide just that. My little town. Makes me think of the old Paul Simon song…
We live in Auburn, Washington. I would call Auburn a small town but that would be wrong. With a population of just over 73,000 and covering just under 30 square miles, Auburn is not really a small town any more. There are enclaves of 100+ year old homes and vast tracts of homes that are so new people have yet to move in to them.
The downtown area is being revitalized again (with not much success yet) and the newer bedroom communities within the city limits are struggling to stay healthy. There seems, to me, to be a small amount of schizophrenia to Auburn and what it should be. At least schizophrenia as defined in Wikipedia (the first paragraph at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophrenia). Heck, even the current logo of the town says it all, “Auburn, More than you imagined.” The original name of our town was Slaughter, named after an Army officer. One of the original hotels in town was called The Slaughter House. I love it!
Part of the struggle with Auburn is trying to figure out what the town will become. What used to be farmland and forest is now truck farms (warehouses) and housing developments with names like Foxwood, Evergreen, Heatherwood, and Oak Vista and no trees. The downtown core could become something new and exciting or something old and exciting. It just needs to become something. According to the official Auburn website, “Auburn’s downtown still maintains a ‘Main Street U.S.A’ appearance.” Uh, with every third space on Main Street downtown empty and a huge two block stretch containing mostly dirt and just one building (an empty building at that), I… well, we do have a one block stretch I would call Main Street USA.
Don’t get me wrong, I do like the town. I really do. Being strategically located between Seattle and Tacoma and Federal Way and the Cascade Mountains, there is a lot to do here, or near here. Good thing about being south of Seattle, it doesn’t rain here like it does in Seattle.
So what will my challenge for the year be? With everything from farmland to heavy industry, two major rail lines, two rivers, and several heavily used highways in town, there are a lot of picture-taking opportunities right here at home. There is an unbelievable amount of public art and many parks in this town I call home. My challenge this year will be to explore my own community and some of the neighboring areas and see what I can find. This will be fun. I can see some serious topics and I can see some totally irreverent topics.
