Another Day at the Store

Photographing Landmarks

It was in the beautiful, late afternoon light that I photographed this side of the Jones Grocery Store building, which is located in the western portion of the Lewisville Township. The store photos I’ve shown before on the website were shot from the front and the opposite side of the store, in mid-morning light.

I mentioned in the last post that I really love looking at old buildings. Sadly, many of them are slowly vanishing from our landscapes. And too often, they’re replaced with structures that simply can’t compare, in terms of “personality” and originality.

One of my goals is to photographically capture the beautiful old structures in Lewisville — in their best light — before they will someday likely meet their demise. Jones Grocery Store is just one of those on my photo list.

More Photos

I’ve placed several more photos of Jones Grocery Store in the NEXT SECTION, including black-and-white versions. I hope you’ll enjoy them.

Notice the different emotional perspectives you experience when viewing the color images versus the black-and-white images. It’s interesting how the “moods” evoked by the two versions can be so different. CLICK to see more photos of Jones Grocery Store

High-Test or Regular?

Well, it’s back to Jones Grocery Store on the outskirts of Lewisville, NC! And believe me — there’s so much photographic material at that old store that I could easily work it into at least a month’s worth of blog posts. But I’ll restrain myself and try not to pour it on too thickly! (If you missed the previous posts about Jones Grocery, please check out the Country Store and the Closed for Business posts.)

Second Thoughts

As you can see, I must be feeling under the weather, right? After all, unlike many of my previous photos, this image is not on color steroids! Do I have a fever? Or have I been converted to a life of more traditional photography?

Well, let’s just say I’ve been “convicted” about overdoing it maybe a little too much, and maybe a little too often, when it comes to manipulating or enhancing photos.

Changing My Ways?

I realize that not everyone likes photos that are taken to the extreme end of the color-intensity spectrum. So in order to provide a little more objectivity (at least this one time!), I thought I’d go at today’s post a little differently. If you continue to the NEXT SECTION, you’ll see that we generally proceed from the more traditional to the more modified treatment of the above photo.

I’d like your input on the version that you like best. And do you typically lean more toward a significantly enhanced photo, or more toward a traditional photo?

Kind of like, does your car run better on high-test or regular?!
CLICK to see the enhanced photo options

Closed for Business

When Bold Colors Seem Distracting

If you’ve been following this blog for a little while, you’ve no doubt noticed my penchant for using bold colors in my photos, even perhaps to the point of over-saturation. I just love causing color to erupt whenever it appears bashful and unappreciated! (And this probably won’t be the last time I confess that weakness.)

From the outset, though, today’s photo of Jones Grocery Store was resistant to some of my usual color techniques. I wanted to make the photo “bold and beautiful.” I wanted to make its colors almost jump off the screen. But that was not to be.

I hadn’t encountered this difficulty with the previous post, Country Store, where the store was shown in the distance. But now, having moved closer to the building, which made the store’s age more evident, I found that attempting to apply a bold color treatment seemed out of character with the store. Even the blog post title itself, “Closed for Business,” seemed at odds with my regular color treatment.

Finding a Solution

Thus, instead of loud, saturated colors, the scene insisted on a quiet nostalgia. And to achieve that, a rendering close to monochromatic — with mostly washed-out colors — was called for. I was horrified! No, no — just kidding!

To read more about the challenge of using color — and to see some additional photo options of this scene — please continue to the NEXT SECTION. CLICK for more color information and to see the optional photos

Country Store

Historical Site

Traveling west on Shallowford Road from downtown Lewisville, NC eventually brings one to a curve in the road, not far from the Yadkin River, where Jones Grocery Store sits quietly on the left. Across the road, atop a hill, sits Union United Methodist Church.

I’m not sure how long Jones Grocery Store has been closed, but it’s not been in operation for many years. In 2006 the Lewisville Historical Society placed a historical marker on the store’s property that reads:

JONES GROCERY STORE, 1875 — Joseph Spurgeon Jones (1845–1928) built the original store that at the time was in the Little Yadkin Township, a part of Yadkin County. In 1914, his son, Will A. Jones (1871–1940), moved the store across the road east of its present location. After a disastrous robbery in 1926, Will built the present structure, which included a residence. Three generations of the Jones family ran the store for a century. Subsequent owners include James and Frances Vaughn Gough.

Solving a Photographic Problem

I’ve driven by Jones Grocery Store a number of times within the last year, sometimes taking photos of it, but most of the time not. I was looking for the time of day with the best light for photographing the store. The problem was that the front of the store is shaded most of the day. The very best time, I found, was mid-morning. But even then, the front of the store is still not in direct sunlight.

To learn how I solved the lighting problem, please continue to the NEXT SECTION, where I also include a black-and-white version of the above photo. CLICK for more on the country store

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