Abandoned Beach Cottage | Cape Charles
I love sleepy beach towns in the off season.
Last weekend the hubbie & I took a spontaneous drive up to Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. While most of this sleepy little beach town was shuttered for the winter, a few brave establishments remained open for business.
We walked the historic main street, browsed the hilariously irreverent shop Like a Sailor, and grabbed a bite to eat at Kelly’s Gingernut Pub. (The fish & chips were quite good and the hot coffee really hit the spot on that chilly afternoon).
Abandoned for good or fixer-upper?
On our way out of town we stopped at an abandoned beach cottage that caught my eye. While most of the houses on this road were quite charming and in decent repair, this one, in an advanced state of decay, captured my attention. The cheerful turquoise paint is juxtaposed against the sagging patio cover and boarded up windows. It recalls countless happy summers and makes me wonder if it has been left for good or if someone might take it on as a serious fixer-upper.
Abandoned Beach Cottage | Cape Charles, VA
I shot the photo above (a 5-exposure HDR) with my tripod mounted Canon 6D and 16-35mm lens. I tone-mapped the photo in Aurora HDR 2017 and did my stylistic edits in Lightroom, On1 Photo RAW, and Photoshop.
It felt good to get out and explore and take a few pictures – something I haven’t done much of in 2017. Cape Charles has much to offer by way of photographic inspiration I’m I’m already looking forward to my next visit!
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You touched on favorite subject matter I love to photography. I grew up on the beaches of New York and have visited many areas in New England all the way up the coast and old deserted structures are every where, but not only beaches. I love to get to old factories that are factories no more as well as abandoned areas in the mountains of Virginia and Maryland. The silk mill in Maryland was one of my favorites.
I love your image and the process softwear you used to finalize the image. I do not use Adobe any more (personal) and On1 Raw is still too unstable for me (but there may be light at the end of that tunnel) but I do love Aurora and Capture One and Luminar when it is not sucking up my ram. :))
Hi Elliot – Thank you for the kind words about my photo! I also love photographing abandoned places. I saw several others I want to explore on Virginia’s eastern shore and I hope to head back up that way soon, possibly with a few folks from my local camera club. I would love to know more about the abandoned factories in the Virginia mountains! If you have GPS coordinates or addresses and are willing to share, please let me know.
As for On1 – I’m confident that they are working through their stability issues. I believe they are putting out a significant update sometime this month. I’m hopeful that it’ll resolve some of my issues and issues I know others are having.
[…] our way home from Cape Charles a couple of weekends ago I persuaded my husband to pull off at a vista point at the southernmost tip of Virginia’s […]