I have a fair weather hobby, rural exploration. I take photos of abandoned farm houses here in Ontario. I moderate (somewhat) a group on Flickr, called Ontario Rural Ruins, if you would like a look at the photos from myself and others. Many people look for spookiness and creepy ghostly hauntedness in the houses. People take the photos and add elements to them to bring out a feeling of spookiness even. I don’t see them that way at all. I never go to a house expecting to see anything haunted, though I do believe in ghosts.
The houses appeal to me a on different level. I find them lonely, romantic, mysterious and stoic standing there in all the elements, alone and neglected year after decade. I think it’s something about their stoic disposition that gets to me. Even when the windows are gone and look more like hollow eyes the house still stands. The remnants of old woodwork speak for the past life and love which once were there. The more weathered and seasoned the house appears the more I enjoy walking all around it, looking for spots to photograph. Some photos are of small bits of things but most I take include the whole house, the weeds growing up around it and the lay of the land around it. A house on a hill is especially proud looking, even as it falls apart.
What is your weekend hobby and how would you talk aobut it to others who want to know what you like about it?