Finding plants grow inside a water boiler was very neat. Canon EOS XSi EF-s 17-85mm f/4-5.6 at f/8 1/10 85mm ISO 800The last occupant of the hotel was an quiet man. He had walked slowly through the front doors and paused with an appraising look up at the ceilings and down and around the lobby. He picked up his valise and walked deliberately towards the front desk. This was clearly not the first journey that he had taken, his coat was neat but worn, the leather valise bore the scars of a hundred different train carriages and had been set down on a hundred different platforms. The mans hand stroked his beard thoughtfully, he knew that the hotel was closing soon, he didn't realize that he was to be the very last guest. He nodded as he approached the clerk saying, "Hello, I need a room... I'd like to have a bath drawn."
My daughter and I were travelling across BC and Alberta and we spent the night in a campground in Glacier National Park. We went exploring after supper and came across the ruins of an old hotel that had been built before the turn of the century as the railway had pushed through that area. The Glacier House hotel had once been bigger and more luxurious than the Lake Louise or Banff. The ruins were quite extensive and we found some old water boilers laying on the ground. I took some photos and then circled around to the end. One of them had a top that had rusted out and deep down inside of there was a little niche with some moss and some plants growing inside. Sun could shine down through and rain as well. I could see through the pipes that heated the water down to the plants and way down there the sun was shining on this little clump of life that had found a way to flourish in this very strange place. I made sure I was focussin on the plants and let the depth of field blur out the edge of the boiler. It was a very neat little find.
-Russell Berg
Below is a wider shot of the boiler. I did not Photoshop the plants into the shot. They were right there.
