Where can we take interesting non-ocean photos in the Ocean State?

March 24, 2009 6:16 PM

What's should we photograph in Rhode Island, besides the beach?

A few of us are going on a photo expedition in a few weeks, and we're looking for interesting ideas for locations in Rhode Island to take pictures. My wife (the only RI native) prefers historic cemeteries/nature/landscapes, her friend likes ruins/urban decay, and the rest of us are there to take pictures of anything and everything. There's only so many beach photos a person can take in the Ocean State before they all start looking the same.

None of us wants to get screwed trespassing for the really interesting stuff, so stuff like the Ladd and Rocky Point is out of the question.

Any suggestions?

posted by edmcbride to sports, hobbies, & recreation (16 comments total)

HP Lovecraft is in Swan Point Cemetary. Rocky Point? Are the rides still there? I thought it was condos or something now.
posted by jfrancis at 6:21 PM on March 24

There's an Audobon preserve in Coventry with the remnants of an old, abandoned town - you can see a bunch of old house foundations and stone walls and such. I wish I could remember where exactly it is; maybe a local could tell you more.
posted by xbonesgt at 6:22 PM on March 24

Fishing boats and wharves. We used to go to Galilee when I was a kid and eat salt water taffy while watching the boats.
posted by saffry at 6:22 PM on March 24

Clingstone Mansion?

... or Nibbles Woodaway? :D
posted by jfrancis at 6:24 PM on March 24

Things are a bit slow these days, but if you dig back a bit in my LJ community ( http://community.livejournal.com/weird_ri/ ) you should get some inspiration. Feel free to look through my flickr too (I'm originally from Narragansett)
posted by blaneyphoto at 6:28 PM on March 24

Does it have to be Rhode Island? Battleship Cove in Fall River is pretty amazing.

The two coolest things there are USS Lionfish, a WWII fleet submarine, and USS Massachusetts, a WWII-era battleship.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:28 PM on March 24

On the urban decay front, you'll find some ideas at www.artinruins.com.

Maybe check out the Blackstone River Valley area. In addition to some nice parks, Pawtucket and Woonsocket offer up lots of great old buildings and mill town history. You can't really go wrong with a visit to Slater Mill in Pawtucket.
posted by messica at 6:48 PM on March 24

Rhode Island's got a whole chain of little towns that are chock full of dry stone walls around big old trees and like four 18th century gravestones all alone behind a tiny church. It's almost hard to pick a place to start for these. Little Compton is kind of the platonic ideal, but Jamestown, the town where Moonstone Beach is, or essentially any town around those areas (basically near water off Rt. 4, 138, or 1A), you're going to see what your wife likes. Other town names you may want to map up are Watch Hill, South Kingston...maybe Tiverton? Really, when you get in that area, you won't be able to go wrong. Moonstone beach is a nude beach, but probably no one is going to be on it around this time of year, and the surroundings are insanely beautiful.

Rhode Island also happens to have a lot of good old fashioned urban decay as well. Sadly, Providence's urban decay quotient, which used to be quite awe-inspiring, has come down, but its still got some must-sees for fans of UD. There's this huge, disused, up-all-the-time railroad bridge in Providence that I can't really describe how to get to. You can see it from around town though. You can climb on that bridge and over its rusted cogs and see all kinds of up-close industrial scale urban decay. As a bonus, if you climb up to the end, vistas: instant landscape advantage, so everyone wins! I'm not saying its safe in the sense that you won't fall from the top and die, but I've never known anyone to get arrested on it. If you follow the train tracks back from the bridge (from the raised up side), they lead to a tunnel that's not used any more but its not closed off. This is a good urban decay spot too. Also, artists build all kinds of sculptures and installations in here so bring a flashlight and the rest of your crew might find something they like. There used to be some insane-looking abandoned warehouses and stuff down by what they now call Eagle Square, but I think they might have been all been torn down. Worth driving or walking through though.

Also, if the russian sub is still lying sunk in that canal in Providence, i'd take a picture of it, because I have a picture of myself standing in front of it when it was floating, years ago, and I think pairing that photo with one of my aged self standing next to the sunken sub would be like...i wouldn't have to talk anymore. I'd just post those two pictures and hand people a card with a link on it, but that's just me.

Other than that, hit up North Providence or East Providence, and just...go anywhere. Those old mill towns are like one big urban decay exhibit.

Lastly, I'm going to throw in a vote for East Matunuck. East Matunuck is a weird beach town, but its got its own special magic. Skip's Dock, Jim's Dock, really the whole little town is pretty neat looking, but I might just be saying that cause some of my favorite pics I have are of East Matunuck from when I ended up sleeping there on the beach for a couple days during an underfunded high school road trip.

Also, if you are driving on Route 4 and you see a bunch of umbrellas a little hand-painted sign pointing to a turn-off, take the turn-off. Thats like this insane commune/shop/art-gallery/restaurant hidden in the woods. I stumbled across that a couple years back and its still hard to believe its real when I remember it.
posted by jeb at 6:51 PM on March 24 [1 favorite has favorites]

Gilbert Stuart's birthplace? It has a mill, it's sort of... nifty, actually. Newport Bridge is structurally interesting and has an advantage in that you can get very close to it at ground level, particularly on the Jamestown side, which also has the Beavertail Lighthouse (which isn't that attractive, to be honest.)
posted by DarlingBri at 6:52 PM on March 24

I think the Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth might be fun.
posted by trillian at 7:03 PM on March 24

Ooh, great question, and one I ask myself all the time.

Re: ruins/urban decay, I suggest taking a look at Last Visible Rat's flickr, the dude is a mill-fiend. You may also find judyboy, threshold, and skazama's photo streams of use (yes, they all know each other, in case you're wondering about the similarities).

Off the top of my head, The Squantum Association, along the East Bay Bike path, is beautiful.

Pictures in RI, at least from my perspective, are all very event-oriented, but that could just be me. Check out my flickr if you want, though I'm not sure how useful it'd be for you.

Sorry, I'm not being very helpful, but like I said this is a question I ask myself all the time, and most of the time I don't have a good answer. Good luck! I'll be watching the thread and I'll let you know if anything else comes to mind.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 8:30 PM on March 24

Also check out Quahog.org. Maybe it'll be of use.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 12:09 AM on March 25

Beavertail Lighthouse itself may not be amazing,
but the rocks and the surf are spectacular!
I was there less than a month ago with a friend who has some knowledge of geology,
and I was stunned to notice the amazing array of rock types.
You can ever find pudding stone! Anyway, the stones are fantastic to photograph and have offered amazing backdrops for portraits as well. Happy journey!
posted by horseshoecrab at 4:46 AM on March 25

If you're heading towards Jamestown, Fort Weatherill is a good place for pictures. It's an abandoned naval fort full of decay and graffiti, all overlooking the ocean. Neat place.
posted by csimpkins at 6:38 AM on March 25

I have it on good authority that the train tunnel entrance Jeb mentions was sealed shut a few years ago and remained so as of last summer. FWIW. Used to be a classic PVD adventure to trudge through that moldy tunnel. Ah, memories.... :)
posted by messica at 7:51 AM on March 25

thanks for all the great info. its a lot to process. great work mefi!
posted by edmcbride at 2:37 AM on March 26