Garner downtown: a modest-sized business district still taking shape

I've noticed that the few suburbs I've visited outside Raleigh enough times to become familiar with have worked hard to promote their downtown commercial districts as "historic."

One such example, Garner, is southeast of Raleigh and has a modest downtown strip on Main Street,

which parallels Garner Road not more than 50 yards to the north. In fact, the two roads are divided by an Amtrak railroad that has no stop in Garner (the nearest stop is in Raleigh). I'd done some photography previously in Garner, not far from the historic downtown. I ran posts of those shoots (the library, town hall, police station and Forest Hill shopping center) a few months ago.

With a chunk of free time to devote to photography, I spent a couple hours in downtown Garner on Sept. 21 to do my usual walk-around documentary type shoot of a community. All the shops in the main business strip -- about three blocks long -- are along the south side of Main Street, and all of their facades face the Amtrak Railroad about 50 yards to the north.

The downtown struck me as a work in progress. There are several examples of modernization and newly opened shops. And there is a nice-sized building under construction at the west end; I didn't make a point to photograph the building under construction directly, but it's possible it can be seen in the background of a photo or two in the full gallery of shots (a link to which appears later). But there are few shops boarded up and/or with windows missing. Oddly, the faded paint on the brick facade give these shops an artsy, nostalgic feel. I hope when they hit upon a way to utilize those spaces they can preserve the cool veneer somehow. 

Sept. 21 was another day in what seemed like a prolonged streak of days we'd had around here without any real break in uncomfortable humidity. A couple times I thought about cutting short my outing, but I persevered and finished the visit with a cold craft brew at the Full Bloom Coffee and Craft (beer) shop.

Picking the photo to lead off the post was not too difficult for me, but I'm not sure the town leaders would approve. I should say that I have no idea what efforts the town is making to change the status of the boarded up windows and doors seen in this photo, which is along the Main Street shopping district. But I'm pretty artists would hail what they see in those distressed Coca-Cola and Hazel's artwork on the bricks immediately above the doors to those shops. It was one of the first things I noticed as I inventoried what I'd be trying to capture when scanned the scene upon arriving.

Other storefronts, such as the aforementioned Full Bloom (see photo below) are more structurally presentable, so I would have to say the Main Street shopping center is still a work in progress.

I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find interesting ways to integrate the town water tower into my pictures. I'm not sure the two I include in this post are the best efforts of that challenge, so be sure to check the full gallery to find others. I also explored ways to creatively represent the Amtrak railroad, the town's train depot and the sundry elements I came across as I strolled the length of the rails in front of the downtown area.

As always, to view a larger, sharper image, click on the image. To see a full gallery of my shoot in downtown Garner, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I handled the entire shoot with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3
Di VC PZD lens. I took three exposures of every composition to meld later in high-dynamic range (HDR) Photomatix software during post-processing. I set the camera on aperture priority and adjusted my ISO levels in dark conditions to allow for optimum shutter speeds so as not to blur images.

One section of the commercial district (above) that is among those reflecting recent updates. I used another store, Garner Coins (first below), to show one integration of the water tower. Another (second below) is a shot of the full tower at an intersection opening.  

Perspective (above) and closeup (below) shots of GrafiX House, a company design and logo business. A bright-colored company car parked outside the shop (second below) caught my eye. 

Above and below: Seating outside Full Bloom. 

I used light poles as left-side elements in photos of the sidewalk in front of the shops (above) and along the railroad (below). 

Above and next four below: Some more rail and rail car photos in this section of town.

Two more water tower compositions, one involved another light pole and the weathered Coca-Cola storefront paint (above), the other positioning the tower on the left of a slice of storefronts. 

Above: An unsuspecting (or simply uncaring) individual inside a barber shop in the commercial district.

Above: Garner Coins again, this time as seen from the railroad tracks where I could use some of the trees in the landscaping to frame the store sign. 

Above: A mural on the side of a shop a block away from the main stretch of stores. 

Above: A closeup of the logo for the Garner Ice House skating rink, which is on New Rand Road -- several blocks and around the corner from the main shops on Main Street. 

Above is a home across the street from the Ice House, and below a worker takes care of some work on the porch roof of a house next door to the one shown above. 

Above and below: Two shots I took at the little league fields complex along Pearl Street several blocks west of the Main Street shops. A couple of men were there doing maintenance work on the fields. 

Above: As I walked back to my car after leaving the Rotary Field little league complex, I saw this crow fly over me to perch itself on a branch and a nearby tree. Almost immediately, it began to caw repeatedly. I guess a guy toting a camera is considered a possible terrorist in Crowland ...