Sweet Shots – World of Playgrounds I

Far from the Ocean – an abandoned playground, North Shore, California. Photo credit – slworking2.

According to Wikipedia, this former resort area closed down due to the high salinity of the inland Salton Sea. More Salton Sea photos from flickr member slworking2 are available here.

‘Sweet’ of course is in the eyes of the beholder. This is the first in a semi-regular series of posts that will feature playground photos from around the world – they’re of the type that make me look twice. The sweet factor can be composition, context, perspective, lighting, the equipment, people in the shot, or a combination of some or all of the above.

I hope you’ll enjoy the photos. They are shared thanks to photographers who use Creative Commons – Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic licensing.

Hexagons at Moerenuma Park, Sapporo, Japan designed by Isamu Noguchi. Photo credit – Ame Otoko/Todd F. .

Playscapes, in Piedmont Park, Atlanta, Georgia is the only Noguchi designed playground that was built during his lifetime. Some of Noguchi’s playground contemplations can be read here.

Wheeeeee….! – somewhere in Germany. Photo credit – banger1977

I love the comment banger1977 received about this shot: “I envy you being able to find one of these, over here most have been ripped out due to liability issues. Guess you folks either have smarter children or fewer lawyers.”

The Abandoned Trinity Loop Amusement Park in Trinity, Newfoundland. Photo credit – Product of Newfoundland.

Death of a playground – the duck looks forlorn and the slide is so alone. I hope there is still an occasional kid hopping on. If you’re a lover of Newfoundland, or would like to become one, Product of Newfoundland has a great website here.

If you have a Sweet Shot depicting the playground world, please send a copy to PlayGroundology at playgroundology@gmail.com.

All materials, unless otherwise attributed or credited, copyright ⓒ 2010 Alex Smith.

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