Writing to describe: the skatepark

Your task today is to write a description of a moment in time at our school skatepark.  Below are three photographs from yesterday.  You can use one of them as your inspiration for writing, OR write from your memories and notes from yesterday, OR write from what you see at the skatepark (much sunnier today) this morning.

We are aiming to write as if we are in the photograph or at the scene, and bring the scene to life for the reader.  We want to use a wide range of vocabulary to build up a strong sense of atmosphere, to vary our sentences and to use a range of punctuation.  

I have written a piece of descriptive writing for the last photo.  This is to give you some ideas on how you can create atmosphere or mood and develop detail on even a 'plain' photo.

Thanks to Jayden Johnson for the photos.

It's a greasy, grey and gritty kind of day.  The concrete seems like a map of all the projects of the past, both long ago and recent.  The painted lines of an old basketball court disappear under black sludge and the new skatepark.  Reflected in the water are the power lines above, running parallel to one basketball marking but not the other.  The cracks in the concrete signal some decay in a park less than a year old, and these cracks hold the damp, as if they are weaker and cannot shake off the West Coast rain like the stronger surrounding concrete.

I look at how the water has evaporated off the steepest curve of the skatepark and pooled at the base, at all the tools to try and deal with the endless, heavy tears of the West Coast sky.  The punctured metal grate collects water which runs down into the outlet pipe. Mother nature sobs and cries and rains water over the West Coast to make gorgeous rainforests and bleak concrete spaces.  At the skatepark on this bleak day, the runoff pipe is the shiniest object.  I love to watch the talented young skaters twist, flip and turn, but I'm not surprised that no one is out showing their moves this cold wet morning.