for it is no ordinary creature

We stopped off in Levelland the other Sunday to watch a barrel racing event. I don’t know what technical things to watch for (other than knocking down the barrels is not what the riders are supposed to do) but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating the athleticism of the horses and the riders.

But what I do know – because I attended the grand opening of this particular venue – is that a dirt consultant will devise bespoke dirt recipes for your livestock-based event. If I’d know that sooner, perhaps by career would have followed at different trajectory. Who know? (I mean, I sort of know that I would never have become a dirt consultant under any circumstances, but still, it might technically have been an option.)

Levelland, Texas
photographed 5.31.2026

rural electrification

A typical scene on the high plains – a farm buildings, some farm equipment, a horizon, and some wind turbines.

(FYI: Those clouds later built up into one hell of a thunderstorm.)

Roosevelt County, New Mexico
photographed 5.31.2026

field of vision

Through careful framing and a wide lens, I was able to fit the entire town into a single frame!

Inez, New Mexico
photographed 5.31.2026

room’s got the blues

For the past 17 years, I’ve driven by this farmhouse several times a week. I’ve stopped to look at it twice, a sort of embarrassingly low number.

The first time I stopped, there was a bird nest in the mailbox, a couple of barn owls, and a snake. And a bunch of junk piled up inside.

The second time, I didn’t see any wildlife but the bird nest was just as I remembered it. The junk was still there, only with more rodent/bird droppings and increased disintegration. But what I somehow don’t even remember from the first visit was this very-blue room. It must have felt so design-y and original when it was new, which makes it feel even sadder now.

Hockley County, Texas
photographed 5.31.2026

I expected to see Brandon

I’ve been wandering through rural West Texas towns for a long time and have made thousands of photos of things I’ve seen. I’ve come to expect certain standard markers of life out here. Like campaign signs for people (white men, almost always) shouting about their conservative credentials, businesses that deal in agricultural/oilfield stuff that I don’t understand, Dollar General stores every place, a smattering of Confederate flags, pro-Trump signage (although there seems to be way less of that).

Anyway, when I saw a window painted with “Let’s go…” I absolutely, completely expected the next word to be “Brandon.” Just goes to show that I don’t know everything, which comes as somewhat of a surprise to me, if I am being honest. Yet here we are.

Sundown, Texas
photographed 6.14.2026