Monthly Archives: August 2013
Call for entries – High and Dry show
I wanted to let all of you photographers with images taken in arid or semi-arid land know about the call for entries for the annual High and Dry show; it’s sponsored by the International Center for Arid and Semi-Arid Land Studies at Texas Tech University. Here’s the call for entries form; entries are dues on October 4.
If you want to see what was accepted for the 2011 show, you can go to here for a slideshow.
This year’s juror is David Michael Kennedy.
Oh, and there’s actual prize money, too.
So, look through your photos, and submit ’em. Then plan on being in Lubbock on December 6 for the reception; if you can arrive by lunch, maybe we can head over to the Burger Boy.
Meanwhile, over at the old brewery
The former Pearl Brewery site in San Antonio is in the process of being transformed into a mixed-use development; the brewery operated from 1881 until 2001. The site sat vacant until 2006, when the first tenant of the redevelopment, the Aveda Institute, opened. Now there are about 35 tenants.
The last time I was in San Antonio, for a conference, my work colleagues and I took a cab over to the brewery to check it out. Our cab driver was entertaining. By “entertaining” I mean she scared us to the point that we opted to walk back. She talked the whole way about various traffic accidents she’d been in; none of them were HER fault, though, so I am not too sure why we were worried. As she pulled into the brewery, and ran up over a curb, we suddenly realized that the very first place we saw – which turned out to be the Aveda Institute – was just where we needed to stop. She offered us a card, so we could phone her to arrange a return back downtown. I guess she’s probably parked under a tree somewhere, waiting on that call.
After we ditched her, we decided that our frayed nerves could probably do with a margarita or four. Luckily for us, we found La Gloria Icehouse, which had an accommodating wait staff, and accommodating happy hour prices.
Then, as I said, we walked back, along the Riverwalk, which is pedestrian-only, so we weren’t at risk of seeing that cab driver. Or being run down by her.
None of this has really anything to do with the photograph, except that it is another building on the brewery grounds.
San Antonio, Texas
photographed 11.26.11
The madonna in a harsh landscape
The cemetery in Saragosa, Texas, is always hot, always dry. The ground between graves is hard-packed dirt, with nothing growing to soften the edges of the markers, of memories, of loss.
A tornado struck the town in 1987, killing 30 people – including children and families taking part in a Head Start graduation ceremony at the parish hall. A loss of 30 people is bad…but at the time, the town’s population was less than 200.
It doesn’t take long in the cemetery to spot markers with a common date: May 27, 1987.
Toward the center of the cemetery, this blonde madonna guards a grave, her calm and patient face a respite from everything else.
Saragosa, Texas
photographed 11.11.2011
Many horizontals
When I took photography in college (which was a LONG time ago!), my professor didn’t permit us to crop our shots: everything had to be printed full-frame. I’ve long-since abandoned most of what I learned in that class (Zone System, anyone?) but for some reason the Do Not Crop rule is nearly always in play.
But this shot – I cropped this one. It felt daring, like I was really getting away with something. But mostly it felt like I was improving the shot: I wanted to emphasize all those horizontal lines and the original version, which had the entire building elevation, wasn’t doing that.
Know the rules, so you can break them, right?
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 4.28.2013
Do the math…
…you’ll save 60¢ on each meal with the #3 combo.
Or, to look at it another way, you can save yourself $14.99, since Burger Boy #2 appears to be out of business.
And, then, if you add in the savings in fuel costs by not even driving over there…well, you can see how the savings are just adding up.
East Broadway
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 12.1.2012
One Day | One Image 