Monthly Archives: October 2014
Contrasting
A study in contrasts – of dark/light, smooth/rough, alive/dead.
near Madrid, New Mexico
photographed 7.2.2014
Pediment
I liked this stately building, now retired from its previous life as a bank. The tiny pediment over the door is a nice touch.
It’s for rent now, so if you (or someone you know) needs a bank, this might be a good place ago start. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I saw neither drive-up tellers nor an ATM…
Rockville, Nebraska
photographed 8.30.2014
Processing
You probably already knew that Dannebrog is considered the “Danish Capital of Nebraska.” And that it was settled in 1871 by a group from the Danish Land and Homestead Company. And that the leader of the group was named Lars Hannibal*. And that, with Germans, Czechs, Poles, and Swedes also settling there, Lars’s dream of an exclusive Danish settlement was never realized.**
But did you know you can get all your custom slaughtering needs met here at the Dannebrog Processing Plant?
Dannebrog, Nebraska
photographed 8.30.2014
*What an excellent name!
**All according to the marker in town, placed by the Dannebrog Area Booster Club and the Nebraska State Historical Society.
Bedlam
Here’s another view of this storm, taken just south of the Canadian River.
The geography here is known as the Breaks, rough and rugged terrain that’s very different from what you’d expect to see on the Plains. Barry Lopez’s excellent book Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape describes it this way:
Breaks, in the western United States, are tracts of rough, broken land, similar to badlands, that are of little commercial or utilitarian value – stretches of terrain, cracked and fissured by arroyos and ravines, nearly impossible to negotiate for any distance on foot or by horse. A dramatic example is found in the Texas Panhandle, where the course of the Canadian River abruptly fractures the smooth face of the Llano Estacado into a virtual bedlam of steep hills and tight passages.
There’s bedlam, too, in the sky above the breaks.
near the Canadian River
Roberts County, Texas
photographed 8.28.2014
Church Dining Room
Here’s another view of this church.
Urban designers sometimes use the term “wayfinding,” which means the use of signage or other visual clues to help people easily identify where they need to go. I suppose a church building itself could be considered an example of wayfinding, in a spiritual sense. But this church also used wayfinding in its urban design sense, too, with the Church Dining Room painted on the wall above the correct entrance to the dining room. Just out of this frame there is a sign that says Prayer Room.
Lighthouse Church of God in Christ
Midland, Texas
photographed 8.23.2014
One Day | One Image 