Monthly Archives: September 2022
eight twenty-seven
Yesterday’s post spoke about how I took a lot of photos at the hotel where I stayed in Oklahoma City. And here’s another one.
I just couldn’t stop myself.
21c Museum Hotel
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
photographed 8.3.2022
accent color
So, the other weekend in Oklahoma City, I spent a few nights at the delightfully eccentric and quirky 21c Museum Hotel. The hotel is in a former Ford assembly plant, and it’s still got a lot of industrial details and the best natural light I’ve ever seen in a hotel.
And that’s why almost every photo I made that weekend was taken in the hotel.
I mean, you see why, right? A red blanket in an otherwise mostly monochromatic room + window light? There’s no way to pass that up.
21c Museum Hotel
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
photographed 8.4.2022
if you have a complaint
That little sign in the window says, “If you have a complaint…”
The woman I met just down the block had plenty of complaints. She started our conversation by saying, “Can I hep yew?” in a way that made it clear that what she really want to “hep” me do was leave. But then she got to talking (as we say in Texas) and I learned some things:
- There are “about” 58 people in Putnam
- She’s 66 and her husband is 68 and they are the youngest people in town.
- She hates living in Putnam. Just hates it. Always has.
- Her dream is to move to Abilene.
- People in Putnam are mean. They won’t talk to you.
- She hates it there.
- Everyone moved there just to be left alone.
- She just hates it.
It was hard to see an end to the conversation – once she got started she definitely warmed to her topic! – so I wished her a good day and told her that I hoped her dream of moving to Abilene came true. She said, “Oh I cain’t move until my husband dies. He ain’t leavin’ here.”
And ever since then, I’ve worried about her husband’s long-term life expectancy. If you know what I mean.
Putnam, Texas
photographed 8.7.2022
we run a twisted line
I was taking the (very) long way from Oklahoma City to Lubbock, which is how I found myself in Scotland.
To clarify: my route wasn’t THAT long. I wasn’t in the country of Scotland, but in the Texas town of the same name.
Anyway, of course I saw the local cemetery. And this poor little marker, split in two with just the rebar in the concrete holding the two cross-chunks together.
St. Boniface Catholic Church
Scotland, Texas
photographed 8.6.2022
mayhem
One thing I know is to cut a wide berth around a guy wearing a shirt that says “mayhem” on it. Another thing I know is that the shirt and his aggressively gold watch needed to be photographed. And the last thing I know (in this context, I mean) is that it was a good thing I was shooting with a zoom lens.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 7.31.2022
One Day | One Image 