Monthly Archives: March 2023

mission mary

For decades, I’ve been within five miles of this place more times than I can count, more times that I want to even think about. Once I finally figured out it was just past the turn I usually took, I resolved that the next time I was out that way, I decided I’d make the tiny side trip to photograph this little church.

Of course, I almost forgot that plan. I am pretty sure the turn signal was on for my usual turn when I remembered. But I DID remember, I did make the journey, and I did photograph this place, which is known as Mission Mary. It was worth the extra ten miles of driving.

Reeves County, Texas
photographed 1.14.2023

snow/angel

I’ve photographed this roadside memorial before, but not with heavy snow falling on the crosses which commemorate the deaths of two people. I’m not used to snow or to photographing it (after all, I do live in Texas) but the symbolism of it – of life and death, of purification, of transformation – has not escaped my attention. And it did not escape my camera.

Lubbock, Texas
photographed 1.24.2023

the day the angel got cold feet

This statue, at the cemetery, is one of my frequent subjects.  You may remember it from an intentional camera movement experiment a half-year ago. Or maybe you recall the time I photographed her sky-facing face?

Anyway, that day it snowed, I went back to see her again and this time her icy toes caught my eye.

City of Lubbock Cemetery
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 1.24.2023

ice + snow

Maybe you remember yesterday’s post, where I mentioned shooting some concept photos to illustrate the theme “cold” because it wasn’t actually cold here during the time I needed to shoot the images for the assignment.

One of the themes I attempted was shooting images of ice machines.  And I have to say that getting an ice machine photo that included snowflakes was a lot stronger way to illustrate the theme than the crap I’d been working on. FYI.

Lubbock, Texas
photographed 1.24.2023

light giving way to darkness

So what happened was that I signed up for an online photography class with a theme of “cold.” Most of the participants, I figured, would be from New England and have actual cold to photograph. I decided the challenge of shooting images on the theme of cold in a mild Texas winter was something I was up for. I spend the two week time that we had to make our images shooting concepts of cold, rather than actual cold. Honestly, while the images themselves were OK, as concepts to illustrate the theme, they were…what’s the term I’m looking for here?…weak. They were weak. They were weak in the extreme.

And then, the very day that we were supposed to turn in our three images for a critique, I woke to actual cold, actual still-falling snow. And I re-shot the assignment.

This is an abandoned cotton gin. I mean, at this time of year, they are all abandoned because the ginning season is over, but this one seems to be permanently abandoned.

Lubbock County, Texas
photographed 1.24.2023