Blog Archives
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
let there be light (fixtures)
It was a cold day. And it was raining. And it was also (bonus!) windy.
So naturally, we took a drive to Sundown, Texas, to find possible photographs. That part of the trip was a letdown because there wasn’t much there…although I was fond of these gigantic light fixtures, hovering with no real purpose above what was left of a fueling plaza.
Today it is supposed to be 108° here, which makes three days ago seem like a dream.
Sundown, Texas
photographed 6.14.2026
gro-gas
Several years ago my friend Ron showed his credentials as a location scout by telling me about a tiny town called Bledsoe, which has a lovely, abandoned school. I’ve photographed the school several times but this was the first time I’d ever stopped to get photos at the Gro-Gas, which currently offers neither of those things.
Bledsoe, Texas
photographed 5.31.2026
high plains gold
My traveling companion – who’s Not From Here – suggested a u-turn to get this photo. I did not argue since he was right.
Because I *am* From Here, there’s a good possibility that I wouldn’t have really noticed the photographic possibilities the way he did. Which just goes to show…something? That I am largely unobservant? Or that new eyes see new things? Probably the first of those two things, if I am being honest.
Floyd County, Texas
photographed 5.30.2026
One Day | One Image 