Blog Archives

there wasn’t even time to pack the applesauce

I’ve been a fair number of abandoned places and they generally have the same elements: busted furniture, caved in ceilings, dirt, junk. But this was the first place I’d ever seen fourteen jars of baby food that did not make the leave-or-take cut when the family cleared out. There were other signs of children having lived there (toys, a framed portrait of a little girl) but it was this applesauce that grabbed at my emotions.

Quitaque, Texas
photographed 12.29.2024

eventually they became each other

It seemed like it was at the point where it was hard to tell the castle from the cliff. But to be fair, the castle has been abandoned since the 1730s so it’s not like all this happened in a few year’s time.

Duntulm Castle
Isle of Sky, Scotland
photographed 11.7.2023

fall colors

The weather forecast promised rain all day on Sunday. I was very excited because I’d spotted a thing I wanted to photograph in the rain, with reflections coming off the wet pavement. The rain’s arrival time got later and later every time I looked at the forecast, and by about 4:00, I decided to drive all the way across town in hopes that maybe the rain would have arrived by the time I got there. (I had something else to do later in the afternoon so my rain-window was pretty narrow.)

Anyway, it didn’t start raining while I was out, so I didn’t get the shot I wanted. But I did find this nicely colored scene.

(The rain eventually arrived about midnight but I did not go out and get the shot, as I was busy sleeping. It’ll rain again someday. I think.)

Lubbock, Texas
photographed 11.17.2024

many messages

Maybe you feel like you need to spend more time reading? But it feels like a whole book is too much?

I am here with a solution.

Go over to Taiban, and step inside the old church and read the walls. The plot can be a little hard to follow, but it won’t take you long to read the stuff that’s there. And the next time you’re there, you can read a whole new assortment of things.

That’s a literary win. Kind of.

Taiban, New Mexico
photographed 6.28.2024

hydromelized!

Y’all! They’re hydromelized!! HYDROMELIZED!! Isn’t that the best news ever?

Also, what even is hydromelized? That squashed-looking donut? The coffee? The letters on the sign?

Lawton, Oklahoma
photographed 9.18.2024