Blog Archives
sometimes death seems far away
Up in the mountains above Albuquerque alongside the road that’ll take you the back way to Santa Fe, there’s a little cemetery wedged between a Burger Boy and a gas station. It’s a humble, unassuming place. Unless you count the clouds and the tiny bit of light on those graves.
Cedar Crest, New Mexico
photographed 7.1.2016
Lincoln’s nose
In order to get this close to Lincoln’s nose, you have to walk right past a sign that asks you not to touch Lincoln’s nose.
Most people do not obey those instructions.
The Lincoln Tomb
Springfield, Illinois
July 2, 2022
flowers
Some photographers will carefully time their arrival at locations so the light is just right, the sun at precisely the perfect angle, and then they get (they allege) The Perfect Image. (And if there’s a cloud they don’t like, they’ll wait until it leaves. Or maybe they’ll wait a few short hours in case a better cloud comes along.)
I am not that sort of photographer. For one thing, I am typically on the move (at an average travel speed of 18 miles per hour*, so my “move” is sometimes almost imperceptible). For another thing, I usually don’t even know exactly where I will be, which is a big hindrance to plotting things in advance. And, finally, I just don’t want to.
So maybe I’m missing out on The Perfect Image every time I’m out. But on the other hand, even without knowing there’d be a beautiful cemetery off the main road in Funks Grove, Illinois, and with no prior knowledge that on this day this exact tree would be in bloom, and with absolutely no knowledge of sun angles (past the part that, yep, there’s gonna be angles), I think I did ok.
Funks Grove, Illinois
July 2, 2022
*”Covered wagons travel faster than you do.” -actual comment from my friend Claudette.
angel with broken wings
I can’t go to Santa Rosa without stopping at this old cemetery, with its roofless, falling down church ruins. I like the way a now-gone bush scratched wind-driven arcs into the wall. I like the way the a little more of the stucco has let go of the adobe walls every time I go by. But mostly I like the broken-winged angel, who is watching the slow-motion collapse of the building.
And I also like this song by Los Lobos. In case you were wondering.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.28.2022
mother + child
The ruins of the old church guard the small cemetery; I’ve stopped here three or four times previously and always find something interesting to look at, to contemplate, and/or to photograph. This time, a small plastic Madonna and her child, hanging from a nail by a gold cord, caught my attention.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.28.2022
One Day | One Image 