Blog Archives
shadows cast by the unseen
I had an entirely different post written for this image. But yesterday morning on the way to work (it’s a 35 minute drive, in the country, so I’ve got plenty of time to think about stuff) I decided that what I really needed to say about this is the way that shadow – cast by something unseen – falls across the rough stucco wall, and the way the shadow alters the view’s perception of the wall. And that made me think about the unseen shadows in my own life that alter my perceptions of reality, skewing them wildly toward disastrous conclusions (usually, because that’s just the way my brain tracks). And then THAT led me to think about how the main thing with shadows is that they always keep moving and that nothing’s permanently in darkness. No matter how it feels.
And by the time I had all these thoughts, I was almost to the office and had a bunch other stuff to think about, and my thoughts moved on. Kind of like shadows do.
Marathon, Texas
photographed 1.16.2023
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
One Day | One Image 