Blog Archives
rolls out in shades of blue
This was my second visit to Old Orchard Beach; I’d been there in mid-September when it was starting to shut down for the season. I was happy to get to go back again last month: it was foggy and quiet and lonesome.
Context clues help me imagine what July must be like here. And because I know myself pretty well, I know I like it better this way.
Old Orchard Beach, Maine
photographed 3.16.2026
sears is almost gone
At the very end of 2018, the Sears store in Lubbock was closing. I decided to take a series of photographs of its last days, which I thought would be an interesting social experiment. At first I was worried that the store personnel might object to my being there. I think at the beginning of the few weeks I shot there, maybe a couple of employees realized what I was doing, but as the giant Number of Days Left banner counted it down, they cared less and less. Random photographers are not that big a problem, I guess, when your very job is about to evaporate.
The other day, while I was wandering around Maine – the way you do – I pulled into a parking lot to check the map and find out where I actually was compared to where I was more or less heading. At I saw the remains of a Sears store. And because I am easily entertained, I spent some time taking photos before I checked the map and headed on my wandery way.
Brunswick, Maine
photographed 3.18.2026
mud season
We went the entire winter here in my part of Texas without any real snow. And what we did get melted and was gone so fast it was practically like we never got any in the first place.
And then I went to Maine in the middle of March and there were piles of old snow pushed over into the corners of parking lots. Shady sides of things had snow. There was even new (soft, fluffy, beautiful) snow one day. But in general, it was the start of mud season, an aptly-named season if there ever was one.
near Arrowsic, Maine
photographed 3.17.2026
shadow puppet
I made two shots of this wall; I didn’t care for the first one because it had a person’s shadow on it.
Turns out, I was wrong and could have stopped with the original image, because it was more interesting.
Portland, Maine
photographed 3.16.2026
faded (old) glory
Just because buildings are vacant/abandoned doesn’t mean there’s nothing to see.
This little vignette’s got metal siding where a big plate glass window used to be with a smaller window stuck in. And – and! – a very tattered and faded American flag.
The other side of the shot has a sign whose awkward wording led me to read it as “home drop off please no furniture” which naturally made me wonder why they wanted people to just drop off vacant homes. Ah, language: so amusing. Ha, my thought process: probably not so amusing.
Tahoka, Texas
photographed 3.5.2026
One Day | One Image 