Blog Archives
The after-hours club
Usually when I am out shooting, passersby don’t engage me in conversation.
On this particular day, though, an older man driving a pickup pulled over as I was shooting the old drive in from the other day. Our conversation:
Him: Do you remember what used to be here?
Me: No, sir. I’m from out of town, so I don’t know anything about it.
Him: Well, it used to be one of them after hours clubs. You know the kind I mean – the ones that didn’t even open until all of them other ones had closed. There was a lot going on here.
Me: How long ago did it close down?
Him: How long? Oh, it’s been closed forever.
Now, at this point I had seen three of the four sides of the place and was still under the impression that it was a drive in, so I wasn’t too sure he knew what he was talking about. But after he drove off, I looked in a broken window on the side I’d not yet explored…and then I believed him.
He came back around a few minutes later, pulling up close to where I was standing. This time he said, “Are you looking to buy anything?”
I was afraid to delve any further into that. It can’t have been good, right?!
Midland, Texas
photographed 8.23.2014
Chair
Anyone who’s read this blog for very long knows that I always try to look around behind these old buildings. Sometimes that’s where the good stuff is.
So, this chair. I found it behind that drive in from yesterday. The first thing I noticed was how the woven stripes in the upholstery weathered differently – half of the fabric was in relatively good condition, while the other half was just threads. The second thing I noticed was that hole in the wall to the right of the chair. For some reason, that hole seems…ominous.
Midland, Texas
photographed 8.23.2014
Drive In
Look! A deserted drive-in.
From the state of the paving in the parking lot (it was completely gone) and those trees growing from what would have been paved at some point, I guess the place has been out of business for a while.
Midland, Texas
photographed 8.23.2014
Lighthouse Church
Midland, Texas, is all shiny and new and flooded with oil money, both old and new.
But there’s also this. Which is none of those things.
Midland, Texas
photographed 8.23.2014
A pair of shots
One of the most interesting things that have happened to me since I started blogging is that I’ve made friends through blog connections. I surely never saw that coming.
For the past couple of years, blogger Ehpem and I have struck up a friendship. It was a nice happenstance that on a recent work trip to the Pacific Northwest I was able to meet Ehpem (who was just as nice in person as I’d expected). We spent part of two days making photos in Victoria, and we’ve posted many of these shots on our respective blogs.
One of the places Ehpem took me was Fan Tan Alley, where we stood shoulder-to-shoulder and made photos of some construction work. And so, here’s the first ever cooperative posting from One Day | One Image and Burnt Embers:
Ehpem took the wider view:
And I didn’t:
Want to see what Ehpem said about these same photos?
Victoria, British Columbia
photographed 8.3.2014
One Day | One Image 