Out here even the prairie doubts the horizon

July 01, 2017

Day two of meandering in Kansas, across US Highway 50 to Colorado. It was a frustrating day, photographically speaking. But it's still good to be out on the road.

Some thoughts...

You know it's hot outside when you go to wash your windshield and the water evaporates before you get a chance to squeegee.

Western Kansas, more than anywhere else I've traveled, is dominated by grain elevators. Some towns have three or four, and places that haven't been towns in 100 years have one as well. Grain elevators define this landscape as much as wheat fields and empty highways.

Speaking of wheat fields, there's something fascinating and hypnotic about watching a large field of wheat dance and swish in the wind.

Post title: Magnolia Electric Co. - O! Grace

But when these little towns lie sleeping, it's like it must have been before mankind

June 30, 2017

Today was day one of a quick three day tour of Central / Western Kansas. I'm hoping that the photographs develop into a project that I've had on on my mind. We'll see how it goes!

Post title: Robbie Fulks - Never Come Home

This day could someday be an anniversary, part two

June 23, 2017

As promised, here is the second set of 10th anniversary images taken earlier this week. The top photograph in each pair is from 2007, and the bottom is from 2017. I added another pair, so there are thirteen in all.

I did receive one question about technical differences between now and then. In 2007, I was working with both medium format film and digital. I had just purchased the first "affordable" full frame digital camera, the original Canon 5d, and had just begun to really trust it for serious work when I started photographing Nebraska. 2017 finds me with a Nikon D800. The biggest difference? 12 megapixels then, 36 megapixels now, along with a host of improvements in usability and other aspects of image quality.

A person can only guess what will be available in another ten years. My guess is that it won't be all that much different than now, as technological progress in photography has slowed considerably.

This day could someday be an anniversary

June 21, 2017 in Nebraska, Me

June 20th marked the tenth anniversary of the day I began exploring Nebraska for what would eventually become ninety-three. To commemorate the anniversary, I traveled the same path, starting at the graves of the first Vavaks to come to Nebraska and traveling along US Highway 30 to Grand Island.

Here is what I wrote after that first day..

Today was the first day of my yet-to-be-titled photographic foray into the state of Nebraska. The whole project is still up in the air as of now, but I'm sure it'll eventually take shape over the next few months. This will mark the first project that I will reveal as a whole in some way, hopefully in a gallery or other space, rather than showing an image here and there in this journal.

I hope to have at least 50 solid images by the time the whole thing is done. After today, it feels very possible, if I can put a finger on exactly what it is I'm trying to do.

The end result was a multi-year project featuring one photograph for each of Nebraska's 93 counties. And my first solo exhibition, and my first self-published photo book. Looking back at the pictures from that first day, there are a lot of misses, but there are also a few solid images that made the final draft and are still among my favorite photographs.

I've compiled twelve pairs of images showing what has (and hasn't) changed between 2007 and 2017. The first six are posted below with the rest to follow later this week.

Post title: Jets To Brazil - Sweet Avenue