Expansive
Wind lifts loose soil, shuffles mesquite branches, and swirls across a vast horizon.
Experiment
Many people know that we have more to learn, and from the moment we realize that we’re not the center of everything, it gets better.
Clipped Corners
A ground glass will have missing corners so you can see if the lens is projecting from edge to edge. If you can see the lens, it’s giving full coverage.
Tough. Friendly. Hardworking.
Odessa is a pretty good place.
One Big Small Town
If you take pictures from town to town and put everything together, it’s like you’re seeing one big small town.
Photography
Colorado City, Texas
Abandoned Buildings
Abandoned buildings dot rural Texas, but if restored, they’d make great workspaces, and I’d gladly rent one.
Colorado City
Colorado City has potential and possesses a great central business district. It’s on busy Interstate Twenty, far out but not too far away, and surrounded by rolling plains.
f/8 and be there
F/8 is typically the most optimal aperture for everyday lenses.
The end of photo archives
Image archives will become unrealistic because we’ll have too many new photographs.
Watching the sky
Cumulus clouds rise above the horizon, resembling snowcapped mountains where Abilene needs rain — a grudge is a burden none can afford.
Happy Center
Happy, Texas
Endure
One must be blind or drunk or in love to live somewhere worse looking than Odessa.
A Home in the Monochrome
In every color image I take, I see a black-and-white photographer trying to escape. It’s black-and-white or bust. Mine are pictures of rust, dents, and dust.
Far from perfect
There are things we can control and things we cannot. There are things we can get out in front of and things we cannot. Therefore, we must do is our best and grow. It’s life.
More Modern
Art made more sense in horse and buggy days because the technology of 1855 more closely resembled that of 1555 than 1955. The first tintypes appeared around 1855, making photography more modern.
Downtowns
Downtowns accommodate recreational photography. It’s light, shadows, and reflections of ourselves in glass entrances. It’s seeing someone we’re responsible for and committing to being kinder and more forgiving, knowing that change requires small steps.
Twangy
It’s pedal steel, a high-treble electric, and a six-string acoustic; its fiddle, snare, and upright bass and lyrics about heartache.
FM 3503
Sand haulers and company trucks roar today, yet in a lost decade, young mechanics revved muscle cars on two lanes, interrupting calm nights before red taillights. It’s been forever since I’ve considered FM 3503.
Harsh Daylight
I’ve tried to photograph harsh light for years. Unlike film, digital has less latitude in bright light, which is why you must find techniques to elevate consistency.