photographs

[jfb]

There are three kinds of things that catch my eye from the road.

The first is the vastness of nature. I love open plains, open sea, rolling green hills, the patterns of light and dark that late-day sun makes out of the folds and curves of mountains and foothills. Honestly, I love how the sheer size of the land makes our individual failings irrelevant.

The second, similar in scale but psychologically undermining the first, is evidence of immense human systems. Electrical towers, rows of agriculture, wind turbines lining the crest of a hill, the interstate highway system, even the construction of prefabricated housing developments thrills me a little. As an environmentalist I'm horrified by most of these things, but as a humanist--and as someone who can take hours working out the details of a few lines of program code, or writing a three-minute pop song--I'm awed by them. I've been known to gasp at my first sight of a particularly elegant freeway interchange.

I don't know how to photograph either of these things. My photos of deserts stretching off to a distant mountain range always look like a big shrub in the foreground with only a sliver of sand representing the thing that actually inspired me. And my photos of electrical towers, well, they look like electrical towers. Even I say "So what?" when I look at them later. And it doesn't help that most of my photos, on this trip, are taken, without sighting, from behind the bug-spattered and semi-reflective windows of a speeding car.

The third category is signage. I'm drawn by design sometimes, but more often by unusual phrases or funny errors. I can photograph these, because there's nothing photographic about it: The pictures exist solely to document that a thing existed and I saw it.

Still, when one travels, one must have pictures. So I've put up a Yahoo gallery of the first week. (Click on "the big trip".) I apologize for the few photos that are sideways--I don't have time to figure out how to fix that right now. I don't apologize for the rest of them.

I'm about at my quota for free photo posting at Yahoo; anyone got an idea for next week's batch? Ease of setup and upload is paramount--I don't have time to mess with scripts right now.

Comments

[marm0t.livejournal.com]

textamerica.com. it's for a moblog, but you can just email the pix to your account. easy, no?

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Any idea how much disk space you get from textamerica?

I should be shrinking these images before I upload them, but so far I've been posting from Linux boxes and I don't know how. I bet Ben knows.

[dongle.livejournal.com]

I use Gallery over at my photos site. If all else fails, you're welome to share the space. It's not terribly fast, but it's free.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I might take you up on that, at least as a temporary measure. Probably the right thing is for me to set up Gallery on drowning.org, but I don't have anything like time for that until well after I get home.

cool

[(Anonymous)]

I really like the windmills on the hill and the
one of you and Carl Sandburg.

I think big landscape pics are notoriously hard
to take; the best bets are interesting light,
a huge photo (wide angle) and a big blow up.
Also, try to have someone in a red coat in
the foreground, according to the photography
book I gave my brother one Christmas. In
your case, maybe a red car.

Say hi to people for me (boy does Doug look
bummed in that one) and congrats to Dave. His
hair looks shorter.

Lynn

Re: cool

[jfb.livejournal.com]

I like the Sandburg photo too, although you can't really make out the reason I took it--I'm wearing my National Steinbeck Center t-shirt. It seemed like a good pairing.

Dave's shorter hair is the scandal of the eastern seaboard. And I thought Doug looked contemplative.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Doug stares off into the middle distance.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

So that's why everyone was going to the eastern seaboard. I'd heard rumors, but I didn't put two and two together.

What did the sign say for the "No Other Possibility" picture?

Border crossing? Into Texas? Or did you go into Mexico?

Mmm, honey shirts.

So, that's Dave. Hi, Dave.

I have the same attraction to stuff I can't properly photograph. It's one of the reasons I love flying -- the vast, wide expanses covered by an extraordinary evidence of humanity -- roads stretching for hundreds of miles, over and around isolated hills in deserts and valleys and plans. Neat.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I thought you could view bigger images than that. The sign says "ZERO VISIBILITY POSSIBLE".

Not border crossing, border patrol. This is a checkpoint on a U.S. interstate where officers and dogs try to determine whether you've got aliens in the trunk.

I dig what you're saying about flying. Except, of course, that I don't.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Hey! It's the Boston contingent! Hi Boston contingent!

Also, wow, some of those pictures are nice. That one after Phoenix Twilight is gorgeous. Also the first California one. (I mean, not objectively, but anyway.)

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Thanks! But if you think the photos were nice, you should've seen the... you know... the thing.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I presume you mean the thing (or location) itself?

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

i haven't looked at the pics yet, but i'd like to think that being in Phoenix inspired you somewhat. i wouldn't ever live there again, but i do love AZ. :)

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Arizona was gorgeous if sweltering. And I had a good time at the Dubliner. It's definitely high on my list to visit more.

Why wouldn't you live there again?

[tuliphead.livejournal.com]

if you ever need a place to stay in Phx, let me know, i might be able to help.

i wouldn't live in Phx again. too hot, too many people, getting hotter and bigger all the time. i'm fond, though, of Northern AZ, which is nothing like the south, and just as, if not more, beautiful. i would consider living up there - and have, in fact. i love the Sedona-Flagstaff area. if only there were some jobs there..