Looking With Fresh Eyes

After living in Lubbock since 1969 it's sometimes hard to see something new in the scenery. The common impression is that we are surrounded by unrelenting flatness, but even a ten minute trip north or east of the city will show you the canyon lakes area, a small dip down below the horizon, weaving in a long ribbon east to west. A little further out, a 40 minute drive east, and you come to the edge of the Caprock and realize why we are called "the high plains". Two hours north of here, after one of the country's most monotonous views, you are confronted with the beautiful Palo Duro Canyon, sometimes called 'the little grand canyon', which opens before you with enough suddenness to make you say something profound like: "Holy Crap!" And then you reach for your camera.
  Last week I trailed after my daughter, who was taking photographs on her fancy pro camera for an upcoming competition "High and Dry", looking for images reflecting semi-arid lands. (maybe we qualified as arid lands after the summer drought). We drove north and east of Lubbock looking for those interesting dips in the topography and also for that trademark flat emptiness. In our ramblings we discovered an old wooden railroad bridge after glimpsing it from the road. We had to park near the railroad crossing over the road then walk about 1/4 mile down the tracks. And then we were in high grasses, near murky green water, looking up at the wooden tressle bridge, a lonely outpost of the past, seemingly frozen in time but a mere half mile from the interstate. The water under the bridge was clogged with plastic cups and beer bottles, reminding us that if it wasn't a place to dump an inconvenient body, it was at least a place that wasn't so lonely after all.

I had my own camera along and just enjoyed the pleasure of photography: framing a scene, looking for detail and texture, sensing light and shadow, and recording a particular moment on a warm October day.

(photos by me)