Omaha to Aberdeen

Redfield, South Dakota

There's a short break before summer classes start up, so I've decided to hit the road for a few days. It wasn't until just yesterday that I finally made the decision to head towards North Dakota for the first time since stopping in Fargo back in 2008. I am looking forward to just wandering with very little specific planning into my travels. The goal is to see a bit of the Great Plains of both South and North Dakota, and to visit places that no one ever really thinks to go.

Day one was a direct (for me) drive to Aberdeen in north-central South Dakota. The weather was just as windy as it was a year ago. And the while the clouds were spectacular for most of the day, the sun chose to hide behind them nearly the entire time. Some days the light cooperates.. other days it does not.

The photograph above shows the remains of a small drive-in theater along U.S. Highway 281 just north of Redfield, South Dakota.


Also visited: Dell Rapids, Trent, Egan, Colman, Wentworth, Madison, Sinai, Arlington, Lake Preston, De Smet, Iroquois, Cavour, Huron, Wolsey, Bonilla, Hitchcock and Tulare, South Dakota.

The sasquatch no longer has any pizza

Butler County (Rising City) (2007)

Rising City (2013)

It is with sadness that I bid adieu to the subject of one of my favorite photographs from ninety-three, the infamous Sasquatch Pizza sign that adorned a convenience store along Nebraska Highway 92 in Rising City.

The first photograph was taken in July of 2007 as I passed through on my way home on one of the first few treks I made to discover Nebraska. At the ninety-three show at Hot Shops, this was the image that got the most comments and smiles. I must have told at least a dozen people where it was located.

Unfortunately, since I last passed through Rising City in 2010, the little store had a change of ownership and became "Fergy's Cafe" which has now gone out of business. Poor ol' Sasquatch Pizza was defaced horribly at some point and now is just barely visible. The edges of his face are still there under the ugly black spray paint, sort of haunting and sad, with that goofy smile somehow still there in spirit.

I'm reminded of the work of one of my favorite photographers, William Christenberry, and his ambition to photograph some of Alabama's vernacular architecture over the course of many decades. If his photographs are any indication, this building will still somehow have several more lives over the next twenty or thirty years.

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A word of advice from someone who should know better. If you buy a new (or used) camera, run it through its paces before you rely on it for anything that is time consuming or that will be difficult (or impossible) to shoot again.

I picked up a refurbished Nikon D600 as a backup body and this little trek I made Friday was my first time out with the camera. Unfortunately, it has a problem stopping down lenses and consistently overexposed images by a stop or two (or three) and left me with much less depth of field than I expected. So it goes back.

Live and learn, folks. Even expensive cameras can be lemons.

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Also visited on Friday: Hooper, Scribner, Snyder, Dodge, Olean, Howells, Clarkson, Leigh, Creston, St. Bernard, Cornlea, Humphrey, Platte Center, Columbus, Shelby, Garrison, David City, Brainard and Weston, Nebraska.

May is finally here...

May started out with sub-freezing temperatures and a heavy, wet snowfall. At least it appears to have finally straightened out. I've been working through it, continuing to photograph the Loess Hills region of Iowa and Fontenelle Forest, and reworking my South Omaha series.

Here are three images from the past few weeks...

from

Fontenelle

from

The Magic City

Council Bluffs, Iowa

The train touched down in Sioux City, Iowa

Sioux City, Iowa

My exploration of the Loess Hills region of Western Iowa continued Saturday as I explored its northern-most reaches. Much of my time was spent in Sioux City, a place I called home for four years growing up. It's always a bit strange to return to childhood haunts. Sioux City hasn't changed. A building or two is gone (most notably the Catholic grade school I attended with the hideous giant, orange doors) but the past twenty years have not done much to change the place. It's still a little run down and largely depressing to me, like running into a friend from years ago who hasn't changed a bit and appears to languish in a state of perpetual sameness.

That said, Sioux City makes for some pretty damn good photographs.


Also visited: Sloan, Hornick, Holly Springs, Climbing Hill, Bronson, Five Ridge Prairie, Westfield, Akron, Salix, Snyder Bend and Lewis and Clark State Park.