Truth

On days like this, when I'm out by myself shooting, a feeling sometimes comes over me that's difficult to describe.

There are fleeting moments of clarity, and I feel like the world is understandable.

The birds sing clearly into the blue above me, the wind whisks through the grass, and the sun's rays shine playfully through the clouds- illuminating and revealing this land's truth.

Watertowers

My wife's friend, Kelley came in from North Carolina this last weekend. It was a great visit, and I hope she had a good time. From now on, forever and ever, Kelley has opened up my vision to something I normally never give a second thought to in the small towns I visit (visit her blog here: http://watertowers.blogspot.com/.)

I now see how a watertower sometimes takes on the identity of a small town and its people, and it gives me just one more reason to find that next small town destination.

Photography's greatest gift to me has been opening my eyes to the beauty to be found in the everyday things I used to take for granted. Shadows and light take on special meaning. An average Nebraska day filled with endless clouds now becomes a reason to open my eyes and gaze at this amazing, sometimes breathtaking world we have around us.

I now see watertowers in a new way.

Surprise

Welcome to Surprise, NE. I found Surprise on the map one day and decided it would be a good place to go visit - about an hour away and near a part of Nebraska I hadn't explored much.

You wouldn't know it by driving through - there are absolutely no signs pronouncing the town. The only way I knew I was in the right place was a faded, spray-painted sign on the biggest building in town that read "Surprise Community Hall."

The abandoned house below was built in 1826 by a man named Fred, who gave it to his son, Red, who died years ago. All this according to Larry Svoboda, a local resident who told me a little of the town's history as I snapped some photos.

He smiled as he told me once there were big fairs and carnivals held at Surprise, and pointed toward a small mound of dirt in the middle of a fork in a stream. He said there were once elephants and carnival tents there every year or two to entertain the surrounding area.

Those days are long gone.

Blurred

Sometimes, this is what my memory is like, obscured as through an unfocused lens. I'm not sure why, because I can remember enormous amounts of information from books - about history - about politics. But my own personal history? It's fading more and more all the time.

Good thing I take lots of photos.

Tilden was quiet and empty that morning, but foreshadowed every small town we visited on our trip. What was once probably a thriving township has become something different - a melancholy place where there is more history than possibility.

The Road Ahead

This was the first long stretch of road we had ahead of us going North. The thick fog gave the land a surreal feel, and on a Sunday morning, we were mostly alone along the highway. Every once in a while we'd stop our car, get out, and take some shots. The only sound we could hear was the click of our shutter, and the land awed us with it's simple mystery.

HOOPER, NE. It was the first stop on the entire 2-day trip. This was shot number three at about 7:00 in the morning.

Spring Break

When I told my friend Jeremy that I was going to go on a trip with Zach across Nebraska for a few days, he immediately told me that we could probably stay with his grandma and grandpa, Ivan and Oretta in Burton, NE (a town of nine people). After calling them up and confirming, the plans were set.

We arrived around 4:00 p.m. on a rainy day - with a blanket white sky and some good downpour... not the best conditions for the type of photos we wanted to take, so we were a bit down about our photo trip.

























Ivan and Oretta changed all that. They were wonderful people who allowed two strangers to stay on their land for the night, and treated us like family. We were allowed to follow them on their nightly round of cattle feeding, and had just a glimmer - a small glimpse - of their daily lives. They talked to us all night, fed us an incredible dinner, and made us feel at home.

























I'm not sure why, but I never got a real "sit-down" portrait of them. I think that I was so out of my own realm that I didn't think to get the simplest of photos... but I'm not too worried - I now have a mission of returning and getting that portrait.

I can't thank them enough for their hospitality, and I can't wait to return for another photo.