#onlyastrangeronce
On the Road - 10 days across the Prairies.
I’m leaving one small town for a raft of others. I’ll be on the road for the next 10 days travelling through Saskatchewan, North Dakota and Manitoba. Finding all the small down break downs. All the beautiful long roads and abandoned farms.we didn’t even get through Palm Springs pictures and now we’re onto another place.
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Plant Study
Palm Desert
10 January 2016
One of the benefits of no one really watching is you can do whatever you want. like a black and white plant study.
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first night
Palm Springs
5 January 2016
Palm springs appears with built in mood lighting. they have very strong light pollution laws and there are almost no street lights. you can see the stars from the middle of town.
I arrived to floods and heavy rains. we found our way to the house and entered a magical space full of good food, glowing orange lights, interesting art and of course the palm trees sneaking into every picture. it really was another world to me. From the empty flood plains of Alberta to the dimly lit, lush, richness of a desert oasis built and maintained purely by the will of man.
I was welcomed into the home of a chef and an hotelier, a 1930s block wide house that wraps itself around a pool. It has a maid’s quarters as well as the tiny guest house off to the end of the pool.
every room has a door to the pool. though some were so narrow I could almost not fit through.
having a world class chef waiting for you means a beautiful dinner is also waiting. soup made with 50 year old sherry. heavy cutlery meant to look like it’s made of bones. a thousand candles and glasses and oranges and wine.
beauty isn’t inherent in the system, it’s created. one piece at a time. one thought at a time.
the rains eased up and I went searching for american cigarettes and took a long exposure of the stars and the palm trees. no tripod so I had to stack the camera on the hood of the car with a pack of smokes to somewhat tilt it in the right direction.
a couple frames and the battery died.
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YYC -> PSP
six days in the palm desert
5 January 2016
my first trip using my first ever passport. my return to California after 5 years. those pre-flight anxieties and the sick dread of being a stranger in a strange place. what did i forget? what do i really need?
three cameras. fuji x100. fuji x-t1. gopro hero 4. a row of batteries like dominoes stacked. 100 gigabytes in memory cards and zero expectations. paper tiger fears everywhere.
i don’t travel much. haven’t travelled well. get too rooted where i stand for wayfaring. everything is a test and you have to keep yourself from becoming stone.
a short flight. punctuated with the comforting release of my shutter.
landing. disembarking. heavy rains and strong cigarettes. an open air airport. the world is part light, part darkness and there rising above everything are palm trees.
nothing says you aren’t in the prairie like palm trees.
so, this is Palm Springs.
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