Captured this morning while I was in Garden City, KS.  Looking East- Must have been a break in the cloud cover to cause this.  Very dramatic and only lasted about 4 minutes.  

I’m not sure where they get these folks but the tune is catchy which is why it’s on my blog.  From the First Church of Nothing but the Truth!! So I say “Hell to the Naw Naw”

After being sick for several weeks I finally felt good enough to venture out to Meade, KS.  The weather was not good and it’s going to close in later today.  But….while there’s no snow I traveled too Meade, KS where the Dalton Gang hang out house is open to view.  There is a tunnel connecting their hide out with their mother’s house

The Dalton Gang was a group of outlaws in the American Old West during 1890–1892. It was also known as The Dalton Brothers because three of its members were brothers. The gang specialized in bank and train robberies. During an attempted bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1892, two of the brothers and two other gang members were killed; Emmett survived and was captured, tried, and convicted. He was paroled after serving 14 years in prison.

The oldest brother Frank had been a Deputy U.S. Marshal, but was killed in 1887. In 1890, Gratton “Grat”, Bob, and Emmett turned to crime after not being paid as lawmen. Their middle brother William M. “Bill” Dalton also had a career as an outlaw, but he rode with the Wild Bunch. The gangs were related through their mother to the Younger brothers, who rode with Jesse James. The Daltons were active later and independently of the James-Younger Gang..

Dead Dalton Gang Members

Tunnel to Hideout

On the way to Meade I captured this patriotic image

Another installment of Bad Film.   The whole planned two weeks in Kansas was a disaster.  Waking up in the middle of nite with severe pain, visit to the ER without a definitive answer.  This was all followed by getting the flu - this after having had the prescribed flu shot.

The film sat in the camera in the car during some very cold temps.  That usually is not enough to cause problems.  After a difficult 5 hour drive home with the flu I was shocked to find that the back of the camera had popped open just the slightest.  

After getting the film developed it was a combination of ruined frames with under-exposed frames.  This last finding was a surprise.  Anyway was was able to scan about 9 frames and salvage something.  The color shifts, etc can be mitigated by taking the image into Black and White which is what I did for some of the frames.

My Photo Stories is a blog dedicated to photographic stories that don’t get much ‘airplay’ so to speak.  They are drawn from the history of photography and offer a lot to those interested in photography.  

We’re our looking for land East of Denver - They seem to like to make parcels of 35 acres which allows you to pretty much do what you want with the land short of criminal activities - no HOA, no restrictive covenants.  Anyway we were shown a rundown farm on 35 acres.  It was a perfect scene for a horror movie.  Place hadn’t been lived in for 5 years.  Here are the photos

Needless to say we’re not taking this offer.

It appears that a $3 spring has humbled and hobbled my 911.  I hate the sound of crunching gears especially when I know how to shift.  This has lead to a tear down of the transmission.  It appears any vacations of more than a 100 miles will be postponed.

This holiday I was busy taking photos - mostly film and even Medium Format.  Additionally I hit on the idea of a blog dedicated to bringing interesting photography stories from the books I’m reading.  I’d suggest you head over to myphotostories.net to read this nascent blog.

Rolleiflex photos

Here are some from the recently re-released Kodak Ektachrome 100

Clearly some of the above have been manipulated.  Don’t make a judgement about the new Ektachrome based on these photos.

This was all it took for one follower to tell me to “fuck off”.  This person was someone from high school of all places - not a friend but just someone in my class of 700!  She started to follow me on IG and at one point had the highest number of Likes next to my wife.

With the nice ‘FO’ comment was her notation that I had very few followers and she was  one of the earlier ones.  What she doesn’t realize is that I keep my number of followers to right around 100 and I screen who I let follow me.  There never has been a game of having bazillions of followers - what’s the point.  She felt that she was doing little ole me a favor.  

The kindest thing I could reply with was “Adios - don’t let the door hit you in the butt”

I think the ‘Road Trip’ is such a quintessential part of the American psyche. I am admittedly ignorant of things European but I don’t think that they lust after the same thing on their continent. Perhaps because they have such great train service no one thinks of the trans-europe experience as such a big deal. No so in America.
This is huge country explored but not settled until the 20th century. The advent of the automobile primarily helped this expansion west. Before World War II the road trip was not glamorous - Think ‘Grapes of Wrath’ depression era travel. After the war with the completion of the American Highway system and later the Interstate the travel was easier and became an adventurous pursuit. 

The question, “Are you up for a road trip?” has always been answered YES! In the early 60’s we had the TV show, Route 66 which was the epitome of the American Road Trip . So it would come as no surprise that a distinct, photographic genre arose out of this lust for the open road. What follows are but a few examples of photobooks relating to the road trip. Some are not so much about the trip but rather things that are seen on road trips. 

While not thought of as a Road Trip book, The Americans by Robert Frank most assuredly can be seen in this context.  Considered by many including me to be THE best photobook ever produced, it is in fact the photographic memory of Frank and his wife traveling around America on a Guggenheim Fellowship.  The are now a multitude of books and videos about this book.  It should be in every photographers library.