Back Home in Texas

[terrib]

Those who follow my posts will notice a big change in my subjects now. My husband and I are fortunate in our retirement to have two homes - one a small cabin in Colorado and the other in north Texas. It was always our dream to have a place in Colorado which we finally realized a few years ago and that beautiful place with it's beautiful landscapes and abundant wildlife is what inspired me to take up photography.

However, our place in Texas is built on part of the land that my husband's family has farmed for 4 generations. I also grew up in north Texas and I find myself challenged to find interest and beauty in a very different landscape that has become somewhat mundane in these 50 years. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love this country life I've had with my husband the last 20 years after spending so many previous years in the suburbs of the city of Dallas.

I'm thinking that it takes a better photographer to make impressive images when your subjects are less grandiose. So I'll especially be looking for feedback on composition and more as I search for inspiration back at home. (sorry if I've rambled on... )

These are taken out behind our home. I'm anxious for some cloudy skies because we can get some great sunsets and I'm anxious to figure out how to make those good shots.

#1 Fallow Field


#2 The Final Generation


#3


#4 Grazing Toward the Barn

[Lon Howard]

Terri, when I think of Texas, I picture horses, lots of horses; and the Marlboro Man comes to mind too. Tumbleweeds might make great foregrounds for all kinds of wide angle images. See, you're not the only one who can ramble ... Find out how to portray horses from all kinds of angles in all kinds of light, and maybe dress up your husband as a Marlboro Man and put him to work for you. Capture the culture of your roots and flaunt it!

OK, I've said enough, I think. Actually, I envy the adventures that await you. Good luck!

[jeeperman]

Fear not Terri, I am sure as you get out and shoot and study your images you will find new ways to make interesting images. As Lon has said, some superwide angle fun may be one fun way to go.
In that country I can only imagine the old farms and such. Yes the land itself may pose a tough challenge but on the other hand it can make structure stand out more.
I lived in Altas, OK. for a few years along the Texas border and understand the challenge. Having not lived there for so long, I think I would enjoy shooting the area.

[terrib]

Lon, thanks for taking the time to view and respond. It will be an adventure but probably without the tumbleweeds as I'd have to travel a bit west to find them. Funny enough, our daughter just made a trip to Arizona last week and saw her first tumbleweed and thought it was so neat she stopped and put it in the back of her truck. Maybe I can borrow it for a photo shoot.

[terrib]

Thanks for the encouragement, Paul!

[Mike Buckley]

It's definitely a different photographic situation when a large mountain isn't rising up as if it was placed there to perfectly fill the frame. Even so, you'll get the hang of it and probably just as quickly as you learned how to do everything in Colorado.

[terrib]

Thanks, Mike. We'll see how quickly it goes...

[Teton Chuck]

Terri, Next time you have a chance to visit a library look up Michael Forsberg's book: Great Plains. It has wonderful photography of the great plains - really big sky's, beautiful thunderheads, fields of grain and lots of closeups of the people, the farm animals and the wildlife. I bet you will get lots of ideas from his work.

I'm looking forward to seeing your work during the winter. I anticipate lots of good images.

[terrib]

Thank you Chuck. I will definitely look up that book and I appreciate the suggestion.

[FrankMi]

Hi Terri, just a couple of thoughts to help you move forward in your shooting goals.... Every part of this great country has unique photo opportunities.

One of the things I do is to collect as many great images as I can and have them randomly rotate every 15 minutes as the background on my monitor (which I keep totally free of shortcuts). Many of the best images posted at CiC are captured (with appropriate credits to the photographer) and displayed as a constant stream of outstanding shooting ideas. Many more supurb images are collected from the Web. So far I have over 2,200 of the best images I can find randomly displayed this way as inspiration for what can be done. With those images in mind, I go looking for compositions to photograph.

Another thing I do for inspiration is to constantly be asking myself 'what if' questions about anything and everything I can think of. If the question I trip across is interesting, I look it up on the web to see if it presents a photo opportunity.

One other great source is Google Earth. I explore the area around where I live for interesting things to shoot that I might never find by driving around. One side benefit to finding these gems is that I can see a way to get to them!


Hope this helps!