Saturday, July 11, 2009

Shadows - better late than never - again!

I decided to dash out this evening to take a few shadow photos of this place I am leaving. This dry land was so unattractive to me last summer. This summer, I find, after spending a year of photographing the back roads, I have come to know the character of this arid land. I will miss certain spots. It is here that I have come to understand the lore of cowboys, the Wild West, early oil explorers and farmers who forced produce from unforgiving earth. It took grit to build an oil and agricultural empire here.

There is a haunting beauty to the heat. She leaves brittle plants, tough animals and a can-do people in her blazing path. All seem to endure year after year.

The herd of horses that graze these fields use to gallop off when I came too near...now we can stand next to one another on our separate sides of the barbed wire fence and just visit a spell.

The grass is tinder dry.
Tumble weed, sage brush and fence line....just outside the city limit.
The sturdy guardian of private land -braving all the elements to silently warn us to keep our distance

6 comments:

Donna said...

These are GREAT!! I can Feel the heat and worry about the animals that have to stand out In it!! Thanks for playing along with us!! I'll remind everyone to go back and check for late commers to the Challenge!
Well Done!!

Lionel Messi said...

Gooooooooooooooood
Thank you
The subject of more than wonderful

The Beaded Pillow said...

Wow, I can't think of anything more pleasant than visiting with horses. They are such good listeners!

~ Karen

Mary said...

Great shadows! I have to admit that the charms of the west mostly don't appeal to me. I do not like arid places. I'm a person who wants lots of water and green stuff. But like you, when I visit my sister in Tucson each year, little by little parts of it begin to make me like it....at least for a short while....but I never want to live out west. I can't even imagine how hot it must be in the summer. I've only been there in winter and that was arid enough for me.

Janice said...

Love your shadow shots! I wanted to take one of our horses, but didn't seem to get them to "pose" at the right time! Hope you get to participate in more challenges in the future.

WR said...

Brenda's Photo Challenge is delightful fun and it is what it says it a "challenge". Makes me get up, take notice and think about seeing something I might not have previously noticed. The comments are gracious and supportive. I love seeing what others see even though we are all thinking about the same challenge - it becomes manifest in each individual's own way. Lovely to meet all of you this way!!