more adventure 'roids

here are the last of the best polaroids from my adventure days with polly. while i did take some 600 polaroids and some digital i have to say that the spectra is boss. the wide frame of the spectra polaroid is best suited for the wild west landscapes and brilliant colors. the colors weren't captured quite as strikingly as i had hoped due to the mostly overcast days during polly's visit. but all in all i am pleased with the outcome of the shots i got. i hope to get copies of polly's prints soon; then i'll get those on here as well.

anyway, please enjoy the following miscellaneous polaroids below.

(life update and fotos to come soon)

this is probably my favorite of all the polaroids i took during polly's visit. the combination of dilapidated space, big sky and tiny polly put the experience of the wide open west into perspective. it is massive yet contained. the dirty snow and barbed wire fence keep the recklessness of abandonment in check while the vague rocky mountains in the background remind us of place. this is also a great example of how the spectra functions as a landscape medium.

it's true, i did take many photos of polly taking photos. the documentation of documentation. call it lazy, call it post-modernism, call it whatever you please. i personally find something so intriguing about the way one goes about photographing a scene and how inherently by documenting one becomes part of the space they are capturing. so here is polly at sunset capturing a forgotten corral near the taos gorge. sunset can be a tricky time to take photos but i think i did a decent job.

remember nickelodeon's gak? i had forgotten about it until i took this polaroid. for some reason i had a hard time with the film becoming tainted during development. as you can imagine it can be hard to let a polaroid develop untouched when taking photos on the go. so at some point during the development of this photo the edge was tampered with and therefore produced this gak like image. at first it really annoyed me, but i have learned to accept it as being part of the image however strange and unwanted it may be. polly and i found this old gas station on the way to taos. one of the grayest moments of the day. but hey, isnt that a sweet car?

normally i might find a shot like this kinda boring. big road, big sky, silos, blah. but the addition of little miss polly totally changes the view. with her tiny figure against the barbed wire fence we are able to see just how expansive the landscape is. and suddenly other tiny figures become visible. the tiny farmhouse in the far right center, the telephone pole and wires, the mountains peeking out in the distance, the parallel poles of the restrictive fence. it may not be terribly exciting, but this is the west; a collection of tiny details laid against big space takers.

i will end this post with the portrait of a photographer on a windy day. here polly poses for me, bundled against the harsh western winds in the parking lot next to the taos gorge, new mexico. at this point in the day we only had so much light left before the sun completely disappeared. polly and i had just been immersed in conversation with a couple from new jersey, half of whom was too afraid of heights to cross the bridge across the gorge. i was eagerly chatting them up when polly finally said "um, the sun's almost gone. we should go." always the persistent artist; feisty and determined. thats what i look for in a lady.