hill country - PhotoTrice

Project Year – One Third Done

I’m now about one third done with my project to shoot with legacy lenses for a year. Using forty plus year old optics full time on a Sony A7II may seem a little unusual. It is a different approach to digital photography and not something to do without planning. For me it is worth doing. Those old lenses are inexpensive and some even give excellent results.

Images captured with legacy lenses often have a different look than those captured with modern optics. Lenses for film cameras were designed using analog methodologies and manufactured with less precise tooling. That gives them what some enthusiasts call ‘character’. When adapted to digital cameras they often render images with unique qualities. That is not to say better qualities than modern lenses.

So far all my project images have been shot with one of four prime lenses in the range of 28-135mm. Not much reach considering I shot many images at 200mm with my X-T1. That would be a field of view around 300mm with the full frame A7II. Using prime lenses with just four available focal lengths has caused me to adapt the way I visualize images. That along with manual lens control has forced me to work slower. I’ve been shooting fewer frames with better results.

The first third of the project has not been as productive as I’d hoped. My time shooting in the field has been less over the last few months than any time in recent years. I expect that to change. I will be shooting more in the Texas Bend as well as around San Antonio in the coming months. Just for starters Día de Muertos is in a couple of weeks. That is always interesting to photograph.

To sum up, the project has exceeded my expectations. I’m enjoying my time with the camera and shooting better images. That makes the project a success to this point. I expected using legacy lenses would be a burden but I like the control they give me. Also the lenses I’m using are producing good results. What’s not to like?

Remembering

The old general store post office in Cleo Texas was important to local farmers and ranchers as a community hub that bound people together. As with many country businesses it was a family affair. The store and home behind were inseparable.

As far as I can tell the store closed early autumn of 1974. At least that is when the calendar behind the glass front display cabinet stopped being turned forward. October 14th is scratched out. I imagine the owners must have felt time had come to an end in some way. Certainly their lives were changed forever. Even so, they continued living in the house and maintaining the property. Old habits a hard to break. Both the general store and residence survive more than forty years on.

I don’t know what happened to the people who lived in the house. There are no community residents left to ask about local history. It is clear they stayed on for some years. Long tended landscaping and a spacious screened porch survive in good order. Whatever happened they are gone now. The two rocking chairs remaining on the porch suggest comfortable habits and settled lives.

Closing Date - Cleo Texas — Closing Date – Cleo Texas

The Past and Future

The depopulation of rural America is well known. Small communities disappear as opportunities draw younger generations to cities. What is left are buildings that no longer serve the purpose for which they were built. These places are endlessly re-purposed to meet current needs but eventually they wear out and are abandoned.

A current fashion in photography is to document crumbling remains of buildings and infrastructure as a world in decline. I can’t see things in those terms. Instead when I visit old places I look for the signs of people who were builders and doers. Their stories are important to me.

Seeing the World

There are two constants in what I choose to photograph. First and foremost my interest is in the road less traveled. The places one cannot see when driving down the Interstate highway at eighty miles an hour. Second I’m interested in the people who live or once lived in small towns and rural surroundings. They are people who see the world in ways that are fundamentally different than average city dwellers. These two things are the reason I spend my time on the back roads of Texas with camera in hand.

My photographic interests are mostly drawn from the region where I live. That is not to say my images are always about the Southwest of the United States. I am a Westerner by birth and inclination but throughout my childhood and as an adult I rarely lived in one place for more than a few years before moving on. For me regional photography is about the place where I currently live. If you move around you learn to appreciate places for what they are or you have lots of unhappy time on your hands.

Hill Country Autumn

Medina River in Autumn - 2016 — Medina River in Autumn – 2016

In many ways the Hill Country is the heart of Texas. It is only a few hundred feet higher than the surrounding areas in Central Texas but that small elevation change creates a unique climate zone. The temperatures are milder in the summer and cooler in the winter. Remnants of ancient maple and hardwood forests that once grew northward across the United States and into Canada still grow here.

The Hill Country is an especially important area for farming and ranching. It was settled in large part by German speaking immigrants who created excellent schools and cultural institutions. In fact German was commonly spoken and taught as a first language in parts of the Hill Country until after the Second World War. Today the language has disappeared but the cultural influence remains strong.

In autumn the mild temperatures and unique varieties of trees draw thousands of people to the area. In particular Lost Maples and Enchanted Rock State Parks are so heavily visited during the Fall that you have to make reservations just for a day trip. Fortunately there are many other scenic areas and byways crisscrossing the hills.

The photograph is of the Medina River just north of Bandera Texas, near the Southern edge of the Hill Country. I have been making photographs here more than ten years. The cycles of seasons, drought and abundant moisture are especially evident along the River. There have been times in recent years when the river was completely dry. Other times floods have ravaged the area, sometimes a few months apart. Today the river is at about average flow for the season. It moves gently along in the early morning sunshine.