Gray Door

State Center, IA
10/14/2012

For some reason this old depot looking building is sitting raised up on cinder blocks in State Center, IA... even though according to a sign over one of the doors it's from Zearing, IA.

Keep Your Livestock Healthy

State Center, IA
10/14/2012

Earling, Iowa Water Tower

I purposely stayed of the interstate for big portions of my Great Northern Plains Road Trip in July 2012, so that I could cruise small towns looking for photo ops. Earling, IA is just another smale town, but the main street head straight up a steep hill, kind of like a spine. And at the top of the hill is a park and this water tower.

Vote Here

Now that the election is almost (FINALLY!) upon us I thought I'd share a dumpster I came across last summer. Not sure if the it's a political statement about throwing your vote away or is merely meant to offer direction on where to vote. I'll go with political statement.

Laundromat

Guthrie Center, IA
7/1/2012

Gents Furnishings

Des Moines, IA
Corner of Keo Way & 12th
10/9/2011

Spotted this left over painted sign along Keo. Across from the Greyhound station. And been thinking about it and I've come to a conclusion... Dry Goods and Notions are common enough terms associated with old school drug stores. But Gents Furnishings I wasn't sure about. Then it dawned on me... must be code for "porn."

Also, where do you get notions these days?

1900 Was a Bad Year To Be a Baby

Today I drove through Woodland Cemetery, one of the oldest in the city. Lived in Des Moines almost my entire life and I'd never done that before. Driven by it probably hundreds of times. Interesting to see tombstones for people born in the 1800s. Alive during the Civil War. Dead a century before I was even born. These particular rows of stones caught my attention. They were all stones for either infants or still born babies, almost all dated 1900 (a few died in 1899). Dozens of them. Made me wonder what the heck happened in 1900.

PARK

 I’ve always loved the scope of this sign - from the top of the P to the bottom of the K is probably about 3 stories. (I want to take it again at a different time of day to avoid that glare.)

Good Food

This door has fascinated me for a long time… probably because it’s three stories above the ground. Why is there a door that opens out 20 or 30 feet above the alley below?

When I Grow Up

Go ask any kid you know what they want to be when they grow up. You'll get all kinds of answers - a fireman. A dancer. A singer. A football player. A movie star. A scientist. On and on. One answer you aren't likely to get? A team manager in the short sale settlement department of a major mortgage bank. And yet here I am.

Don't get me wrong. The job is fine. (Plus I never really had the legs to be a dancer.) But there's just nothing... creative about it. That's something that's been missing for me for awhile. A creative outlet.

The obvious solution to this: buy a camera. So I did. I'll be posting the results of this experiment. I'm hoping photographing will give me the creative outlet I've been craving. Let me use the other side of my brain. I'm also hoping I won't completely suck at it.