Pete Geniella San Francisco Photographer

As always, click on the image to viewer super largerest…This one is really big!

As always, click on the image to viewer super largerest

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After our night at The Shady Dell, we headed north to Flagstaff. Phoenix is a real bummer these days with unmitigated sprawl and gross brown air. I swear the area has quadrupled in size since i was there in the early 2000s while on various tours. It’s pretty gross now, and like the FW/D metroplex, every chain store and casual dining experience has set up shop in the area. The corporate marginalization of American culture. Sigh.

Flagstaff is pretty bad-butt though. Sitting at like 7000 feet with San Francisco Mountains looming over the city, Tar and were feeling the altitude and were pretty tired. We really had to man-up to go get dinner at Mountain Oasis, But I am sure glad we did. Tar’s pineapple tofu salad was like blaaaoww and my Cantonese pasta as all boooyah. After eating mediocre food for the past few days it was nice to get some fresh tasting fiber and protein in our bellies.

The next day we got up pretty early and headed west on I-40/Old Route 66 to the Grand Canyon.

Wow.

That’s all I can say.

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Sunday was certainly a contender for “Most Memorable Day of The Trip.” We made our way across New Mexico (taking care to speed through the nexus of misfortune and bad luck that is Las Cruces, NM) and down into the very southern-most part of Arizona.

I’ll admit to feeling a twinge of anxiety as we left the comfort of the interstate for a rough and weathered and mostly empty two lane that ran along side an abandoned rail line. Highway 80 cuts south into Arizona, kisses the Mexico border in Douglas and then heads north towards Tuscon.

It’s a wild, barren land down there, and it was exciting to peer into Mexico. I could tell we were getting near the border by all the “Watch for Animals” signs and all the white pickups of La Migra hidden in the brush. “I can’t imagine” is a phrase that I keep thinking on this trip, and in this case I can’t imagine sneaking across this hard, cruel land where every plant is thorny and sharp and the rain and the sun are deadly.

Our destination for the evening was The Shady Dell in Bisbee, AZ. More on that in a sec…We rolled into Bisbee before check in time, so we decided to go past Bisbee to Tombstone. Tombstone, site of the infamous shootout at the OK Corral was um, OK. I guess spending time in the Stockyards in Fort Worth has desensitized me to the novelty of Wild West tourist attractions.

We wandered around a bit…didn’t want to pay $$ to see the OK Corral…I didn’t buy an embroidered western shirt I should have bought…and ended up at a saloon, where we had an ice cold beverage and some chips and salsa. The salsa, I believe, was made in New York City. Get a rope.

So the Shady Dell is a really cool place to spend the night. Instead of rooms guests stay in trailers from the mid 20th century; there are a few Airstreams, a Chris Craft yacht, an tiki-themed bus. We stayed in a 1950 Spartan-”ette”. Tar and I felt like little kids on a camp-out in a super fort, especially because our particular trailer was outfitted with two kid-szied twin beds instead of a full-sized bed.

I wish our schedule wasn’t as fixed as it is; The Shady Dell is a relaxing place. Part of it is being out in the middle of the desert…our cell phones didn’t work and there weren’t no internets…The Spartenette had a selection of books including a 50’s pulp novel that Tar read while I worked on Thoreau’s Walden. Charlie Parker played on the the mock-vintage radio, and if we weren’t so tired at day’s end, we could have watched a couple of vintage horror films of the refurbed vintage TV.

A place like The Shady Dell has real potential to go overboard on the retro-nostalgia-George Lucas-PT Cruiser-Diner-Letterman’s Jacket-sock hop tip, but they managed to keep their pants on and delivery a pleasant, authentic experience.

All of our fellow guests seemed to be feeling the friendly vibe and if we hadn’t have gone to dinner in Old Bisbee, I am sure we would have made some new friends.

A bit of disclosure, as much as we enjoyed our stay in the the Spartanette, there were some downsides. The trailer is almost 60 years old so there was a bit of a mildewey smell. And trying to be an eco-warrior, I didn’t turn on the heater so’s to save energy. I woke up in the middle of the night and the thermometer read 44 degrees. Once I got the heater going the trailer warmed up right quick.

Bisbee’s main claim to fame is the turquoise mine that used to go off there. You know your town is in trouble if the empty pit mine is a main attraction. Fortunately, Old Bisbee is so darn neat.

The tiny town has some of the oldest buildings in the area, and the streets wind up and down the tight valley walls. Most of the streets are one way. I got the impression getting around even such a small area is difficult enough that most folks just walk. In the evening the streets were full of happy folks wandering from the handful of restaurants to the handful of saloons.There’s a cool mellow arto hippy vibe, and the health food co-op had lots of yummy veg treats.

I’ve spent most of my recent days in the heart of the unchecked sprawl of the FW/D Metroplex or the urban density of San Francisco, I’ve forgotten just how truly vast and empty so much of the United States is. We’ve been putting in some long days in the car; umm, I can’t imagine riding a horse across this expanse. How many miles a day can you do on a horse, anyway?

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I think maybe this image could use a person in it.

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I always carry a camera with me. And a photo like this is why.

Every single moment in time is unique. That’s the real power of photography, capturing a moment that has never existed before nor will ever exist again. The shadow of the power line tower, at this very moment, is perfectly centered on the face of the office builing. Twenty-four hours later, the shadow shifted a few feet to the left. Heck ten minutes later, the light was gone.

If you see an interesting visual moment, capture it. Don’t think it will be there tommorrow. The light *will* change. The weather *will* be different. There *will* be a white service van parked right in the middle of your shot. There’s no stopping the ebb and flow of life, you can only hope to capture fleeting moments of beauty or emotion.

When I was a photojournalism student, I carried a full kit of gear around in case World War III broke out in front of me. Since then, I learned there’s something to whole “simplicity” thing. Carrying the full rig meant, along with shoulder pain, when it was time to make an image, I’d have to unpack my bag, swap a lens,etc.

After a while, my bag moved from the passenger’s seat to the trunk, and the moments slipped away. After years of body aches and missed oppurtunities, I generally leave the PJ rig at home but I always carry a point & shoot. When I was shooting film, my P&S was an Olympus Stylus Epic. Today, I carry a Panasonic LX2.

My LX2 resides in my jacket pocket or in my man-purse Chrome messenger bag. When I come across a moment like above, it’s easy as pulling the camera out, snapping a couple of frames and moving on with my day.

A note about the colours and tones of this image, or any of my images–This is pretty close to reality. Certainly, the optical characteristics of my camera sprinkle some faerie dust into an image, and my mild post processing “special sauce” helps with the contrast, etc, and I gently inject my sense of style and vision into an image…But I always strive to be truthful with my images and have them represent the moment as my mind’s eye remembers it. Anything I do can be done in a darkroom.

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So my very good friend Mister Cliff Greenwood has a new album out, for which I shot the album art. The album is rad, buy it here right now. If you need some enticing, go to Cliff’s myspace page and listen to some of the acoustic countryfied punk jams.

You may remember the cover photo of the Bay Bridge from an earlier post of mine. The good news for you is that you can buy a print of that there image right here.

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Just plowed, Abbott, TX, originally uploaded by peteg.

This is from a series of photographs I made in Abbott, TX, population 300. About an hour south of Fort Worth, just off I-35, Abbott is most noted for being Willie Nelson’s hometown. It’s pretty much one street town, with two churces, a market, post office, the city hall, and water tower and fire station.

Farmland outside Abbott, TX.

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Country Road, Abbott, TX, originally uploaded by peteg.

A country road outside Abbott, TX.

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Farmland, Abbott, TX, originally uploaded by peteg.

This is from a series of photographs I made in Abbott, TX, population 300. About an hour south of Fort Worth, just off I-35, Abbott is most noted for being Willie Nelson’s hometown. It’s pretty much one street town, with two churces, a market, post office, the city hall, and water tower and fire station. Look for more from this series in the coming days.

Farmland outside Abbott, TX.

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Deserted Truck Stop, Abbott, TX, originally uploaded by peteg.

Deserted truck stop in Abbott, TX.

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Tractor Trailer(s), Abbott, TX, originally uploaded by peteg.

Tractor Trailer(s) in Abbott, TX.

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Empty storefront, Abbott, TX, originally uploaded by peteg.

This is from a series of photographs I made in Abbott, TX, population 300. About an hour south of Fort Worth, just off I-35, Abbott is most noted for being Willie Nelson’s hometown. It’s pretty much one street town, with two churces, a market, post office, the city hall, and water tower and fire station. Look for more from this series in the coming days.

An empty storefront in Abbott, TX.

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City Hall, Abbott, TX, originally uploaded by peteg.

The city hall in Abbott, TX.

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DR Horton Tower, originally uploaded by peteg.

At 547 feet (or 38 stories) the DR Horton tower is the second tallest building in downtown Fort Worth.

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Flat, originally uploaded by peteg.

After nearly two weeks of 70+ weather, It’s rainy here in Texas. I prefer cold to the rain, but I am happy to finally have some wintery weather to get into the holiday spirit.

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Wet Flags, originally uploaded by peteg.

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Moon Rise, originally uploaded by peteg.

A full moon rises, as seen from our aparment complex parking lot.

I am working on a much larger post soon, documenting a recent visit from some special folks.

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One Tree, originally uploaded by peteg.

A tree in a shopping center parking lot in Colleyville, TX.

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Survey Flags, originally uploaded by peteg.

Survey flags mark a sprinkler system on an (not for much longer) empty lot near a shopping center in Colleyville, TX. New retail opportunities are popping up all over the place around here. According to Wikipedia, the DFW Metroplex has more shopping centers per capita than any other metro area in the US.