“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”
~Destin Sparks
For as long as I can remember, I have loved photography. During my last semester of college, I took my mother’s Instamatic back to school with me so I could shoot sunsets from my dorm window because I wanted to remember the red, pink, and orange that shone through my windows every afternoon. I still have one of the photos somewhere.
Ten years later, I was a student at Georgia State University studying photography with the great John McWilliams. When we moved to Columbus, I continued my studies at Ohio State and attended a summer program at the Maine Photographic Workshops. I loved working in the darkroom and watching images slowly materialize on paper. For years afterwards, I had my own darkroom at home. Digital photography changed all of that, though. No longer did we need to develop film or prints.
Today, everyone walks around with a camera in his/her pocket and, within them, hundreds and thousands of photographs. (Until I upgraded my phone recently, I had more than 16,500 photos on my phone.) We all use smartphones to capture and retain memories, I think, but to also keep them close.
I bring this up because I have a compulsion to shoot photographs…even—or especially—when I’m stuck in a car for 3097 miles for days. I told Mike as we were driving last weekend that I think everyone should have the opportunity to drive across a few states at some point to experience the expansive beauty of this country. (Well, maybe everyone should ride a train across country.)
I present to you, therefore, the sites I saw out of my window as we traveled from Florida to Ohio to Las Vegas (and points in between). NOTE: I shot all with an iPhone 11.
Tomorrow: Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and home….
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