telepathic paranoia

Oh my is it December already?  I never posted by November shack pictures.  And really, how will you survive without your monthly update on the state of the abandoned shack near my campus?

What has become of all that beautiful golden wheat? It got plowed under, is what. It’s a sort of grim makeover for my shack, but you can’t fight the changing of the seasons!

It’s like marble-cake.

How forlorn. This shot needs crows, I feel.

Ooh, a little dusting of sugar!
We did actually get a real snow the week after this, but I couldn’t be bothered to go out in it with my camera. I promise to do better in the coming months.

Tags: idaho, landscape, scenery, snow, the palouse, washington, winter

Oh, my poor, neglected blog.  Would you believe that they actually give us a fair amount of work here?

This past week should go down in history…  Before it even began, I had dubbed it “Hell Week” thanks to a week-long workshop with Distinguished Visiting Writer Steve Almond, held every evening for two and a half hours.  It was actually a lot of fun — Almond is a very entertaining fellow, who somehow possesses the magical ability to demolish your prose while simultaneously making you laugh at your own ineptitude.  It’s a neat trick, let me tell you — if you ever have a chance to be workshopped by him, take it.  If not, check out his new chap-book, It Will Only Take But a Minute, Honey, which is half shorts, half writing advice.

(Or on second thought, don’t, since apparently you can only get this book directly from the author?  An odd choice, but what do I know?  Maybe it creates demand…  heightens the mystique.  Well, I’m getting a copy, so you can check out mine, if you want.)

Oodles more to share, but for now, I leave you with a few shots of my favorite abandoned shack: October edition.

I got closer this time!

Wheatland. Yes.

Oh snap, a new angle.

Threatening sky.

Tags: authors I know, idaho, landscape, MFA program, photography, Steve Almond, the palouse, washington

Friday dawned bright and clear, so we headed over to Moscow for breakfast; on the way back, I stopped to snap my favorite scene again.

I’m happier with the light in these, but I think I have to branch out into some new angles. Of course, that’s going to mean navigating the wheat.

Tags: idaho, landscape, photography, scenery, the palouse, washington

This is basically my favorite thing I have seen since I got here. It’s like, in my dreams, I imagined Idaho would be full of romantically ruined shacks in a sea of endless wheat fields, but I figured I was being silly and sentimental. And then, the very first day, we drove my (now familiar) route between Moscow and Pullman, and there it is! My dream made real, in all its rickety, shambling loveliness.

It’s basically the world’s best photographic subject, and I admit, I’m tempted to just devote this entire blog to photos of this building — different angles, different light, different weather. Like Monet with the bran muffin series. (Already I wish I’d had better sky the day I took this.)

I don’t think I’ll be quite that neurotic, but don’t be surprised if you (I mean, the abstracted you, since no one is actually reading this, haha) see this image crop up a few more times. It might be a good way to measure the progress of my technique over the life of this blog.

Tags: idaho, landscape, photography, the palouse, washington