A walk in the woods

I spent a few hours on a chilly Saturday morning walking a few trails in the Fontenelle Forest just south of Omaha. This morning followed the first overnight freeze of the year. Despite this, I was determined to get out and enjoy the fresh fall air while I explored an area I've been meaning to spend some time in for the past couple of years.

Nature photography is a lot different than most of what I've been doing for the past few years. It requires a different eye and quite a bit more patience. I've also found that I'm incredibly unskillful with a tripod, especially on the uneven terrain of the forest floor. No matter. I plan on making a habit of it in the coming months as winter begins to set in. It will be a nice change of pace and get me a bit out of my usual photographic routine.

All told, it was a gorgeous morning full of that crisp fall light that I love so much. I felt quite alive alone among the trees and the sounds of wildlife scurrying away. Life makes more sense out there, away from my everyday world, I think.

Fall is here

I took the opportunity of an extra day off this week to spend a Monday afternoon wandering a small swath of east-central Iowa that I had yet to visit. Nothing too much to speak of, just a great day with some good photographs and a little chill to the air. The leaves are beginning to change and so is the light. There's a crispness to Fall that I miss during the rest of the year.

The photograph above was taken in the town of Templeton, Iowa.


Also visited: Troublesome Creek, Brayton, Exira, Hamlin, Audubon, Gray, Dedham, Coon Rapids, Bayard, Bagley, Jamaica, Yale, Panora, Guthrie Center, Montieth, Linden, Redfield and Dexter, Iowa.

Rain, rain, go away

Downtown Hannibal, Missouri

It's just my luck. After a summer-long record drought in Nebraska, I head out on the road for a few days to take photographs and it won't stop raining. It wasn't until I was driving back to Omaha that the sun decided to come out for an extended period of time. 

Cloudy weather is something I've learned to deal with (and even embrace) photographically and rain is usually little more than a minor annoyance that makes things a little more difficult. The rain on Sunday, however, was about as obnoxious as weather can possibly be.

At times, it would cease and I'd get out of the car to walk around. Then, as soon as I'd get a distance away from the car, there would be an absolute downpour. This went on for most of Sunday afternoon, all the way from Hannibal to Keokuk, Iowa. After crossing the Mississippi to Illinois, the clouds welcomed me with a deluge of rain of which I've only seen once or twice in my life. State Highway 96 was unable to cope with the excessive amount of rain water and its edges became deep pools that lurched the car sideways. I pulled off of the highway not once, but three times, as the rain let up momentarily before resuming the downpour just a minute or two later. For reference, this was my view of the Mississippi River through my windshield at a roadside turnoff near Nauvoo:

The rain ultimately didn't let up for good until I had reached my destination in Burlington, Iowa. I was ready to admit defeat and seek refuge in a hotel room before heading home today. Instead, I looped back around through Fort Madison and took a couple of very good photographs before calling it quits. It ended up definitely being worth the second effort.

Today was another story. I did a little exploring but chose to start the long trip home without much to show for the day. It's as if I was creatively exhausted and ready for a break after a few days of constant image searching. And now it's time to get back to the reality of a full time job and classes. Such is life, right?

Also visited Sunday: La Grange, Canton and Alexandria, Missouri. Quincy, Hamilton, Niota, Dallas City, Lomax, Carman and Gulfport, Illinois.

Also visited Monday: Gladstone, Oquawka, Keithsburg and New Boston, Illinois. Muscatine, Nichols and Lone Tree, Iowa.

Paris, Florida and Louisiana

Sumner, Missouri

I visited all of these places in one afternoon. Of course, all of them were towns in northeastern Missouri. Mexico wasn't too far away, either.

Paris is a nice, yet fairly nondescript, small town with a charming little main street. Nearly non-existent Florida is the birthplace of Mark Twain and finds itself surrounded by a large man-made lake that bears his name. I got my first sight of the Mississippi River while walking up and down the hills in downtown Louisiana. It's exactly what a person would expect an old river town to be, equal parts charming and industrial. The old, narrow river bridge on US Highway 54 is fantastic.

The photograph above is of Maxie, the "world's largest goose," in a tiny, tiny town of about 200 off the beaten path called Sumner. Most of Sumner has definitely seen better days; More than half of the town's main street is abandoned and dilapidated.

I'm in Hannibal for the night and will be exploring tomorrow morning. Then I'll be heading north towards Keokuk and more river towns in Illinois and Iowa.


Also visited: Avalon, Forker, Salisbury, Moberly, Madison, Victor, Perry, Ashburn and New London, Missouri. Atlas, Illinois.

Towards the Mississippi...

Rulo, Nebraska

This weekend finds me headed towards Hannibal, Missouri and the mighty Mississippi River. I spent a day taking photographs around Burlington, Iowa back in 2008 and have wanted to head back to the Mississippi ever since. For those who may not know, Hannibal holds a special place in American folklore as the childhood home of Mark Twain and his literary creations like Tom Sawyer. It's one of those places that I have wanted to visit for as long as I can remember.

As for today, I meandered to Chillicothe, Missouri via Rulo, Nebraska and Highway 7 in northeastern Kansas. The weather chose not to cooperate, as it sometimes does, but I still got in a few solid photographs over the course of the day.

I did manage to meet two very angry dogs on main street in White Cloud, Kansas and get lost (again) in St. Joseph, Missouri. St. Joe completely throws off my internal compass for one reason or another.

Also visited: Troy and Wathena, Kansas. Watson, Phelps City, Corning, Craig, Big Lake, Easton, Hemple, Hamilton, Mooresville, Ludlow and Dawn, Missouri.

Onward to Pierre

Lake Oahe, near Pierre 

Chamberlain at dusk

I left Mitchell this morning and headed toward the state capital in Pierre. It was a lot like a drive through western Nebraska - small towns few and far between with nothing but fields and grasslands as far as the eye can see. The drive around the southern edge of Lake Sharpe is fantastic, if the road is a bit lumpy, and completely isolated. After leaving the Native American settlement of Fort Thompson, there was not a single gas station or much of any sign of civilization until reaching Fort Pierre an hour and a half later. In the end, Pierre was only mildly interesting. The city is mostly a single strip of chain restaurants and stores without many unique qualities other than the state capital grounds.

Also visited: Letcher, Woonsocket, Lane, Wessington Springs, Big Bend Dam, Lower Brule, Vivian and Kimball, South Dakota.

South Dakota

near Dimock, South Dakota

Today was a very, very, very windy day in South Dakota. Not occasional gusts, either, but this incredible, ever-present south wind that made it difficult to operate car doors and take steady photographs. An elderly gentleman in Irene told me that it's usually windy there - but not always this windy - and sometimes more windy. I just smiled.

I do have to say that I like south-eastern South Dakota a lot. There are a lot of narrow gravel roads and wide open spaces to explore, plus the huge skies are fantastic. It feels good to get out on the road for a few days towards some place new.

I am spending the night in Mitchell, home of the world famous Corn Palace, many souvenir stands and cowboy-themed restaurants. Mitchell is an easy day's drive from the Black Hills on I-90 and attracts more than its share of tourists this time of the year. Tomorrow I'll be headed towards the state capital of Pierre and  Lake Oahe.

The image above was edited with Nik Software's Snapseed on my iPad. It's a nifty app, although the iPad's limitations make it difficult to post to Blogger via the device. I eventually emailed the edited image back to myself and created this post on my dreadfully slow netbook.

Also visited: Riverside, Iowa. Hub City, Volin, Menno, Olivet, Tripp and Parkston, South Dakota.

Another Sunday afternoon...

Thurman, Iowa

Sidney, Iowa 

Villisca, Iowa 

near Stennett, Iowa 

Montgomery County, Iowa

Also visited: Randolph, Anderson, Imogene, Essex, Coburg, Hepburn, Viking Lake and Stanton, Iowa.

It's been far too long

It's been a busy few weeks for me. Work, school and the show at the Hot Shops have been taking up all of my time. Now that everything is winding down, I found time to get out and explore a few of the towns in Nebraska that I haven't visited yet. As you can tell, it was a near-perfect day for making photographs. A very productive day at that.

I can't begin to explain how much I needed to get out on the road. It's been entirely too long. I plan to begin work on my next project over the summer and will have more information about it once everything falls into place. I have begun to research the project, but, as my past endeavors have illustrated, the initial plans usually bear little resemblance to the eventual results of the effort.

And remember, photographs from The Magic City are on display through next weekend at the Hot Shops if you've yet to see the show.

Saunders County

Surprise 

Seward County

Loma Cemetery

Also visited: Jack Sinn Memorial State Wildlife Area, Ceresco, Valparaiso, Dwight, Ulysses, Gresham, Staplehurst, Oak Glen State Wildlife Area, and Raymond.

The Magic City at the Hot Shops

The first exhibition of photographs from my series on South Omaha is up and ready to go at the Hot Shops. The spring open house runs today from 12-8 and Sunday from 12-5. I'm going to do my best to be around for most all of the open house so stop by and say hello.

Framed images are priced at $100 (16x20) and $70 (11x14). If you're interested in the smaller size, please be aware that you will receive a matted image. There was a mix-up in the mats I ordered, so the photographs on display are framed without mats. So it goes.

I'll also have a selection of 6x9" images from the series and some greatest hits for sale for only $30 in a very nice string-tie envelope.

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Here's the artist statement for the project:

The Magic City
Photographs of South Omaha

After being founded in 1884, South Omaha grew to be a city of 8,000 people by 1890 and 30,000 by the time Omaha formally annexed it in 1915. Because of this remarkable growth, South Omaha was nicknamed "The Magic City."

I moved to South Omaha a few years ago and have fallen in love with this area of the city. This photo project is a an exploration of its neighborhoods and a tribute to its rebirth over the last decade. It serves as a visual document of South Omaha's details and landscapes as it exists at this particular moment in history.

I'd like to thank Kate Saroka, Kelly Adams, Les and Deanna Vavak, Jeremy Hanson, Nic and Kaeli Swiercek, and Bill Hess for their help and support in my endeavors.

Pre-show print sale

For the next two weeks, I'll be offering a print sale to help with some of the costs associated with the show at Hot Shops that opens May 5th. William Hess and I will have photographs on display in the Hallway Gallery throughout the month. My images will be from a South Omaha project I've been slowly working on for the past year.

This time around, I thought it would be nice to offer something a little more affordable. So here's the deal...


A 6x9" print of (almost) any image from my Flickr page for only $25. The print will be enclosed in a custom paper envelope and will include a small signed and numbered certificate.

If you'd like the print mailed to you, please add $7 for shipping.

Please email your request to josephvavak (at) gmail.com and I'll send you a Paypal invoice.


And the fine print...

This offer excludes any images in the "Beginnings" set on Flickr.

If you choose a square image, it will be an 8x8" print.

Depending on demand, expect to receive the print at some point between the middle and end of May.

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line.

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Thank you to everyone for your support. It is always greatly appreciated. I look forward to seeing many friendly faces at the Hot Shops during the Open House weekend on Saturday and Sunday, May 5th and 6th.

For those interested in the ninety-three photobook, I apologize for the delay. Between work, school and this upcoming show, I've had very little time to spare. I plan to get the book ready to go once June gives me more free time.

The end of the road

Every so often in my random travels, I end up in what would best be described as the middle of nowhere. Today, I headed north and found myself in such a place somewhere south of Decatur, Nebraska. The gravel road I was traveling on suddenly disappeared without warning, no "Minimum Maintenance Road" signs to be found, and I would up in the middle of a rather desolate part of the flood plain. The photograph above shows the end of this path, a stop sign attached to a tree in the middle of the barren land.

near Fort Calhoun, Nebraska

Fort Calhoun, Nebraska

Decatur, Nebraska

A few photographs from a rainy afternoon

Random photographs from an afternoon spent wandering immediately north of the Omaha metro area...

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha, Nebraska

near Fort Calhoun, Nebraska

Last summer's flood left a remarkable amount of sand in the area around Boyer Chute near Fort Calhoun. The whole landscape has been transformed into a nearly desert-like appearance complete with ripples in the sand from the wind. As bad as it is, I'm not exactly sure what will become of this land in the future. It will be near impossible to grow any crops and may take many years for this much sand to dissipate. Boyer Chute has always been one of my favorite escapes near Omaha and it just can't seem to catch a break of late. First two or three years of flooding in a row and now this.

near Blair, Nebraska

Sunday afternoon photographs

near Glenwood, Iowa

near Henderson, Iowa

Wales, Iowa

Also visited: Mineola, Macedonia, Elliott and Red Oak.

After the flood

Today was gray and wet, thick with clouds and a cold wind from the north. It seemed the perfect day to spend some time exploring what was left behind when the Missouri River subsided after three months of record flooding. I found gravel roads turned into little more than thick, gray mud and abandoned homes littered with no trespassing signs. The landscape in the floodplain west of Crescent, Iowa is a bit eerie to drive through, especially in dreary weather like this. Everything is dead, whether from the long winter or the brackish sludge left behind by the retreating water.

Unfortunately, the light mist slowly became a steady rain and cut my afternoon short before too long.

The State of the Artist: 2012

Now that 2012 has begun, I thought it would be a good time to talk a little bit about my photographic pursuits and what I have planned for the near future. I now find myself nearing the completion of my bachelor's degree and, with it, the completion of another chapter of my life. What follows are a few plans and insights about my place in this crazy world, camera in hand..

This May marks five years since I first set out to photograph Nebraska for what would become ninety-three. I've developed three goals for the series, one of which I achieved with my first exhibition at Hot Shops in 2010. Next is the publication of all 93 photographs as a photo book. I received the first copy of the book this week and will be finalizing all the little details in the next month or so.

Photo books have been a big influence for me as a photographer. I started with Robert Frank's The Americans and moved from there, finding tremendous amounts of inspiration from image after image displayed in this very intimate artform. Paging through my first attempt, I felt an immense pride in the work, a feeling that I had in many ways lost after sifting through the photographs for so many years. I'm very excited for others to get a chance to see the whole series in this format.

My South Omaha photographs will be titled The Magic City, a nickname that the city earned in the 19th century due to its remarkable rise in population almost overnight. While I'm not sure the project is too near completion at this point, I will be showing many of the images at the Hot Shops Art Center in a small two person show with my friend and photographer William Hess. Our photographs will be on display throughout May with an opening at the Hot Shops' Spring Open House on May 5th and 6th.

The Magic City is similar in a lot of ways to my prior work, a collection of details and random color photographs taken throughout South Omaha. I do feel, however, that the work is different in other ways from what I've done before, building on that foundation and expanding further. This growth is what keeps me growing and coming back to the camera again and again.

The future is still very much in the air. I'm researching a few large projects and hope to have something settled on in the coming months. As I've found before, the best laid plans often are the least productive while the results of happenstance are far more successful. I look forward to stumbling into another subject that consumes me as much as ninety-three has.

For the time being, I'll keep taking other photographs that will be published on my Flickr page, so check back often.

Thank you for your support. 

Frontier County (and more)

Moorefield, Nebraska

 North Platte, Nebraska

near Stockville, Nebraska

I'll spare everyone from more of my ramblings about how fantastic the weather was today. (It was absolutely, completely, spectacularly gorgeous.)

Instead, I've just posted a few photographs from today's proceedings. I visited every town in Frontier County (Curtis, Eustis, Maywood, Moorefield and Stockville) after starting the day in downtown North Platte. This part of the state is rugged and hilly with steep drops to the mostly dry creek beds that meander through the rough terrain. I can only imagine how rough it must get when a bad blizzard blows through this isolated, nearly tree-less place.

Details on ordering ninety-three to follow. Thank you again for stopping by.

Hello, January?

It's not often that Nebraska experiences a January quite like this one. My birthday usually finds itself smack in the middle of the coldest weeks of the year. This winter, in quite unusual fashion, has been anything but cold. Outside of a little snow in early December and two or three days with single degree lows, the weather has been just fantastic. Tomorrow promises a high above fifty degrees.

I've decided to take advantage of mother nature's generosity and head west for a quick overnight trip in honor of the beginning of my thirty-third (!) year. While putting together the ninety-three photo book, I realized that there was one county that I just wasn't 100% satisfied with. I'll be revisiting that county again tomorrow and hope to have the book available for purchase in the next few months before the Hot Shops show in May.

Pictured above are the sandhills just north of Brady, Nebraska. I am forever finding myself drawn to the sandhills' space and isolation.

Also visited: Lexington, Darr, Cozad, Willow Island, Gothenberg, Maxwell and North Platte.

New photographs for a new year

Today begins yet another year. It may be what amounts to a mostly symbolic fresh start, but I'll take it nonetheless. As always, I'm reminded that I must always move forward and find time to be creative as much as possible. And remember to be happy, even in the face of an always-hectic world rushing by.

What follows are twelve photographs for the first day of 2012. I spent this mild, yet extremely windy, holiday in the Loess Hills region of western Iowa. I'd like to think it's a good start on what will hopefully be a fantastic year of image making and discovery. 

Happy New Year, everyone.