I can’t pass a silo, a mill, a grain elevator or an old barn without stopping to take a photo. This shot is from our hour spent in Talmadge, Kansas, where the huge grain elevator dominates the downtown.
Flour Mill
Weathered and Distressed
Whatever, wherever, and however the road trip, I always have my camera or iPhone ready to take photos out the window as we drive along. This old barn and damaged windmill caught my eye as we drove on Kansas backroads last month.
Solitary Sentinel
Another impression of the fields of Manchester, with the iconic water tower overlooking what was once a bustling farm community.
Colors of Kansas
We visited the tiny family cemetery when we were in Kansas a few weeks ago. After taking time to look at the graves of so many members of Lonnie’s family- ones I knew and those whose names I knew only from genealogy research- I stood and looked down at the fields and trees of Manchester, the tiny community where Lonnie’s grandparents lived, trying to sear it all into my brain, as this was probably our last visit. I love the varying hues and tones of the fields and composed a quick ICM image to remember these last moments.
Kansas Summer
Remembering our visit to Kansas this summer. . .
On the Outskirts of Oz
We stayed in the charming small town of Wamego, Kansas when visiting with Lonnie’s stepmom, Laura a month ago. Our first night there we stopped for ice cream after dinner at a cute little spot on the main street (I had the BEST root beer float!). Everyone knows everyone in town, so of course the owner knew Lonnie’s stepsister. The sun had gone down when we left and cast a magical light over this cute little town which seems to border Oz itself.
Cornfield Impressions
I can’t think of anything more KANSAS than a cornfield.
Lost in Kansas
A couple weeks ago, we spent the weekend in Wamego, Kansas visiting with Lonnie’s beloved stepmother, Laura, who at age 92 is in poor health. The two full days we were there, we spent time in the mornings and early evenings with Laura and her daughter, Sue, caregiver extraordinaire, but in the afternoons we went out on some adventures. We drove to Manchester to visit the family graves and the site of the old burnt out family home, as we always do, but this time we decided to add an additional cemetery to the itinerary. Lonnie’s great-grandmother Carrie Funk Wolfe, who died when his grandmother, Irene, was only twelve years old, was buried in the Catholic Cemetery in Vine Creek, only 7 Miles from Manchester. I don’t remember how long it took to get there (an hour? 2 hours?), but what were listed as roads on Google maps, turned out to be narrow rutted dirt roads. Despite us having been raised in Kansas (Lonnie) and small-town Chico (me) and living in Arizona, which is full of dirt roads, we felt like city slickers in this area. The closer we got to Vine Creek, the more confused we became, but we got there! However, we chose to go a different way back (why?), and the directions on Google took us to a road not really there and a road ending in a gate. We basically followed our noses and eventually found a main (dirt) road that was familiar and took us straight to Manchester and the highway back to Wamego, only a half hour late.
I love the scene above which shows the beauty of Kansas farmlands. I took it to my weekly photo group and talked about converting it to a black and white, which everyone agreed would not work. Because I have been working with black and white film recently (details eventually in another post), I have been experimenting with converting more photos to black and white, as well as editing my film photos- so here is my moody version:
I think I like it better in some ways than the color version, although the color image is certainly more true to the scene.
More on Main Street
This is downtown Manchester, Kansas- Main Street. Although there are some small farms and homes within walking distance of these old buildings, the tiny downtown is becoming a ghost town. My husband remembers the building on the left as a hardware store and the telephone company on the right. Out of the frame is what remains of a building his grandfather owned- all that is left is the crumpled metal awning lying amidst the rubble.
My husband’s grandparents died in 1982, and I had only driven through the town once since then. In searching for photos of what Manchester used to look like, I came across a wonderful website- https://www.lostamericana.com/
The website is run by photojournalist Vincent Johnson who is documenting the abandoning of rural America. There is a photo of Manchester’s Main Street on the home page- taken maybe ten years ago. The buildings in my photo can be seen as well as Lonnie’s grandfather’s building next door. You can explore Vincent’s excellent photographs of America’s abandoned towns state by state on the website. My genealogist heart loves this project, although it makes me sad.
Main Street USA
Here is another image from our trip to my husband’s grandparents’ farm community in rural Kansas.
Kansas Minimalism
We are home now, after a LOOOOONG drive through Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico and a day off to celebrate my birthday in Santa Fe. There are a lot of photos to go through- especially from Santa Fe, where I tried to take enough photos with my Lensbaby to satisfy the photo essay requirement for the last week of the class (even though I’m not a full participant and won’t be evaluated).
So today, I again celebrate the flat horizons and vast expanses of Kansas with these minimalist shots, both taken with the Edge 80 optic.
Kansas Wheat
The drive across Kansas gave me an opportunity for an up close and personal view of a wheat field. My husband must have Kansas in his blood- I think the color version is his favorite photo from the trip.
Both were taken with the Lensbaby Edge 80.
Rural
Driving across western Kansas yesterday, I snapped photos from the car as we went along, and a few are decent. But Lonnie spotted this farm along the way and pulled off onto a country road so I could take my time and the photos would have a good chance of being in focus. I love the barn and silo! I know I could never have been able to hack it as a country girl, but I love rural scenes.
Lensbaby Edge 80
Country roads, take me home
Yesterday, my father-in-law, like earlier generations in his family, was laid to rest at the old cemetery at the end of this dirt road, overlooking the tiny Kansas farm community where he grew up.
Family members and friends gathered to say a last good-bye to Corky, who always called this peaceful corner of the world HOME.
Lensbaby on the Road
I’ve been keeping my Lensbaby on my camera all the time, trying to get as much practice as possible. When we are on a long road trip, we almost never stop for photos, so it has become my habit to take photos with my phone through the window as we drive along. On this trip, I started using my big camera instead of my iPhone to take these photos.
One of the assignments in my Lensbaby class was to take photos of objects that are moving (using manual focus, the only way you CAN focus a lensbaby). Although the subjects of my photos weren’t moving, the car certainly was! As we drove through eastern Colorado, I used the sweet35 optic to capture the scenery along the way. My favorite photo is this landscape (I love the light), which is NOT in sharp focus. I used Topaz Simplify and some added textures to give it a painterly feel.
The next day, as we drove through the plains of western Kansas, I used the Edge 80 optic on my lensbaby, which I found fairly easy to focus at 60 plus mph. The sky was very overcast and eventually gave way to heavy rain as we drove along.
Lonnie knows I have a bit of an obsession with photographing grain silos and farms, so he actually took an exit so that I could take photographs of this one from the road instead of from a moving car!
melinda anderson photography 