Although I view myself mostly as a photographer of people by inclination, I would like to think I’m at least competent to capture the occasional landscape. And on this day, the drama of the sky and patchy light had me visualizing in black and white. That medium seems to emphasize the patterns and forms in such chiaroscuro conditions.
The St. Louis River was running unusually high for the late fall season, the product of some recent prodigious rains and a wetter-than-normal season overall. The air was crisp and colors bright. We explored a trail down along the river, running past a huge array of impressively noisy cataracts.
Up at the cabin mid-week to do the annual adjustment of the heating system that heralds the end of winter, and I found myself with the opportunity to grab some images of a stunning sunset. I’m usually on Burntside Lake for sunsets, but I went into Ely for a bite for dinner with the intention of going down to Sandy Point on Shagawa Lake near town for the occasion.
Folio: Owaneco, Illinois, 2018
If there are, indeed, 256 souls in Owaneco, Illinois, the large majority of them live on the northeast side of highway 29, which separates a largely residential section from the historic village center. This older part is dominated by the large grain elevators that face the highway, and provide a visual and, perhaps, mental barrier between commuter’s houses and the largely abandoned village center to the southwest. Crossing the highway between these two sectors seems like more than a metaphor.