Story behind the image: Purpose & fun in the middle of nowhere

Every year for most major holidays and a few other times a year, my family made our way to my grandparents’ house out on the Great Plains. The six hour drive is the same as always and made no matter rain or shine, or more frequently snow, shine, or wind. After six hours of movie watching, sleeping, reading, and driving, we arrive at the house that is fifteen minutes from the nearest town and an hour to the nearest "large" city and Walmart, but that what makes it such a great place to get away to.

A lot of the extended family gathers, growing with the latest additions. However, with growing numbers there is plenty of room to accommodate everyone and grandma makes enough food for everyone for there to be supper and left overs for lunch the next day.

But in between all the times of talking with family or eating delicious food, there is a lot of down time that we try to fill, and watching hours of TV is hard with so many people and only two channels and no Wi-Fi. Other activities we have found include walks to the mailbox a mile down the dirt road, going into town to walk on the high school track, going swimming (only in the summer of course) in the pool set-up around back or at the pool in town, trying to find the farm cats, driving the go-cart (or as it later turned into, motorcycles), shooting at cans or clay pigeons, and the usual read, sleep, do homework, or watch movies.

When I really started to take pictures, I took it to the farm. I used it as a way to document one of my favorite places in the world, though I could do without the drive, and the history of all the little knick knacks lying around. On the farm, the term “lawn ornaments” takes on a whole new meaning; there are trucks, plows, tractors, boats, campers, tires, and much more that I don’t know the name of. Now most of these are in the side pasture or in the far back corner, hidden by the house, but they are still there. While I am unsure what they are all for, there has to be a reason they are on the farm that I don’t know, but at the time of this photo, all I cared about was how they were there to help me create new and unique photos.

While the farm as a whole is one of my favorite places, my favorite place there is in an area hidden from the house by one of the red barns that overlooks the front pasture. The pasture is now empty and overgrown with prairie grass, but it used to be the home of Jake. Jake was not really a riding horse but as kids growing up it was fun to go down there with grandpa with carrots or apples to give the horse and check the water. Now the fence are down and piled behind the barn making it a good place to sit and think and occasionally turn the camera to capture the moment.

In this particular photo, the journey of my photos that day began here, in my spot by the pasture behind the barn. As I turned to head over to the side pasture where I was going to photograph some of those knick knacks, I saw the beautiful colors of the sunset that we don’t usually see in at home. The is something in the way the light takes so long to clear the horizon over the rolling hills of the plains that brings out every hue. The colors lit up the property and land that extended between me and the spot where the sun touched the earth. This shot only made me love my spot that much more.