This was taken on the edge of an RV park just outside the entrance to Big Bend. A small desert graveyard both scrappy and well kept. And with a clear sense of humor. I remember the wind knocking my poor thin tripod down again and again, and the paranoia that the cacti and other scary insects I saw glimpses of during the day were going to get me. I find the quiet more intimidating.

There were a number of people at the RV park who we learned were regulars, who came out regularly for weeks, sometimes many, at a time. To a place with not much beyond desert shrubs broken up by isolated large hills plateaued on top. But with a beauty of sheer scale and an undisturbed peace. Perhaps on the outskirts I was hanging out with those who wished to ultimately stay. With the wind as a hello. Or something like that less mushy metaphorical given that it was windy just about everywhere.

I left the dead to have a good time. It's not like another drink will kill them.

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Early this past fall I went on a morning walk through a forest only 20 minutes from campus to shockingly see another sunrise. This was my second time going to Horse Mountain. The first time was on a formal hike in a full suit when it was very much too warm for a suit! But this time it was just me in boots, and even those were probably unnecessary.

Along the way to the pictured lookout, we came across this huge mushroom growing out of a rotting log. And so of course a large piece almost a foot across is harvested for a later stew. Called chicken of the woods, it is apparently quite delicious and distinct from the closesly named hen of the woods. Mushroom cookoff in my future?

Anyways, at the lookout while most of the small group was sitting on a ledge overlooking a grand vista with campus in the far background, I was doing my thing. Looking at pretty leaves and figuring out how to frame silouettes. Enjoying the place and time in my own way. The beginning of fall is special because you have the pleasure of seeing each type of tree go one by one through its own unique motions. Some lose their leaves all at once without notice. Others are a multicolored beauty that rain steadily down. And others still feel like an elevator stopping at each floor, with the top of the tree holding out for as long as possible while the rest is long since barren.

Pictured is largely undergrowth, but undergrowth that serves as a frame for the spiderweb creating concentric rings around the background sun. With leaves past their due but holding out for just a little bit longer. Exactly what I love about fall up here.

This past week I went... *gasp* camping. About 10 minutes from a Walmart superstore and with more or less the ability to run away but these are besides the point. Our arrival coincided with the beginning of a major freeze so it was Texas cold. But I lived to tell the tale. Was only 30 feels like 19 when I woke up in the tent!

Sunset was fast approaching near the end of our almost 10-mile hike that had snaked through the back of the state park, stopping at just about every extra bit we could see or tack on. So we took a shortcut through the park along an unpaved utility road where this was taken. Looking through a field of tall grasses and among trees ravaged a decade ago by fire.

There's something special gained from looking at older photos and realizing that in more ways than I would often like to admit, I haven't changed one bit. Getting photos of cats then and still getting plenty of them now. So on point.

But what stands out to me are the chains that surround the cat without being constricting. Though the haze of a glorified point and shoot, it looks almost constricted by something, curled in on itself and yet utterly free to leave.

Right before leaving for break I went to the big Smith conservatory to destress before a final. Deep into the greenhouse I came across a Heliconia vellerigera, a tall plant with large leaves and an long, fuzzy flower/seed arm that almost touches the floor. And on it I ran into this little guy.

Despite being somewhat offput by the unnervingly fuzzy arm in front of me, I think that our first impressions were alright. And so I found myself otherwise alone with a new greenhouse friend talking about seed pods and photography and well... I guess not much. Our mutual interests were limited but we tried. Not a big fan of cheese it would seem. But alas, this bright white creature ran away from me in time (probably upon noticing me in the first place) and entirely withdrew emotionally from our still young but deep friendship.

In hindsight it is probably good that I was cut off. The 'little guy' was actually a mealybug larva, an infamous pest of greenhouses! Oh the deception! Specifically because they have a symbiotic relationship with some species of ant, they can go out of control with the munching. Mealybugs secrete honeydew as they feed on plants which the ants eat while the ants protect against population controlling predation. Terrifying for greenhouse owners but otherwise pretty cool.

The first couple hundred photos I took on my old camera have I burnt in date watermark on them, a setting that took me some time to learn where the off toggle was. I would normally consider it absolutely hideous and undesired but in this specific instance it just becomes nostalgic for me.

This was taken on a road trip that led us up through northern California. Half of the pictures I have are my brothers hiding inside of or standing on top of giant redwood trees.It doesn't take very much for my love of scale to make itself known. I'd be all over even one large tree but here there were many more than that. If only there was a large vertical greenhouse capable of keeping one of these alive in my backyard.

This is the beginning of a little experiment I'm trying out. Not to be a collection of Nathan's greatest hits, but instead a sprinkling of what I find meaningful or plain beautiful. This, in one form or another, is something that I have wanted to try out for a long time. Preferably outside the reach of flashy apps vying for attention where it can be something for myself, potentially a few others, and not necessarily more.

I've artificially limited myself to a maximum of one photograph per day, to not just dump reams of photos in a public drive somewhere without signifance. I don't plan to have any real chronological order although I expect it to be more or less possible to catch up on what I'm doing with more current posts. At times, I expect not more than a sentence or two to be written but I am alright with that. After all, sometimes you just look at something and go "Yup, makes sense to me. Don't english class this."

This first image was taken with my old point and shoot from a moving car after getting up at 4:00 in the morning to go upcountry and watch the sunrise. I don't know if the remarkably clear sky is usual or was a result of sheer luck, but I love the dual sets of clouds that secure their respective mountains and demonstrate the sheer scale of Haleakala.

Hello World. -Nathan