a place to hang your hat

I didn't edit this shot with the rest of my Texas pictures. I actually noticed it when I was doing backup. I liked the chipped paint of the sign.

100 gallon hat

I've always loved the old Arby's sign in Conway. I forgot that it still lights up. I was a tad worried that I didn't have enough light to shoot this, so I was happily surprised by the lights.

light speed

The film ended up with a light leak. I shot the film, respooled it, carried it across the country in a backpack, let someone else shot it, and finally had it developed. There's really no telling where or when the light leak happened. I love how it worked out though. It looks like the trolley is about to take off at warp speed!

watchful eye

I love New Orleans. I really liked these old horse hitching posts. A lot of these are gone or damaged. Many are plain black, but there's a few that are painted. I'm not sure if the originals were painted or not. I took a lot of pictures of these. I get fixated on details like that.

that's...

Random bits of urban life.

red, white, and blue

This was taken during a Christmas celebration at the Arkansas State Capitol, but it seemed to fit for Independence Day too.

weathered

I like that a Holga can turn ordinary life into something more interesting. This was the side of a very old, weathered laundromat. I'm sure the folks inside wondered what the heck I was up to.

This was actually one of my favorite shots from vacation.

sights and sounds

I'm not the type to suggest places as "everyone should see that place before they die". I mean we all have different tastes. I'm sure there's tons of people who do not want to hike the woods after a waterfall, or roam around city streets, or other things I really love. I will say if there is one place you should visit before you die New Orleans is probably it. There's just so much to see and do, and no matter what type of person you are it's almost certain you will turn a corner and be blindsided by someone completely different from you. Then you can walk a few more feet and see things familiar.

It's a shock to the senses and a constant party. There's so much hospitality, history, and culture. I doubt there's anything I can say about New Orleans that hasn't been said, and even if i were able to repeat it all...it's just different when you experience it. What can I say? I heart NOLA.

when it fades

I love the love bench. Heck I just love benches!

you can park here but it will cost you

The Arkansas Times published one of my shots! The only thing that stinks is I'm listed as "Windy Richards" and not Windy Richardson.

This was taken on Main Street in Little Rock a couple of weeks ago.

all you need

The Love Bench on Main Street in Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas is a pretty popular thing to photograph. I don't really know what I think about it. It always feels a little sad to me. Maybe because I've never seen anyone sit on it, it's on a relatively slow street, and it's blue. I guess sometimes love is a lonely thing. I decided to "girl up" the shot by turning it into a polaroid.

return to legoland

There's a series I do that I call "urban legos." It's basically skyline abstracts. I want to do more of these, but finding good locations isn't super easy. This is part of the Little Rock skyline.

it's a way to make a living

I thought this was really underexposed, but I decided to scan it and try to save it anyway. It ended up making it even creepier. This was in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I visited the two for a few hours one day back in December. I hope I get to go back soon. It's such an amazing town!

iconic

This shot was taken facing into the sun. The bad thing about vacations is you don't always get to reshoot, and it's hard to pick the time of day you happen upon things. The view facing away from the sun just wasn't as cool as this view. The shot ended up being sort of overexposed. As I was fixing it I decided to add a texture. The sunflares just seemed to age the shot, so I thought I might as well age it even more.

life lines

I find stuff like this remarkable. Sometimes such mess can be beautiful, at least to me. I tend to hate powerlines when I'm shooting. I can't tell you how many shots I felt were ruined or needed editing because of lines. Yet sometimes they stand alone. I stood in the middle of a town festival shooting this. I only stood around long enough to get about three shots, because the crowd seemed to think me crazy. I guess maybe I am.

urban legos

Taken: July 14, 2009
Camera: Canon EOS 40D plus Sigma 55-200mm f/4-5.6
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 640

I left home with only one lens. Actually I went out with the lens I'm least comfortable shooting with. I find 55-200mm is hard to shoot with. I'm a wide-angle girl. After walking around downtown Little Rock for a while I started seeing the small urban fragments I wasn't seeing when I was shooting wide-angle. I came up with an urban lego concept of shooting almost abstracts of the city. Sort of like the building blocks. I originally wanted to cartoonize all of them, but I decided the originals works just as well. Here is the cartoonized look I had originally planned:

i'm rubber you're glue...

Taken: April 26, 2009
Camera: Canon EOS 40D plus Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 33 mm
ISO Speed: 400

I've passed by this building on Broadway Street in Little Rock, Arkansas many times. On this day the light was amazing. It was reflecting off the building next to it and creating these wonderful golden orbs. I had to stop.