Taking another look
A boat for sale along Highway 74 north of Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
I spend a lot of time looking at photography magazines, websites and books. National Geographic, one of my favorites, regularly delivers beautiful images of exotic places around the world to my home in Oklahoma City. Photographs from Azerbaijan, Egypt, the Sea of Japan, Central America and other places that I’ll probably never see are beautiful and awe-inspiring. I can see why people are inspired to travel after seeing those images, but I take a different inspiration away from National Geographic and websites like VII Photo Agency and Magnum. Instead of yearning to get away to see beauty, I try to look at my local world through fresh eyes.
After working at five newspapers, all in Oklahoma, I’ve been all over the state. I’ve traveled Highway 33 to Highway 74 from Kingfisher to Oklahoma City probably a hundred times. On the way back from a sports assignment on Tuesday afternoon, I slowed down a bit, pulled on to side streets and challenged myself to see the exotic side of a small part of my home state that I’m used to speeding by at 65 mph.
A tree sits alone in a pasture off a gravel road near Highway 74 north of Oklahoma City on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010. Photo by John Clanton, The Oklahoman
Daylight savings is over, so the light starts to look pretty as early as 4:30 pm. I watched dust on country roads swirl in the wind and looked at open pastures under a nearly cloudless, blue sky. Extraordinary images depending on where you live; or maybe you just need to slow down and take another look at your world. That landlocked boat is going for $300, by the way.
-John Clanton
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment