Abo Mission, located in New Mexico, was build by Spanish monks in the 1600s. There was thriving a pueblo already there when the Spaniards arrived. This structure is a view of what remains of the church. It is a part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.

This is a detail of an old rusty locomotive. What looks like a diamond patterned overlay, that might have been photoshopped in, is actually the out of focus chain link fence I had to go through to get this image.

When I mounted this photo on a backing, I accidentally used a piece of foam board that I had already used for mounting another photograph. I didn’t realize my mistake until I was getting ready to frame it. So there is a bonus photo included with this one if you want to go to the trouble of dismantling the frame and turning it around. The photos were different sizes, so I cut another mat to go with the other one, and hid it under another mat board in the back. The other photo is called “A Cold Day on the Rappahannock”. It was supposed to be offered as one of my unframed photographs.

This is the takeout window from a barbeque restaurant in southern Georgia. I am guessing that, like so many other businesses that catered to travelers on the older highways, it went out of business after the interstate highway was completed. I think I found this one on Route 301 which would have been the main highway before I-95 was completed.

This is a view of the inside of a two cell jailhouse which was built in 1895 in Clairemont, Texas. Clairemont is considered to be a ghost town, so this was not the only abandoned building there, but it was certainly one of the more interesting ones.

On the way to Craters of the Moon National Park, I was looking for signs of volcanic activity. The cone shaped mountain and the big black lava rock were pretty obvious ones. The rock is a good example of Aa (pronounced ah-ah, it’s a Hawaiian word, very useful when playing Scrabble). It makes you wonder if that particular chunk of Aa had been blasted out of that particular volcano when it was erupting. These features definitely improved the scene of the rather monotonous high desert landscape.

The “burnt” part of the title refers the trees on the hillside which had not survived a previous forest fire. The “burning off” refers to the fog which was dissipating. The sun was actually not visible through the thin layer of fog to the human eye when I took this shot. The location of this photograph was Yellowstone National Park.

Now that we are retired, my husband and I love to take the time to travel on the back roads whenever possible. On a recent trip to Florida, we found this block of old shops in Kite, Georgia. The roofs were long gone and the sun was shining through what was left of the windows. You can see that Mother Nature is making an effort to reclaim the land.

Swannanoa is an old mansion in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was built by the man who built Maymont in Richmond, and was originally a summer home for him and his wife. It is noted for some Tiffany glass, among other things. It is in need of restoration, but still quite interesting to see. I liked the play of light and shadow on the stairs. I added the blue tones just for fun.

This photograph won a first prize in photography at the Fredericksburg Fine Arts Show in 2016.

This is the staring contest with a guaranteed winner! I found William Faulkner sitting on his bench in front of the library in Oxford, Mississippi. This young lady jumped into the scene and started staring right back at him. Her name is Violet. She was wearing a royal blue sweatshirt and red pants, and for some reason I decided I like this photo better as a black and white. I e-mailed copies of the photo to her parents, and now my husband and I have an invitation to dinner with her family the next time we are in the Oxford area.

Obviously I have made some alterations on my computer. I rotated “Color Bars” 90º, just because I liked it better that way. This photo was taken at the classic car show they have on Caroline St. every year on the first Saturday in June. All those shiny reflective surfaces are a lot of fun for photographers!

I know I am not the only photographer around who is intrigued by old rundown houses. You always wonder why a nice big house like this was abandoned. This one happens to be in Maryland, on the way to Colton’s Point Marina. I have been by it many times in a vehicle stuffed with sailing gear and sailors. One day it was my turn to be the driver who drops off the crew and takes the car back across the bridge instead of getting on the boat, so I finally got my opportunity to stop and take some photos.

This photograph was also made into a jigsaw puzzle for this show.

The first European settlers to arrive in the Shenandoah Valley were originally from Germany and Switzerland. Martin Kauffman was one of them. His son Martin Kauffman II built the White House in 1760 as a residence and Mennonite meeting house. It is listed as a Virginia Historic Landmark.

I visited the area in May, and the grass really was quite green. I did bring up the contrast some on this photo to accentuate the textures on the wall, but I did NOT enhance the color of the grass.

This was one of many tractor engines that I found in a tractor museum in Pink Hill, North Carolina. The way the light and shadow played on this particular one, was what prompted me to choose this one to photograph.

Built in the mid 1800s this is the “new” Lindau Lighthouse. New, because it replaced a 12th century tower. The flag showing in the photo is French, but the lighthouse is the only one in Bavaria. It is considered to be one of the most beautiful lighthouses in the world. It is the only lighthouse I have ever seen that doubles as a clock tower.

“Hexe” is the German word for “witch”. This one was in Gengenbach, Germany, participating in a Fasnacht parade. Mardi Gras would be the equivalent of Fasnacht in this country.

This photo was one of several I submitted to FCCA’s newsletter editor to go along with the article about this show. I think she was maybe getting even with me for missing previous deadlines, and not submitting an actual photo of me, when she placed it right next to my name in the article! It especially makes an impact if you look at the newsletter online, and this is the first thing you come to in the article when you scroll down.

I found this old rundown homestead in the shadow of a nearby mountain, on a lonesome road in Nevada. The usual sign posted on the gate said, “No Trespassing For Any Purpose” on it. It looked like a good hideout for snakes and other critters, so I was just fine with staying outside the fence. I seem to have a fondness for textures in my photographs. There is certainly a lot of that in this one.