Some places exert a certain magical attraction due to their simplicity or imperfection. For us, these include particular historical places and buildings whose usual use by us humans has long since passed – lost places.
As Austin High School has done in recent years, St. Edward’s University is now taking on the role of a family employment institution. For the photography-oriented courses in Celina’s studies this semester, the professor promptly gave the students some homework to complete. And since Celina didn’t want to take any 0815 pictures, we headed towards Johnson City to get some interesting impressions (by the way, there used to be a winery called “0815 Wines” along the way).
Essentially, the homework consisted of two parts. One part was to capture different lighting and depict the moods that light influences. The other task was to photograph the same motif with a digital and an analog camera and to recognize the differences. It was just as well that Andrea had brought a good analog camera and several films with her from her last visit to Germany. Otherwise, we really would have had to buy or borrow one.
The Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park is home to the historic German farm (Sauer Beckmann Farm) and this was the first location for the photo session. However, the cooperation of the animal inhabitants was not particularly great. They only had food on their minds or were lying somewhere in the shade with their backs to us. They simply didn’t want to be photographed. But we did manage to get a few good pictures and then concentrated on things that weren’t running away (such as buildings, plants, and horseshoes).
Now the farm isn’t that huge, but Celina had to get the color film full somehow so that we can get it developed. And who knows how long it will take to develop, but the deadline for the task is next Friday. So we drove to the home of Lyndon B. Johnson. On the way, we came across a few buffalo that were in a visible/photographable distance. Very good … more photo motifs captured.
Well … and then suddenly the film was full. We didn’t even think about the fact that there are films that can take fewer than 36 pictures. But it’s true … there were always 12, 24 and 36 films. Unfortunately, we hadn’t taken any spare film with us, so this task was now declared complete.
We quickly said hello to the herd of longhorns and then headed back towards Austin. In Dripping Springs, Andrea remembered that there was an abandoned Sonic Diner. She really wanted to stop there and take some lost-place photos. Celina was obviously enthusiastic about this idea and so we made another stop there.
With around 400 digital and 24 analog photos to our name, we headed home accompanied by a beautiful sunset (which was extremely dazzling for the driver in the mirror) with the good feeling of having done something together again.
