We emerged from Big Bend Country and West Texas to land on a little ranch in the town of Oatmeal. The 2020 Census put the population of Oatmeal at 20. The town is unincorporated, technically a part of Betram in Burnet Country in the Texas Hill Country outside of Austin.
The town’s claim to fame appears to be the the Oatmeal Festival held each year over Labor Day weekend. There are town offices, a town windmill, at least one cemetery, a water tower painted to look like a can of oatmeal.
At one time, there was a Black section of town, but there’s no trace of it now. Recently, a police officer discovered an overgrown cemetery on the side of a road that was the town’s Black cemetery, but we couldn’t find clear direction to it. There was talk of preservation efforts and, perhaps, the town wants to keep away vandals and souvenir hunters until they can do something.
I had stopped in Terlingua back in March 2023 on my way to Big Bend Ranch State Park. The town sits between the state park and the national park and is an ideal spot to get your vehicle and yourself fueled up. I did the quick detour and followed the signs to the ghost town, a collection of dwellings that are little more than a few walls and a cemetery, but still told a story of what used to be there.
This time around, it was an emergency stop. We had vastly miscalculated how far our rental SUV could carry us on a tank of gas, then found that the only gas station in the national park at Panther Junction, wasn’t open as late as advertised. We did some quick checking on a map and found the only gas station within range – maybe – was in Terlingua.
We arrived well past dark and too late to get food and ended up staying the night in a motel. The next morning was a brilliantly clear day with deep blue skies. Out the door of our room was a view of a Ocatillo in full leaf and bloom set against Study Butte.
One of the joys of being on the road is getting breakfast at the local diner. Terlingua’s Chili Pepper Cafe didn’t disappoint – tamale, tortillas and beans with your eggs.
These images are from a weekend in New York back in May. I had with me my Leica M6 and Olympus XA. I also had the little plastic Reto Ultra Wide and Slim, but the film transport failed and I lost the roll. Too bad because I was curious to see how the 22mm lens would work on streets.
These images are from the M6 with the usual Summicron 35 shot on Ilford HP5, the film I turn to when I’m looking for versatility.
It’s a long drive from the Papalote Encino campsite back to Austin, where I was due to catch a flight. I decided to break up the trip with a stop in Marfa, not ideal location because it meant a six-hour drive for the final leg. But I had heard a lot about the place and wanted to have a look.
I had to check out the highlights, including Prada Marfa, which is actually on the other side of the next town over, Valentine, with a population of 73, according to the 2020 Census. The gas station was closed down, but the public library seemed tidy.
Valentine is in start contrast to the Prada installation that draws tourists from around the world. There wasn’t even anywhere I could stop for coffee or a meal, so the town wasn’t profiting from all the traffic driving down its main drag.
So let’s start with a couple of cliches, then to somewhat impressionistic images I made at the Chinati Foundation, an art museum on the grounds of an old military base in Marfa founded by the artist Donald Judd, whose presence is inescapable throughout the town.
Heading out of the park with several hours on the road ahead of me, I stopped off for one more hike within Big Bend Ranch State Park, stopping a the Cinco Tinajas trailhead. The trail promised rock art as well as a series of spring fed pools that give the trail its name.
As usual, I missed where the trail split down into a narrow canyon where the series of five pools the give the trail its name lay and came out into a mostly dry riverbed. The trail map said to head left, but to the right I saw a couple of pools in the sandy bottom. I figured that was the way and ended up at a cliff where the spring emptied out.
The contrast between the harsh light and deep shadows on the rock face and pool really caught my eye and I ended up spending quite a bit of time there, both taking pictures and resting in the shade cooled by the water.
These were shot on the Leica M6 and Summicron 35, on Ilford HP5. I also had my Fujica GW690 with me, but those photos will come in the next post.
My first time in the West Texas desert, I was totally taken by the various plants that dotted the landscape. I didn’t see your typical western movie cactus – the barrel, organ pipe and saguaro cacti. What I did see was plenty of sotol, yucca and ocotillo.
This was an unusual spring when this bit of Texas received more precipitation than usual – it snowed the first night were were there. That meant the desert was blooming, especially the yucca, something a short-time visitor was lucky to come across.
But I really fell in love with the ocotillo – even after I managed to snag myself several times on its spiny branches. Expect to see more of them in this space.
All these images were shot on my Leica M6 TLL with a Summicron 35, the only 35mm get up I brought on this trip. The first image, the sotol, was shot in Marathon on Ilford HP5. The second, the Yucca, is from Alpine, again shot with the M6, was shot on Fujifilm Acros 100 II. The final two images of the ocotillo, shot in Big Bend Ranch State Park, was shot on Catlabs 320 Pro, a film I came to enjoy.
The next several posts are from Big Bend Ranch State Park in Texas, and a few from the nearby towns of Marathon, Alpine and Marfa. I shot a combined 16 rolls fo 35mm and 120 film so there’s going to be few of these posts.
They were shot on either a Leica M6TTL with a Summicron 35 or Fujica GW690 with its fixed Fujinon 90mm f3.5 lens. I shot a wide variety of film, all black and white. My favorites were the Cinestill BWXX and Catlabs 320 Pro. I often took similar shots on 35mm and 120 film. Sometimes they came out quite differently, at other they looked nearly identical.
Here’s the story behind the trip.
Back in March, I took a trip to West Texas with my girlfriend. The original plan was to spend a few days camping and hiking in Big Bend National Park. My girlfriend grew up in El Paso and has made numerous trips to the park.
As it turned out, we couldn’t get a camp site at the park, so I did what I thought was the next best thing and reserved a site in Big Bend Ranch State Park just to the west of the national park. The plan was to sleep in the state park and make daily forays into the national park.
Nothing turned out as planned. My girlfriend had to head back before our first camping night because of a family emergency. I continued on alone, but found there’s no way to get from the state park to the national park that didn’t involve at least a 3 hour drive. So I ended up spending several nights at Big Ben Ranch exploring that park’s desert landscape.
It was amazing. When I passed through the national park and stopped at the main ranger station at Panther Junction, the placed was mobbed, looking like an Interstate rest stop. I learned later that the national park had one of its busiest March in history.
In contrast, it felt like I was alone in the state park. I made a daily stop at the ranger station to replenish my water and use the wi-fi (no cell service in most of the park) to check in with my girlfriend who was concerned that I was out in unfamiliar territory by myself.
Other than that and an occasional vehicle that passed on the main road, I so no one else as I hiked around the park. There were no visible lights in the night and the only sound I heard were the various critters.
Lovely.
The first set of images from in and around Marathon were taken with the M6 on Ilford HP5 Plus.
I started the year kind of burned out on taking photos. After a year of the pandemic, I hadn’t really gone anywhere and working from home meant that there was little of the day-to-day opportunity to explore the town. So I shot very little.
Then about half way through the year, I decided to try different film stock to get myself out of the slump. I rediscovered color dabbling with Lomography‘s 400 and 800 color negative as well as their Metropolis. I also loaded up on different black and white film, including the new Acros II and film from CineStill – 800t, BWXX – though I’ve yet to get to them.
And I see lots of possibilities for the super high contrast of Japan Camera Hunter‘s Streetpan 400.
I didn’t stop shooting black and white, but shooting color in 35mm when I’d mainly used the medium for 120 gave me a new way to see a familiar landscape.
So I’ve given over a shelf in my fridge to this hoard of film – both 35mm and 120. And while winter doesn’t offer the best light, I’m eager to continue shooting in the new year. I usually shoot 120 only when I”m traveling but I think I’ve found some shots locally that I’d like to try.
I’ve also decided to get back into developing my own black and white, something I haven’t done since I was in school, and have started DSLR scanning some of the old slides in my binder, some dating back to the 70s (the colors from Kodachrome and Ektachrome are amazing and require no real adjustment once they’ve been uploaded).
I leave you with best wishes for the new year.
Here are some of the highlights – in no particular order – from another year of shooting film:
Captured by Film 