Photos from a trip to Nebraska 1/18/2017 - 1/21/2017
I had several life changes leading up to this trip with my dad which led to a much needed break and trip to visit some of the more rural parts of Nebraska. We started in Omaha where I went exploring and captured some long exposure night photographs of cars on a street and an abandoned house. From there we traveled to Coleridge Nebraska a town of ~466 people, my dad is from here and we still have a farm out there. I wanted to capture some of the charm of a small town where everyone is fairly easy going and has a slow paced demeanor. In several photos from here you can see how the buildings have been weathered over time and in some cases completely abandoned.
After visiting our farm and seeing the massive operation from the people that currently farm, they produce ~500,000 bushels of corn a year and it all goes to the ethanol industry which one plant will consume 550,000 bushels of corn in a day. We proceed to Spencer Iowa for a night visiting an aunt and then on to Valentine Nebraska to visit one of our cousins cattle farms. The closest town to the farm is Nenzel which has a population of 20 and if you blink while driving through it you will miss the entire town. From Nenzel you head straight south for another hour and finally reach the Three Bar Ravenscroft ranch. It neighbors to one of Ted Turners ranches.
*A couple of interesting facts about living out there: despite having no cell phone reception they have some of the fastest internet in the area due to Ted Turner wanting internet at his ranch. Since they dont have cell phone reception, they still use land lines. They get Amazon prime 2 day delivery, which is fairly insane considering the number of people that live out there and how far it is from Valentine Nebraska which is the closest 'large' city of 2,789 people. They have their own 'gas station' on the ranch and they have about 5,000 head of cattle.
The night we arrived on the ranch I was planning on taking long exposures of the stars but it was cloudy so instead I used my lite sticks to paint some of the buildings they had out there and capture some great photos. My dad woke me up at 6am and said that the clouds had dispersed so I grabbed my camera and got set up in the 14 degree weather. I hit a point where my camera was sold cold that it greatly slowed down the processing speed. Shortly after we hit sunrise and I got a few good pictures from that. Over all it was a good trip and a rare chance to see some parts of the U.S. that are not often visited.
