My friend Tony was in town from the great Palin state of Alaska a few weeks ago, during our last nice stretch of warm weather. He brought his camera and lenses with him, so we took a Saturday to go poking around the outskirts of town. One of the places we stopped to visit was this falling farmhouse north of Bismarck.

I’ve wanted to get a closer look at this building for a long time. I’ve taken many photos of it from afar, actually. This year it seemed to suddenly lurch to one side, as if its days were coming to an end in the near future. With that in mind, we took our gear and hiked in for a closer look.

If I may get all abstract on y’all for a minute, here’s a shot of the roof of a fallen outbuilding that has long since gone away. Only this roof remains. I thought it pretty neat that the nails had found their way up, forming a little cluster of sorts. I took several shots before I found an angle I liked.

I never tire of photographing windmills and old farmsteads. Some days I think they seem cliche’ or that I’m overdoing it, but I have to remind myself that each one of them is special. They’re an endangered species of sorts, too. Tony pointed out that even in Alaska, one can tire of a certain type of photo. For example, you can only take so many Alaska mountain shots before one tires of it. Unique photos are elusive, and need to be hunted down…that’s part of what makes them special.

Variety is the key, I suppose…that’s why I’ve tried to vary my subject matter a bit lately. It’s important to keep a diverse palette of photo styles and subjects, so that none of them ever seem tired. That’s especially true of the North Dakota features which are so near and dear to my heart, and which inspired this website in the first place.