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Just as a conversation starter since this form seems a little dead, how boring is your state? i live in central Oklahoma USA. It's a western state that is very long from is southernmost tip to the northwest. in that southern point, there are cypress swamps and rolling hills. as you heas north and west you cross the remains of several dying mountain ranges that are now just called hills. lots of mixed forrests and grasslands. this is cattle and oil country for the most part. by the tim you get to Oklahoma City, you have found out that yu are in the middle of the Great Plains (they are not actually flat, just not hilly enough to be called mountainous) also in the middle of Tornado Alley being one of the regions most prone to these weather phenomena. there are museums, celebrating American Indians and the old west, cattle trails, one notable memorial of a catastrophic application of prejudicial hatred, (the Murrah Federal Building bombing memorial) a rather nice municipal rose garden and a number opf pretty lakes and parks. from here, keep going west and north, the land starts to change. the hills get longer and higher, still the plains but you can tell you are going higher now. fewer trees, fewer lakes and streams, and more cattle. this is open grassland and if you go far enough you even find open cattle ranges where there are no fences and you need to watch for cows on the roads. the farther west you go you start to wonder if the road will ever end. it's lonely, but the skies and the air and your mind start to clear a bit. you see sage and ragweed out here. less and less grows and you start to get the idea that this is a hard place to live. less cultivation, the same cows, and little towns that are few and far between. one of the last stops is Guymon. this is a "normal" town, thye have the usual assortment of stores and services, but the air has a bite that stings your eyes and nose. the days seem brighter out here with few clouds and the high altitude, but it's time to get another jug of water and press westward again. little towns whose names seem like they belong in a western novel, Goodwell, Balko, Beaver, Keyes, Wheeless, Felt, Griggs, and finally another notable town, Boise City. Boise City is a good place to get gas and water becasue you wonlt see a lot more of that for a while. we are headed to another wild west town, Kenton, and Black Mesa. Black Mesa is a plateau that is the remnants of a huge and ancient volcanic erruption, so big it extends into parts of Colorado and Kansas. We are not far from either of those states out here, and if you could drive straight south you could get to Texas in an hour or so. Black Mesa is also kno for archealogical digs and a lot of fossils have been found up here as well as artifacts representign a number of western indian tribes that seemed to trave through here a lot but didn't like the area well enough to stay. There are a few man-made lakes out here that stay full most years, one in the publicly accessible portion of the lower mesa is a state park and it is surrounded by high bluffs and you cna sit on those bluffs and photograph eagles diving through the valley across the narrow lake catching fish in the water and snakes, lizards, and rodents on the dry banks. moving west there is evidence of a human culture that was once a lot bigger. whether it was climate changes, economic changes or if people are just not as tough as the settlers that were out here around 120 years ago. the ruins of old milk houses, buildings whoe purpose is unknown made of mud bricks and the walls starting to crumble. there are some sod houses and dugouts as well that would never meet a modern building code but served western settlers in the years of westward expansion. windmills and telephone poles are the dominant feather out here. and even the windmills look tired and lonely. most of them were used to pump water form deep wells at one time. Wells that are now dry or so long abandonned that the windmills that were supposed to keep stock watering tanks full have stopped working because of neglect of failure. by the time you get to the top of the mesa, you are almost a mile high, 4973 feet above sea level. even the sage seems to be breathing hard out here. between the dryness, and the altitude and the skies so blank that they make you wonder where they went and when they will be back, this is one lonesome outpost. on the edge of the plateau, you can look back east and feel like the hazy distance is only a few miles away, almost like you could see Oklahoma City if that constant pall of dust and the shimmering hot air were not blocking the view.

This is where i live. The artists and the poets don't live here anymore, but you can look around a bit and identify bits and pievces of the old west that blur together an you can feel the past in the now. we donlt have the excitement or all the tourist attracitons of a lot of states wit a longer history of civilization. we dontl have a lot of big business or big public works projects like some of the more developed western states. We don't miss those things either because we have the gifts of time, and roots, and wings. hisotry is a wonderful thing to learn if you learn from it. us Okies don't have to spend a lot of time dwelling on history as an academic pursuit, we live in history and have never been removed from it. If you get bored wherever you are, or worn out from killing yourself to keep up with all the activity and pressure where you are, stop by sometime when you have a couple of weeks and a comfortable car and live a little history. feel time slow down enough your spirit can catch up to your body and be whole again.

2cents@large

To summarize Kansas:

Take your elegant write up and flatten the landscape.

Nice post Charles...paragraphs wouldn't hurt, but I did read almost all of it. Completely different than where I'm from....my entire state is only about 100 miles top to bottom and 75 miles across....but there is over 400 miles of coastline, swamps, cities, ports, mills, big business, etc etc.

We have a lot of man-made lakes in Oklahoma. supposedly more coastline in recreational lakes than the gulf coastline. of course we don't have the salt water or the as many pretty beaches.

everyone has some history. since the time when organized settlement started here, the history mostly featured cattle, then oil then aviation, then the depression, and back to aviation and "New Deal" public works projects. (all those lakes) Just like everyplace else, easy transportation and communication have eroded much of the uniqueness. now Oklahoma is not a lot different from many other great plains states.

Cahrles, maybe you should be a writter instead of a photographer!! Beautiful sumary of the Okie state. I, too, am an Okie, north central area, and second all the things you highlight. Add a paragraph about our sunrises and sunsets, said to be among the most beautiful in the world. Our red dirt added to the sky by our constant movement of air, adds to the color of the sun sets. Is this a gret state or what?

Florida is boring at best. But really, anywhere you live for a long time is boring. I dont really even like going to the beach anymore having lived 10 minutes from it all my life.

I live 200 miles above the Arctic circle in Tiny Eskimo whaling village of only 750 Inupiaq Eskimos Our back yard is larger than most states and even some countries.

http://majikimaje.com/alaska-map.jpg

I have 1000's of photographs in color of life at 5o below zero

I had to process this color film using SNOW I had no water at all.

http://majikimaje.com/Tuz2.jpg

http://majikimaje.com/SUNROCK.JPG

http://majikimaje.com/watching1.jpg

These fine art images have won many awards.. is my state boring

NO way.! this is the GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH

so when ya gonna post em' here?....

As soon as I figure out how and where !

I've been living in the state of Washington for a little over two years now, and haven't been outside of it since. It is most certainly not boring here. Almost any sort of photo opportunity can be found within a few hours driving. It's easiest to list what ISN'T here:
- old buildings (anything built before 1900 is considered ancient and cherished as a monument)
- flat lands
- places where it gets extremely cold or hot

hey, just move Moses Lake and you'll find all the flat land you want :)

One other thing you won't find in Washington is places where it's dry.

Arizona is anything but boring... photographers are in heaven here! Start with the obvious: the Grand Canyon. We have mountains, deserts,high deserts, mesas, canyons, lakes (Lake Powell has a marina in Az., but its mostly in Utah. Still, nothing short of gorgeous!), rivers, cities, towns (think Sedona), ghost towns (think Oatman). We have palm trees, saguaro cacti, flowers (wildflower season in the spring is amazing).We have monsoon seasons where you may see some great lightning storms You may not want to come to the desert in the summertime, but the other three seasons offer much to anyone, not just photographers.

in my country Indonesia,

I never bored cause we have soooo many exciting place to visit. Event untill now I've only visit just 3 places : Bali, Jakarta, and Jogjakarta, there's still soooo many places that i haven't visit. So it always interest.

So Come visit Indonesia guys.

I live in California, which is a heaven for photographers - everything from desert to mountains to inner cities to beaches to overcrowding to emptiness to sun and skin to storms and snow to whatever. But... I have been negotiating for a year with wife/partner to go on a photo shoot through Missouri and Oklahoma. I have no idea why, but have always been fascinated by the general area - it is the essence of the American experience.

Actually, I do know at least partly why. A friend of mine was driving through 30 years ago and stopped to see a mutual acquaintance. The acquaintance's father was a preacher, and it was Sunday morning, so my friend went to the church to meet them. The preacher came out with his bible and his black flowing robes - and a six-gun on his hip.

How could there not be fabulous photography in a place like that?

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