20″x30″ Cadillac Ranch at Night – Amarillo, Texas

20″ x 30″ Long exposure photograph of an American Classic. Buried face-first into the dusty Texas plains, ten graffiti soaked caddies sit at what is known as the Cadillac Ranch on the western outskirts of Amarillo, TX, not too far from The Big Texan where you can get a FREE 72oz steak (that is if you can eat one AND shrimp cocktail AND a baked potato AND a salad AND a roll WITH butter all in under an hour). In any case, the man behind the graffiti-clad madness that sits in the middle of a Texas ranch is Stanley Marsh 3 (because he thinks “the third” is too pretentious!) In the ’70s, Stanley asked artists from all over to help him build the installation. Because of the fast approaching city limits, Caddy Ranch was re-buried decades ago in the spot it sits today…a spot completely ensconced in empty spray paint cans of course. Even though we’ve visited the Ranch half a dozen times, it took us ten years to grab this shot. The Texas panhandle is one of the windiest places on earth (thus, making it a prime location for wind farms) – even the sturdiest tripod is no match for the weather. But finally the stars literally aligned and even with a not-quite-full gibbous moon, we nabbed ourselves a clear night with less than 10mph wind gusts. Our plans nearly foiled, however, by the one challenge we never encounter … people. Even at midnight, the Ranch is a tourist attraction. Between the cell-phone snapping Europeans in tees and shorts (it was about 40 degrees) and the amateur astronomy photographer standing precisely where we needed her not to be, we waiting very patiently and finally got the shot we’ve craved and coveted for the better part of a decade.