Exif data: NIKON D300, Focal Length: 28 mm, Aperture: f/5, Exposure: 1/1250 sec, ISO Speed: 200, Flash: Not Fired
25/01/2010 at 23:05
Category: [landscape]  
51 comments
 

• power lines scare me. if i saw that dangling and weaving in the wind, i wouldn't go near it. don't fly a kite. don't look for bees.
  some poor donkey is going to walk past that and get electrocuted.
  it'll be the end of donkey civilization as we know it. zzzzt.
  Seraphine @ 2010-01-26 00:50:36
• Tout à une fin, même la ligne de télécommunication.
  JMS* @ 2010-01-26 01:34:28
• Very nice composition. Definitely the end of civilization!
  Standley @ 2010-01-26 02:36:29
• nice tones
  Nacha Kama @ 2010-01-26 02:58:20
• Quite literally - the 'end'. Gotta wonder where it would otherwise have connected to. Love the soft color in this..the simplicity.
  Marcie @ 2010-01-26 03:24:12
• In Germany there are hardly any overhead power lines. Maybe that's why the picture looks somehow nostalgic for me. Perhaps the beautiful toning causes that mood, however. Very nice photo.
  Reiner @ 2010-01-26 04:15:31
• I love this one. Perhaps the house it once connected to was carried off in a tornado?
  Turnbill @ 2010-01-26 05:59:00
• I agree, that dangling power line is kind of scary! What a fantastic shot!
  bluechameleon @ 2010-01-26 08:00:26
• An amazing power pole. I can't imagine why it was left in that state. I like the composition you created with your selection. Looks good to me.
  don @ 2010-01-26 10:49:38
• I like the colors in this.
  hoi @ 2010-01-26 11:07:41
• interesting photo i like the simetry and depth
  fabrizio @ 2010-01-26 11:14:59
• It looks old. I hope it isn't in use. Good captured.
  Joachim @ 2010-01-26 11:46:05
• I like the atmosphere that the color palette gives to the image
  yiannis krikis @ 2010-01-26 12:23:04
• I really like these kinds of shot. I imagine this place is very peaceful if not a bit lonely.
  Scarabaeus @ 2010-01-26 13:25:18
• oh wow, this sooooo looks like a picture i would take, but me for no reason whatsoever lol you coz it was the end of civilization :) i love it!!!
  Elaine- @ 2010-01-26 14:03:48
• Spoken like a true photographer...when at the end of civilization, take the picture move on the next shot. Very eerie just to see the power line hanging like that.
  Yvonne @ 2010-01-26 14:17:19
• Scary to see the end of the line hanging like that. The chosen colors give the image a 70s feeling. Works very well!
  Frida @ 2010-01-26 15:18:53
• I'd say its a pretty neat shot to accompany a complaint letter. That is CLEARLY not safe! (coming from a soon-to-be electrical engineer)
  Mia @ 2010-01-26 15:45:24
• wow ...not only the dangling wire but the fields for as far as I can see!
  elk @ 2010-01-26 15:49:00
• Very nice shot, I like the simple/minimalistic capture here. The lose wire does look dangerous!
  Brian Chen @ 2010-01-26 16:47:10
• i like the squiggle here!
  Liang @ 2010-01-26 16:57:08
• The flapping service drop provides the contrasting gesture, surprised the meth heads haven't seized it. Position this frame last in a slideshow : ]
  ordinaryimages @ 2010-01-26 17:08:40
• cool! really like the composition and the color tones.
  Otto K. @ 2010-01-26 18:36:37
• I'm a sucker for lines, and I love this perky, unusual one emanating from the orderly tamed ones tied to poles. Metaphor for the artist who steps outside the norm?
  jo @ 2010-01-26 18:44:39
• yikes.. that's somewhere you don't want to get lost in.. :) that's very adventurous of you though.. :) nice catch! :D
  rian @ 2010-01-26 18:55:19
• Live wire and a "live shot" - whew, those cans up there can hold a charge like a good battery - I think Sherri ought to initiate a project entitled: "Roadside Stops".....well, maybe "End of the Road"...in any case, this was a great roadside catch.
  Don @ 2010-01-26 20:38:28
• oh my gosh that is scary!!
  
  Hey, the quotes you find or dig up are exceptional. I know, it's not the first time I've said that. You are a master at matching quotes to your images. Do you have book(s) with quotes or do you excel at finding them online? I am in awe and totally respect that other side of your talent. Totally respect that.
  Diane @ 2010-01-26 21:00:28
• Interesting commentary... I appreciate the twisting, dangling wires on the right hand side, and the way the lines go off into the distance ever so faintly.
  Chris @ 2010-01-26 21:22:03
• love the white light in that sky
  michele @ 2010-01-26 21:23:12
• It has kind of an Archer City/Last Picture Show sort of feel to it. Like it a lot.
  Dustin @ 2010-01-26 21:26:15
• I love this - Sherri - love the Gibson quote as well. This reminds me of why I decided to keep electrical things out of my bedroom. Peace.
  Stephen Phillips @ 2010-01-26 23:51:41
• I love the mood created here. Feels very lonely and isolated, very much as if the end had already come and gone...
  Michael Wyman @ 2010-01-27 00:02:46
• It also feels like the end of time as well. Love the mood you inflict with these tones and where you point your camera eye!
  9 @ 2010-01-27 00:17:49
• Nice mood, but the dangling power line looks dangerous!
  Zing @ 2010-01-27 01:01:03
• In another quarter mile you will fall off the end of the world in to a great black abyss. And you missed the picture because you turned around.
  Nick @ 2010-01-27 05:58:29
• sherri, American landscape captured by an Artist!
  Ken @ 2010-01-27 06:45:09
• well someone is missing their HBO!
  crash @ 2010-01-27 07:14:26
• Love the tones, beautiful image.
  Ashish Sidapara @ 2010-01-27 09:30:16
• thanx sherri, i sent in another complaint to my web dude... hope the new url helps, still love love this photo, but you prolly knew that i would :)
  Elaine- @ 2010-01-27 09:44:29
• OOps. Someone ran out of power here.
  Andrés @ 2010-01-27 09:51:48
• I really love your delicate tones, I don't know what you do but I just love it.
  Robin @ 2010-01-27 12:15:37
• Electricity stops here. Very nice catch! They didn't even bother to properly tape that dangling wire end!
  Arjan - PlasticDaisy @ 2010-01-27 13:51:25
• nice tones and mood here.
  faisal @ 2010-01-27 19:42:03
• I guess letting the kids use it for a swing is out of the question.
  Michael Rawluk @ 2010-01-27 19:43:20
• Well, it definitely went somewhere at some point in time, but now it leaves a mystery. Well seen, Sherri.
  Toni @ 2010-01-28 00:40:46
• Very nice composition. Simple and beautiful.
  Jim Browning @ 2010-01-28 07:54:12
• a bit scary, the broken powerline. Nice tones
  Omar @ 2010-01-29 01:16:08
• A beautiful and stark image. Very aptly titled ;)
  Charles Dastodd @ 2010-01-29 08:58:27
• Wow what a great find! Love the title too. Really is a sense of this being the edge of the civilized world!
  Andy @ 2010-02-04 16:03:40
• nice capture. it looks like it's dancing
  nissou* @ 2010-02-11 02:22:34
• Not scary. Not dangerous. Someone got disconnected. However, the transformers are not energized: note the open line fuses hanging from the lower cross arm. I won't argue that they didn't do a good job here though --the secondary wire that looks like it's flying should have been removed, or attached up the pole under the transformers if they're expecting to reconnect this customer.
  12bitphoto @ 2010-02-14 15:29:11

I pulled Evie off the road, looked up at the dangling line, looked down the road to see if there was another power line pole, and noted there wasn't. That's when I looked at Matthew and said, "Matthew, this is the end of civilization as we know it". There wasn't anything else to add so I snapped the shot and moved on.


Photographic technique is no secret and provided the interest is there, easily assimilated. But inspiration comes from the soul and when the muse isn’t around even the best exposure meter is very little help. In their biographies, artists like Michelangelo, da Vinci and Bach said their most valuable technique was their ability to inspire themselves. This is true of all artists; the moment there is something to say, there becomes a way to say it.
- Ralph Gibson