DAVE'S FIELD NOTES

Latest dispatchArkansas · 08/02–08/06/26

On the way homeRoyse City · Texas

Future wanderingsSee the GO-List

Go
Somewhere.

Photographs, places, and the stories found along the way.

Read the latest field note What's On? Dave's Field Notes playlist
“Stand in front of
better things.

I travel to notice. The strange sign, the last bit of evening light, the meal I'll talk about for years. This is where the photographs and stories come home.

Field Notes

Not a guidebook. More like the good part of getting lost.

01Arkansas
The cantilevered Clinton Presidential Library above the Arkansas River landscape in Little Rock

One Home2, One Cabin, and Five Mama Deer

Little Rock, Lake Catherine, and a dawn appointment with the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Texas.

Open field note
02North Texas
The Futuro House standing in a field near Royse City, Texas

A Flying Saucer in a Field

The Futuro House in Royse City—because Texas roadside oddities deserve their own field notes.

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03Close to Home
Dave standing with outstretched arms on a road filled with tumbleweeds

The Interesting Thing Is Usually Around the Corner

Small discoveries, odd details, and proof that somewhere can begin right outside the door.

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Eight places worth waking up for.

Bellas Artes before the streets fill. Cablebús Line 2 in the first light. Xochimilco while the water is still quiet. A field card for photographing Mexico City at daybreak.

#GoAgüey

Near, far,
and worth the turn.

Everywhere I’ve been, everywhere I’m going, and everything I can no longer unsee.

Dave's
Tours.

Small-group adventures for people who would rather find the strange thing around the corner than follow another Top 10 list.

DAVE'S TOUR 001 / JUNE 5–12, 2027

Albuquerque Lowrider Car Show & Concert

Three nights at ARRIVE Albuquerque—right at 7th and Central for the Sunday cruise—then four nights at Casa Escondida in Chimayó, between Santa Fe and Taos.

#LowAndSlowAgüeySee the full tour
Dave's photograph of the vintage Aztec Motel sign beneath a vast turquoise western skyOPEN FULL SCREEN ↗DAVE'S TOUR 002 / DREAMING

The Long Way West

Love the American West? Dave has traveled through every western state, but New Mexico is the one that keeps calling him back—his absolute favorite.

Before the Mother Road

The Aztec Motel wore the Pueblo Revival look that came to define New Mexico roadside architecture: adobe-colored walls, stepped forms, vigas, and Indigenous-inspired details translated for the automobile age. When Route 66 was redirected along Central Avenue in 1937, motels and neon signs rose to welcome a new stream of travelers.

But the highway crossed a place with a much older memory. Albuquerque was founded as the Spanish colonial villa of Alburquerque in 1706, beside Pueblo communities that had already lived along the Rio Grande for centuries. Nearby, the Atrisco Land Grant dates to 1692. Hispano and Mexican families built lives around plazas, farms, acequias, and shared land—many remaining rooted in the valley across generations and shifting borders. Route 66 is only one layer of the story.

#GoAgüey

Enter the
Hashtag Vault.

Carefully collected. Ready to roam. Take one, use it in the wild, and tag @davesfieldnotes so we can follow the adventure.

USE IT. TAG US. YOU MIGHT APPEAR IN FIELD NOTES FROM THE FIELD.

Wildcatter
Series.

Small, one-off 4×6 works made wherever instinct struck.

NO MAP. NO GUARANTEE. JUST A HUNCH WORTH FOLLOWING.
Dave wearing his ð logo hat at Reynisfjara in Iceland
REYNISFJARA · ICELAND · 2021

A traveler with a camera.
And curiosity issues.

I came home smelling of pine, frozen water, and snowmobile exhaust, then lay in a bedroom covered with maps, listening through the crackle for radio stations a thousand miles away. Before I could travel the world, I practiced by imagining it.

I'm Dave. I live in Farmers Branch, a northern suburb of Dallas, Texas. I've learned that the best photographs aren't really about cameras. They're about light, attention, and giving yourself permission to stop the car.

My curiosity issues started early. At seventeen, with little more than National Geographic maps to feed the imagination, I traveled alone to Chile. I took the train south from Santiago to Osorno, slept through the winter in three or four pairs of socks, felt my first earthquake, and saw the Andes rise from the page into something almost mystical.

At eighteen, I lived for six months on Copacabana in Rio—the most beautiful city I've ever seen. I practiced Portuguese with Amélia in the kitchen and remember the perfume of nighttime flowers opening in the hills on the way to the discos. Some places become memories. Rio became part of me.

Dave's Field Notes is my running record of places, people, food, architecture, wrong turns, and the small things I don't want to forget.

Follow @davesfieldnotes