Photo of the Week - March 12, 2012

Main Lodge View, La Veta, CO, 2012

The start of our new life has begun. Last week we drove our first load of furniture and assorted over to our self storage unit in Taos. It took two FULL days to finally get into town. Between the packing, loading of the trailer, and then driving 1000 miles this old body was really feeling the wear-n-tear!!  The next few days then consisted of unloading everything; rearrange furniture at our Taos home; setup of our new PO Box; together with hanging a few new images at the gallery, and subsequently selling a couple of the larger ones I had just hung the day before to some people from Boston. I did manage to find one day during the week to spend at a friends ranch south of La Veta, Colorado. This image is looking north towards one of the Spanish Peaks from the veranda of the main lodge on the ranch. Spectacular day!! It really made me appreciate all of the hard work from earlier in the week, and knowing this change in our life is going to pay off with days like this. Hope you enjoy the image.

If you would like to purchase a print of this image or would like to see others in my "Photo of the Week" series, click HERE.

Photo of the Week - March 5, 2012

Chama River, Abiquiu, NM, 2011

I know I'm a little late in getting this Photo of the Week out (a whole month in fact), but life has been way to hectic the last few weeks. This shot was from last year over the Chama River after a big rain. The water REALLY was that color. With all of the red dirt upstream, the tomato soup color of the water was about all that could have possibly happened. Hope you enjoy.

If you would like a print of this image, or would like to see others in my "Photo of the Week" series, click HERE.

Photo of the Week - February 6, 2012

Flower Field Workers, Colorado, 2011 (click on image for larger version)

Last September, I spent the most wonderful day of photography with my great friends Geraint Smith, Pam Morgan and my wife Christie. We drove the back roads of southern Colorado between Costilla, New Mexico and Manassa, Colorado from near sun-up to past sunset. We shot everything from rusty farm equipment to a one-lane bridge spanning the Rio Grande River, and ending the day looking at the sunset produced blood red color of the Sangre de Cristos Mountains.
This image in particular reminds me of how good I felt that day. How fantastic it was to be doing something I so thoroughly loved, and how blessed I am to have these wonderful people in my life. In this picture, I see more than two farm hands working the crop under beautiful skies. I see, feel and remember the laughter we had that day. But most of all, I see the focus of what I will be doing for the remainder of my life.......Photography.

If you would like a print of this image, or would like to see others in my "Photo of the Week" series, click HERE.

Harold's Truck on Free Verse website

Harold's Truck, Jaroso, Co., 2011

I was contacted a few months back by Jon Thompson from North Carolina State University about the use of some of my images on the web site for Free Verse. He is the editor of this online bi-annual magazine. Check out the poetry site to see the use of the first of my images.    http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/freeverse/


Here is a little something about Free Verse from their website:

A journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics is a bi-annual electronic journal that focuses on publishing the finest free verse being written today. While the journal aims to provide a forum for the wide variety of poetic experiments and work in various poetic traditions in the United States at present, Free Verse also invites English language submissions from outside North America. Translations are welcomed, as are unsolicited reviews of recent books of poetry.

http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/freeverse/

Photo of the Week - January 30, 2012

Saguaro Garden, Arizona, 2011

Our last trip back from Taos, we drove the southern route through Tuscon to San Diego. A large section of the freeway between Casa Grande and Gila Bend is flanked by stands of beautiful saguaro cactus. I have driven through this section of Arizona many, many times. Most times, in such a hurry to get to our final destination we never really stop and appreciate the majesty of these alien looking desert plants. This trip, I was in the 4x4, and found a hidden little road right off the freeway. We drove back a ways, found a shady spot and just sat and looked for a while...thoroughly enjoying the secret place I had happened upon.

This image is one of a few I shot that day. Not many clouds. Bright blue sky. A wonderful warm desert day in November, with great afternoon light highlighting the defense system of the giant saguaro.

If you are interested in a print of this image, or would like to see others in my Photo of the Week series, click HERE.

Photo of the Week - January 23, 2012

Cherry Creek Hotel & Saloon, New Mexico, 2011

This last weekend, my wife and I watched the movie "Cowboys and Aliens" for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was also a blast to watch because I had taught a couple workshops at the movie ranch where the first and last parts of the movie had been filmed. During the first scenes where Daniel Craig's character came riding into town, I was telling my wife........"I know right where that is"........"I have pictures of that street scene", etc. I'm sure I was starting to get a little annoying to her after a while.

Anyway, above is one of my images of the front of the main saloon that was prominent in the movie, and below is a shot by one of our students, Brad Stamm, of the group at the movie ranch this last summer.

If you are interested in purchasing my image of Cherry Creek Hotel & Saloon, or would like to see others in my "Photo of the Week" series, click HERE.

If you are interested in checking out our workshops at Eloquent Light Photography Workshops for the upcoming season, click HERE.

Photo of the Week - January 16, 2012

Moonset over the Pier, CA, 2012

Last Monday, was the first full moon for 2012, and it was spectacular. I hope that this is a sign of things to come!! This image was a 2 second exposure that gave me the clarity of the moon that I was looking for together with enough blurring of the surf to not distract the viewers eye. I also love the color in the sky....enough to actually not post a black and white version even though this was suppose to be a Black & White image this week. This was taken in Oceanside, CA, near my home. Hope you enjoy.

If you would like to purchase a print of this image, or would like to see others in my "Photo of the Week" series, click HERE. 

Photo of the Week - January 9, 2012

Sunset at the Bosque, New Mexico, 2011

On our way back to California last month, we decided to take the southern route through Deming, Tucson and Yuma to avoid a big storm that was dumping a ton of snow on I-40. Along the way, I got a call from my friend Geraint, checking how far down the road we had gone. Being near Socorro he suggested we take some time to go see the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. I thought we might be there an hour or so, and didn't mind taking a little time to pull the camera out anyway. Well.....3 1/2 hours later and the sun setting, I had taken 530 images and was amazed at seeing tens of thousands of birds. Quite the site. I wish I could have stayed longer.

This image was taken from the "Flight Deck" pier. It was cold and I was the only one out on the pier in a t-shirt and a lens under 500mm in size. I guess you could say I looked like a "bird out of water"....HA! It was the time most of the Sandhill Cranes were coming back for the evening. They looked like airplanes coming in for landing. Pretty cool! This image shows a couple of the cranes just about to hit the water, and the sunset colors were spectacular. Hope you like the image.

If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image, or would like to see others in my "Photo of the Week" series, click HERE.

Photo of the Week - January 2, 2012

Old Dining Car Sign, California, 2011

Happy New Year everyone. I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2012.

About a month ago, on our way back from a few days up in Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur, we drove by a very run down old cafe next to the highway. The original builders had decided to incorporate two old trolley cars as book ends to the main portion of the building. It obviously hadn't been used in decades for any kind of a going business..........just the kind of thing I love to take pictures of!!!!

This image is of the old neon sign that sits on top of the roof of the cafe. The printing on the sign is very faded and is kind of hard to see, but the sign reads "Cafe - Dining Cars". Some of the old neon tubes were still there, and I imagine that back in the 1950's this sign "Glowed" at night, since there really wasn't anything else near it.

If you would like to purchase a print of this image (edition of 50), or would like to see others in my "Photo of the Week" series, click HERE.