Best of 2012 - You may have noticied that I have been on vacation for the last two weeks. I'm wrapping up this year's blog with my favorite image of 2012. This abstract is from the back side of the San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Rancho de Taos, New Mexico. I'm going to be changing the weekly photo blog to a wordpress format for 2013 and it will include a gallery of the top ten from 2012 but may not be up for a few more days.
Rock Art -I had intended to travel to Roswell this week to photograph but the weather was not cooperating. So my thoughts turned to the petroglyph site I recently learned about not 5 miles from my house. I drove out there Thursday afternoon and quickly realized I needed morning light (and a really long lens) to do them justice. Wouldn't you know the past two mornings have brought much needed but frustrating precipitation to Santa Fe. So, once again, I was forced to turn to the archives. These guys were shot back in 2008 at newspaper rock in (or is it near?) Canyonlands National Park just south of Moab, UT. But, La Cienaguilla, you are in my sights! (December 14, 2012) .
Martinez Hacienda - One of the lesser known museums near Taos is the Martinez Hacienda dating to the early 1800s. The museum offers a glimpse into the life of that time and offers a wide range of phtographic opportunities from adobe architecture to old farm and kitchen implements. I did take the liberty to photoshop out the museum room number over the door. Gotta love content-aware fill.(December 9, 2012).
Horno with Ristra - I don't go often to Taos Pueblo because I feel like such an interloper but then when I get there the colors and shapes and textures and the high mountain light are just so wonderful. I try to respect the boundaries and I happily pay the admission fee for myself and my camera. I think this shot looks even better in black and white but I couldn't let go of the red ristras or the window frame. (November 30, 2012).
Rancho de Taos Church - It just occured to me that I had neglected to post an image of the week. I had intended to head up to Taos yesterday to do some shooting for the In Search of New Mexico project but I got wrapped up in my family history blog and decided to put it off until tomorrow so I had to pull something from the archives. You would all recognize the back of this church which Georgia and Ansel made famous. But I was there in the morning and the backside gets the afternoon light, hence my need to go back. I also haven't been out to the Pueblo in about 10 years so that's on my list too. I hope to have a blog on Taos County posted by the end of next week but in the mean time you can read about Los Alamos County! (November 24, 2012).
Coyote - Between the weather and school projects I didn't get out to shoot this week but we were doing an experiment with resizing and resampling in Photoshop class and I used this guy as an example. I shot this image back in 2008 at Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge. The sun was setting and I was about to head home when I happened on this coyote with my brand new 100-400mm lens. It was always a little soft (operator error) and no amount of resizing or resampling made much difference. Then, just for grins I threw on an unsharp mask and I was pretty happy with the result. Of course, then I had to take him down to 72ppi to show on the web but he still looks pretty good in small sizes.(November 16, 2012)
Rio Grande - This shot of the Rio Grande was taken from the White Rock overlook, looking south. I accidently deleted my original blog about it and I don't remember exactly what I said. In post processing I brightened it up some and edited out a couple of flares as well as some distracting buildings. (November 10, 2012)
Ghost Town Abstract - I had some fun photographing old stuff I found in ghost towns in Lincoln County last weekend. I found these bedsprings leaning up against a shed that had been painted yellow to match the train station. I like the graphic quality of the bedsprings but also the wood grain and the rust stains. To see more of my ghost town art you can go to my In Search of New Mexicoblog.(November 3, 2012)
Dinosaur Tracks - I've been working on setting up a new photo blog and this is one of the images in the first entry. The blog is called In Search of New Mexico and it is meant to ressurect a project I started 5 years ago to spend time photographing in each county in New Mexico in order to find its special places. Now I've set myself a time limit of about 7 months so I should have a new entry every week. To read the blog or learn more go to In Search of New Mexico.(October 26, 2012)
Navajo National Monument - Image of the week: I've been futzing with this image all day so I guess it has earned the right to be image of the week. I took this back in 2009 at Navajo National Monument. The raw image had a very dramatic sky but the buttes were all in silhouette. For my photoshop class I wanted to bring up the color in the buttes and then apply a gradient layer mask to preserve the sky. Simple right. Well, I just never could get the colors where I wanted them and then they came out different on the printer. I think reality is somewhere between my laptop screen and my big monitor. And the sky is not quite as good as the original. But I give up. Hope you like it anyway. Off to a Macro workshop in ABQ tomorrow.
Mass Ascension - I almost missed the mass ascension last weekend because I was so sure they would not be able to fly. It was still pretty windy in Santa Fe. This is not the best picutre I took that day but it is the only one I got of all the balloons before being chased off Sandia Resort's property by a security guard. After dealing with crowds and traffic and an incredibly bad breakfast burrito I remembered why I haven't been to ballon fiesta in the 6 years I have lived in New Mexico and decided that one trip to Albuquerque was enough.
Hot Air Balloon - When I woke up this morning to the sound of the wind howling outside my window I had a pretty good idea that no balloons would be flying this opening day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Indeed they cancelled all morning flying events and my plans for this weeks image of the week went out the window. So I decided to reach into the archives for a balloon picture shot on another occaision. Hoping the weather will be more cooperative as the week wears on.(10/06/12)
Spaceage - I actually shot this image back in March but I learned a new trick in my Photoshop class and wanted to try it out. It is called High Pass sharpening. This image was a little soft before the sharpening and didn't really work for me. After sharpening (hint: use filter, other, highpass on a background copy layer then choose a hard light blending mode) all the edges are crisp. I intentionally included the moon and the jet streak to emphasize the space age theme.(9/29/12)
Painting with Aspen - I fear that the deliberate blur thing is getting a little trendy, I am starting to see it everywhere. But it's still fun and Aspen in fall just cry out for it. In this case I twirled the camera at low shutter speed and was very pleased with the result. I like that something resembling a tree can still be seen in the center. In post processing I applied all the tricks to bring out as much color as possible without going over the top.– (9/21/12)
Acorns – Back to the Botanic Gardens in Albuquerque. I was really looking for frogs, dragonflies and butterflies. Well we've had some rain and cool weather lately and the dragonflies were absent, the butterflies were comatose, and while I did find some frogs in the dragonfly pond they just didn't photograph well, especially with all that pond scum. But I was taken with these fresh new acorns though I do think now that I should have hit them with a little flash to even out the contrasty light. I did what I could in Lightroom but I'm still not completely happy.(9/14/12)
Negative space – In a workshop on photographic creativity with George DeWolfe the first lesson was on including negative space in images. I may have gone a little overboard in this one but I like it. Sorry for the late post in case anyone cares, I got the image done and posted to facebook but just now found time to get it up on my website.(9/7/12)
Remembering Italy – I was reminded of my trip to Italy two years ago when one of my travelling companions posted an image of this chapel on facebook. Of course, I had to dig in the archives to find my version. I basically went from Italy to the hospital where I was given a 50/50 chance of surviving the perforated colon that plagued me the entire trip, so my memories are at best bittersweet. As my second post Italy birthday approaches I can only be grateful that I didn't end up in the crypt(8/31/12).
New Mexico Sunflower – You can always tell when the the monsoon has been delivering sufficient rain to the desert by the abundance of these little yellow sunflowers. These I found at El Malpais south of Grants (8/24/12).
Hail shaft – It was pretty good week for storm chasing but there was not much lightning early in the week. Yesterday brought a gully washing flasher through Santa Fe but I wasn't about to go out in it to try and get to a place I could photograph it without getting wet. However, I liked this hail shaft from Sunday (hail is white, rain is grey) and thought it deserved a place of honor until such time as I catch the elusive strike (8/17/12).
Ready to Fly – I got to wondering how it is possible that I have lived in New Mexico for over 6 years and still do not have a single photograph of a crane in my portfolio. Well, I was taught that in wildlife photography if their eye isn't sharp it's a throw away. These guys move pretty fast and in the early morning light...well, enough excuses. So, after combing through hundreds of crane pictures I came up with this one. While they don't all have sharp eyes I thought the one at the top left and the guy down in the middle waiting for the crowd to clear looked pretty good. And by the way, this image was not shot at Bosque del Apache but rather at Bitter Lakes, near Roswell, where I spent one blissful New Year's morning all by myself with the birds. (8/10/12).
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Cardinal – Well, I have not been out shooting. I'm sort of absorbed by the Olympics and learning new skills at home. So I decided there is nothing wrong with reaching into the archives for a newly processed image. This Cardinal I found in Texas during a trip to photograph spring wildflowers. (8/7/12).
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Butterfly – Here's my favorite of the butterfly pictures but there may be more to come. Planning to shift my focus to lightning next week but I know how daunting that can be. (7/27/12).
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Dragonfly – Still behind but I finally made it back to the botanic gardens so will post two photos today, one for last week and one for this week. And then I think I'm caught up. My main objective was the butterfly house but I was also intrigued by the dragonfly sanctuary. (7/27/12).
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Tall Grass Prairie – I'm running a little behind now but this is last week's image. My trip to the Flint Hills of Kansas to photograph the tall grass praries was a bit dissapointing. The National Park Service keeps a tight rein on its preserve and unless you are willing to walk 5 to 10 miles with a loaded pack there is not much hope of shooting there. Away from the preserve the roads are narrow, the shoulders sloped and the traffic going 70 mph so pulling over for a serendipitous shot is not easy. I would like to go back sometime when I can spend a week or two, when the wildflowers are more plentiful so that I can explore slowly and plan my shots carefully. Meanwhile this shot of some bison I found grazing across the road from a cemetery (someplace to park!) will give you a small taste of the tall grass prairie. (7/18/12).
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Flag – Nearing the end of my 100 day blog I am getting pretty grumpy about maintaining two blogs. So this is a repeat from the other one and no apologies, it is, afterall, a holiday week. Next week I will be out from under that one and I will be going off on a photo adventure in Kansas so should have something new and exciting to share. (7/7/12).
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Dutch Iris – So this week I have been experimenting with macro using a bouquet of Dutch Iris I bought at Whole Foods. I came up with several nice shots, including this one which required little post processing (6/30/12).
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Barn with cows – If you have been following my daily retirement blog you know that I am into barns just now. There were three barns on this property. This one was covered with graffiti on one side with only the one message visible here (6/22/12).
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Blue Door Santa Fe – I did not have a chance to get out and shoot this week so am still trolling through images from the workshop in March for possible keepers. It was very early in the morning when I shot this so the light was low. But I like it as a nice graphic representation of a typical Santa Fe door (6/15/12)
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Bee at work – Wow, remembered the weekly blog for a change. Here is a bee snacking out on a rose blossom. This is seriously cropped and I am afraid the sharpness has suffered accordingly. (6/8/12)
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Lace Curtains – Late again. This is a repeat from the 100 days blog. I want this blog to be the best new work of each week so I think it needs must have repetition. Besides I'm getting burned out on photo blogs about now. (6/2/12)
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Sunflower – Finally catching up with the weekly blog. I get so wrapped up in the daily blog I forget about the weekly one. Especially when I am recovering from surgery and it is a real chore to do the daily. But today I felt good enough to go to the grocery store where I scored some sunflowers. Unfortunately I could not manage to get them home without them falling off the car seat and buising the tender petals. Still got a few good shots but perfect sunflowers are still on my list. (5/25/12)
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Citrus – This is a repeat from the retirement blog. I was playing around with shooting a bowl of citrus fruit since I was housebound and could not go out. (5/18/12)
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Hospital – Keeping up with two blogs is harder than I thought. Especially when you are recovering from surgery which makes shooting difficult. This shot from the Hospital on my cellphone captures the view from my hospital bed. (5/10/12)
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Aspen Abstract – Had some fun doing intentional blurs. Check out my retirement blog for the partner to this one. Easy to do, just set a low ISO, slow shutter speed and move the camera during exposure. No two come out alike. Then adjust colors, saturation and luminence in post processing. This is one time when lowing clarity may improve the image. (5/4/12)
Pontiac – Scroll back a few weeks to recall the 1951 Pontiac Hood Ornament. I found another Pontiac in Holbrook, AZ at the Wigwam motel. This one is in much rougher condition but I had to go on a search to figure out the year, which turned out to be 1954. I am now totally fascinated by Pontiac hood ornaments which feature different presentations of the chiefs image. In this case the trend was toward airplanes which from this angle is a little more recognizable than the chief. If you look closely you can see the wigwams reflected in the chome on the front of the hood. May have to do a book on hood ornaments! Definitely zeroing in on a possible show on old cars. (photo taken 4/28/12)
Daffodil – Oops! I got so wrapped up in maintaining my Retirement blog while on vacation that I forgot to do my weekly blog. so apologies if you have been looking for it. The first thing I saw when I drove into my parents driveway in Oregon was these beautiful perfect daffodils. I posted one with a bee on it in my retirement blog but I also like this macro abstract. Very little post processing required. (photo taken 4/18/12)
First Lilac – Happy Easter! If you've been following my retirement blog you know it hasn't been much of a week for shooting. Instead I have been working on my processing skills. Still have a long way to go. This Lilac bush in my front yard is just about to bust into bloom and the color of the buds is so pretty I wanted to capture it. I did some burning and dodging to try and bring out the main stem. (4/8/12)
Wagon Wheels – So many good shots from my workshop last week with Benda Tharp it was hard to choose what to post for this week. Many of the best shots were already posted on my retirement daily blog so I decided on this one which is also good. There is a gas pump museum on Highway 68 going to Taos. Our class spent a couple of hours there and found many treasures including this pile of wagon wheels. I had to clone out the red line of a cable lock, added some contrast to bring out the texture and the ususal modicum of vibrance and saturation. (4/2/12)
Gallery – I had just come out of Farmer's Market on a beautiful spring day when I was taken by the colors and textures of this Gallery entrance. Then the couple came by and I was impatiently waiting for them to get out my picture but when they stopped to gaze in the gallery door I knew they really enhanced the shot. (3/25/12)
Route 66 Neon – Contrary to popular (at least in my mind) belief, Central Avenue is not lit up with neon, at least not at 5 to 6am on a Saturday morning. What lights were on were mostly in poor repair but I was pleased with the result of this neon zoom (adjust the zoom lens during a long exposure) even though some of the lights on the left were out. On the other side of this sign an entire 6 was missing. This sign arches over the route welcoming visitors to Albuquerque from the west. Starting March 24 I will be adding a second photo blog, this one will be daily celebrating my first one hundred days of retirement. I'll try not to post duplicate images on the two blogs but we'll see how it goes! Might not get things posted daily but there will be an image taken every day and posted as soon as I can get to it. (3/22/12)
Relic – Of course all the cars you see along Route 66 are not lovingly restored. This relic sits outside the car museum in Santa Rosa. I often think back on the model T's we used to see in the 4th of July parade growing up in the 1960s. They were about 40 years old then...now they are pushing 90, and the cars that are 40 years old were built in the 1970s! A decade after cars stopped having any style at all in my humble opinion. Camera stayed in the bag this week but I still have a date with Central Avenue in the wee hours of St. Patrick's day morn. (3/11/12)
Hood Ornament – One of the great pleasures of photographing Route 66 for me is finding the lovingly restored icons, be they classic cars, classic auto courts, or neon signs. All three can be found at the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, NM. The '51 Pontiac that bears this hood ornament is parked in front of the motel just under one of the great neon restorations to be found in New Mexico. It was lucky I found this car because after shooting many tailfins, hood ornaments, and grills at the Route 66 Auto Museum in Santa Rosa I came away with no good photos and one big lesson learned...next time bring a polarizing filter! Reflections of flourescent lights on shiny cars do not make for good photos! Can't wait to get back to Tucumcari after dark to photograph the Blue Swallow sign and the motor court in morning light. In the meantime I'm planning an early morning shoot on Central Avenue in Albuquerue later this month. I've tried cruising it twice on a Saturday afternoon and the traffic is just too intense for finding the good shots. The gift of daylight savings time is darkness at 6am... I just hope the signs will be lit up! (3/04/12)
Crocus – Crocus may just be my favorite flower just because these hardy little souls poke their heads out so early in spring. I really wasn't expecting anything to be in bloom this trip but what a delight to see not only the crocus but a few random daffodils. Lots more bulbs showing some leaf so March should be awesome at the Botanic Gardens. May have to pick up that 180mm macro lens before I go. (2/26/12)
Dilia Church – The weather gods did not smile on my Route 66 kickoff weekend so the compromise was a day trip. I found lots to photograph between Tucumcari and Santa Rosa but my favorite photo of the day had no old car, no motel sign and no falling down building in it. Dilia is an old New Mexico town that existed long before Route 66 and has survived as well as many old New Mexico towns since it was bypassed in 1937 when a newer, straighter alignment came into being (some say motivated by a disgruntled politician aiming to cut off Santa Fe). In any case, I was taken by the late afternoon light on the corrugated tin roof of this church. I thought about doing it as a black and white but I liked the near monochrome of the church against the blue New Mexico sky. More from the Route 66 kickoff to come but next week, back to the Botanic Gardens! (2/20/12)
Project Route 66 – This post is less about the photo and more about the blog. The past two weekends have been cold, cloudy, and windy. I might be able to deal with the cold and the clouds but the wind is too much. Had I been less optimistic about being able to photograph outside I would have bought a boquet of flowers and practiced my macro skills indoors. Long story short, I have nothing new to post. But, being trapped inside with no subject matter, I started working on my next project... Route 66. I find that my photography improves if I commit to repeated visits to a single destination and also if I do my homework in advance. So, now I have some maps and some guide books to help me find the last traces of the "Mother Road". I'm even rereading The Grapes of Wrath to help me get in the spirit. The plan right now is to head to Amarillo this weekend and work my way back to Santa Rosa. However, the weather forecast is iffy so I may decide to head to Gallup, or Holbrook, or if it gets too bad I'll head to Santa Rosa and photograph old cars in the car museum. Stay tuned, one way or another I'll get my kicks... and maybe some good pics! (2/14/12)
Cactus Abstract – You may be wondering if I even shot any botanicals at the botanical garden and the answer is yes, of course. This macro cactus abstract was my favorite result. I bumped up the vibrance and saturation to make it pop and warmed it up ever so slightly. Soon I'm going to have to get out and shoot some more. New ultra wide angle zoom lens coming this week! (2/6/12)
Koi Pond - As I said last week I had a lot of fun shooting the Koi in the Koi pond at the Botanic Gardens. It was hard to decide which image to process and share. I decided on this one because I liked the way the fish positioned themselves into an almost perfect composition. I also like the way the orange fish seems to be coming out of the water and the texture and patterns on the water itself. (1/31/2012)
Cider Barn Serendipity – I will be the first to say that at least 50% of photography is being in the right place at the right time (when the flowers are blooming, when the sun is setting, when the festival is happening, etc.) But one of the things I enjoy most is when that happens by accident – serendipity. I went to the Albuquerque Botanic Gardens last Sunday thinking that the only things to shoot in January would be in the greenhouses. Wrong again. I was really taken with the winter afternoon light on this sign on the side of the cider barn, a shot I could not have gotten in summer when the Gardens close long before sunset. I also had some fun with the Koi in the Japanese Gardens. And, oh yes, I did get some macro shots of the Cyclamen blooming in the conservatory as well as cacti in the desert garden.(look for some of these in future posts.) After finding so much to work with in January I decided to make a commitment to visit the Botanic Gardens once a month for as long as I am in New Mexico. (1/26/12)
Ghost Road - This relic is part of an exhibit marking the location of historic Route 66 through Arizona at Petrified Forest National Park. The telephone poles follow the ghost road. I pulled down the saturation and vibrance and bumped up the contrast to give it a slightly moody and washed out look. I could complain about bad light, foul weather, and technical diffuculties on my trip to Sedona but I'm glad I stopped back by the Park to get this shot which I drove by the first time through and couldn't stop thinking about.(1/17/12)
Winter Moon - The challenge of a weekly blog is genning up some photos to put in it. But the good news is it forces one to get out there and shoot. I headed over to Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge where I've had great success in January before. Not this time...all wildlife were hiding well away from the roads. About to give up without even getting my camera out of the bag I noticed that the waxing gibbous moon (two days from full) had already come up and I thought about this old tree with its naked branches. The setting sun painted the grey branches red and I tried to frame the moon in the branches. Not my best shot from LVNWR but better than going home empty handed (1/9/2012)
Best of 2011 - My New year's resolution for photography is to maintain a weekly photo blog. How else to start the year than by presenting the best of the past year. this image was taken in July of 2011 on a July evening. The colors of the sunset were greatly enhanced by smoke from wildfires in the area. (1/2/2012)
