Greetings from New Mexico. This week, Elk, crossing the Rio Chama.
On the first day of our two day trip, Scott and I were just finishing up the day in Abiquiu and the Ghost Ranch area, with another stop on the Rio Chama. Upstream from the village of Abiquiu, rounding a bend in the road, I had a clear view, and was surprised to see elk in the river. One group promptly crossed, while the second group waited for us to get set up before crossing. I can’t really say for certain that they waited for us but it sure seemed like it.
Elk waiting to cross the Rio Chama in the village of Abiquiu, NM.
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Crossing the Chama River.
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The whole scene looked very refreshing for the elk. I stood in awe with reverence following the sight we had witnessed.
On the second day of our photo safari, we headed north to Ute Mountain and the San Luis Valley, always a favorite stop on a photo tour. Yes, the clouds unleashed heavy rain.
Storm clouds, Ute mountain, NM.
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I went looking for this tree, in the photo below, thinking that five years later it may have grown some. It had only been deminished by loosing a couple of limbs, most certainly due to the high winds on the plateau. The tree is in Colorado, Ute Mountain is in New Mexico. Things change!
Greetings from the Vale Vidal, in the high country of northern New Mexico. My computer and internet are running really slow today so I’m heading to the mountains. Here’s a favorite stopping point, Comanche Point at the confluence of the Rio Costilla and Comanche Creek. You know the place. Not a lot of water, though some areas are very green and lush, and the clouds are outstanding.
Enjoy! See you next week.
Valle Vidal in the high country of northern New Mexico.
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Checking out the aspen groves, it’s looking like it will be fabulous fall color up here!
Aspens, Skyward.
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It’s always fun to stop in the San Luis Valley and photograph a dilapidated ruin en-route to the Valle Vidal.
Adobe ruin, Garcia, CO.
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Three hours later I can safely say…. “As always, thanks for looking. Have a great week”. G
Hello from San Cristobal, NM. I hope everyone had a great week. This week, a visit to the Alamosa railyards that I hinted at last week. Mostly abstract photo ops that float my boat. Enjoy!
Alamosa sign at the railyards.
“The Alamosa train depot, located in Alamosa, Colorado, is a historic landmark that reflects the rich railroad heritage of the region. Built in the early 20th century, the depot served as a crucial hub for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, facilitating the transport of passengers and goods across the San Luis Valley. Its architectural style, characterized by classic brickwork and traditional design elements, embodies the era’s industrial optimism. Today, the depot stands as a testament to the transformative impact of railroads on the American West, and it continues to be a point of interest for visitors exploring the area’s history and scenic landscapes.”
Rio Grande Scenic, carriage, and cloud.
Carriage windows, patina, rust, and cloud.
Carriage windows, patina, rust close-up!
Pealing paint.
“Ponder the Coalescence” graffiti at the railyards.
Carriage window and patina.
Broken window, yellow and blue.
Carolina Southern locomotive.
On the road along the railroad tracks in Romeo, Colorado.
“Stop in Today”
As always, thanks for looking. Have a great week. G
Hello from San Cristobal, NM. I hope everyone had a great week. It’s raining here today. We are very happy about that. This week, more random selections from the archives, including the San Luis Valley, El Rito (west), and northern New Mexico.
I hope you enjoy!
Random selections from bygone days.
Stone house and fence, San Luis Valley, Colorado.
Near the house in the photo above, is owl nest on a platform of sticks in a potato bunker. Initially, I thought it might be a magpie or hawk nest, but then an owl flew directly over my head from another part of the building and out through the entrance. Over the years, I’ve seen more owls in different bunkers, alas no pictures, yet.
Owl nest in a potato bunker, Colorado.
On a different trip these two juvenile great horned owls were seen in a tree close bye to the bunker..
Juvenile great horned owls.
In the San Luis Valley of Colorado, potato storage bunkers/cellars play a crucial role in preserving the region’s abundant potato harvests. These bunkers are specially designed facilities that maintain optimal temperature and humidity levels to extend the shelf life of potatoes, preventing spoilage and sprouting. The valley’s high altitude and arid climate make it an ideal location for potato farming, and the storage bunkers ensure that the produce can be stored for months, allowing farmers to supply fresh potatoes year-round. These structures are often partially underground, leveraging the earth’s natural insulation properties to maintain a stable environment, which is essential for maintaining the quality and nutritional value of the potatoes.
Railway depot in Romeo, Colorado.
Romeo, Colorado.
A faded flag emblem on the side of a carriage at the Alamosa, railyards. Maybe I’ll make a post on images from the railyards soon.
The El Rito Mansion, on a Spring photo tour/workshop. Since this photo was taken, I’ve been in touch with the family and relatives who grew up here.
El Rito NM.
At the end of a good day of shooting, the soft twilight, on the Rio Grande Gorge, and Ute Mountain, NM. A hand held image shot in near darkness and lightened in Photoshop® to bring out the lavendar hues and highlight on the river.
Rio Grande Gorge, Ute Mountain, NM.
New growth on a pine tree in Arroyo Seco, NM. The new growth on the branches are a lighter green than the rest of the tree. Edited as a black and white image, this is what I came up with.
Pine tree, Arroyo Seco, NM.
As always, thanks for visiting and looking. Have a great week. G
Greetings from New Mexico. This week, a section of a very large elk herd in the San Luis Valley, and a few more scans from my Kodachrome 64 slide transparency collection. There were many more elk than I could fit in the panorama, in a different area of the fields. Still, you get the idea!
Onto other things. I found this scene amusing, the one guy looking up. I never did find out what he found so interesting.
Bodie Ghost Town, California.
A favorite quote from T.E. Lawrence of Arabia, Kodachrome 64 converted to black and white in Photoshop.
T.E. Lawrence quote 1985 on a building in Pasadena, CA.
This girl left her shoes and beach shovel and went for a run on Bamburgh beach.
Girl running on Bamburgh beach, UK
One of my jobs in the 1980s was photographing for the planning and development departments, among others. I had a lot of fun and really liked this picture when I took it and again today. Read more here in my bio.
St. Andrews and construction, Pasadena, CA
Another vintage-style poster/postcard created using three of my images, the car, adobe buildings, and a landscape with sunset, along with some prompts in AI, to create the graphic design.
Vintage style poster/postcard.
As always, thanks for looking. Have a great week. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM! This week, I’m again dipping into a bit of randomness by exploring the archives. I’ve selected a few images from the past, including some that were captured on this day in February in previous years.
This photo was taken on a hillside in Elizabethtown, located in the Moreno Valley, New Mexico. The hillside was covered in ice, which was beginning to thaw around the small, ice-bound plants.
Ice Plant, Elizabethtown, NM.
Heading back a little further to 1985 and one of the most impressive castles, Bamburgh Castle, on the northeast coast of England.
Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, England.
And a little further back to somewhere in Europe, Germany or Italy… I think.
“Destroy Power Not People”, graffiti, Europe, 1982.
Also, 1982 in Grindelwald, Switzerland. Who remembers photo booths on a random street corner or train station? I like this one for the randomness of the people and the center-bottom image of the little kid poking his tongue out!
Photo booth, Grindelwald, Switzerland, 1982.
One of the first photos I ever took was of my parents in 1965, using my dads Kodak (a bellows) camera with roll film. I was seven at the time. Originally, it was just a small, crumpled contact sheet image. Recently, I restored it using AI technology, bringing new life to this image.
Mam and Dad, South Wales, 1965.
As always, thanks for looking. It’s a lot of fun for me, going through the slide archives and old family photos, scanning them, and presenting them here. I hope you got some pleasure out of seeing these images as well. Have a great week. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, a bald eagle on a day out shooting along the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, a moonrise from our field, and a few more images from my “New Mexico: First Impressions” series.
My friend John visited for a few days this week, so we decided to take a trip to Colorado and explore the Rio Grande in search of bird life. Although we spotted an otter, it was too elusive to capture a good image, so I don’t have a photo to share. We did see Mallards, Common Goldeneyes, and Common Mergansers. Red-tailed Hawks were abundant, and we were lucky enough to witness a Northern Harrier catch its prey right in front of us. Unfortunately, most of the wildlife, including wild horses and a herd of Pronghorn that I’m sure would have noticed us, were nowhere to be found. However, as we continued north along the Rio Grande, we were thrilled to spot a majestic bald eagle with the Rocky Mountains as a stunning backdrop. We knew the potential for spotting a Bald Eagle was good, as this is their domain, but we were still amazed when we saw it in this location with this backdrop.
Bald Eagle, Colorado.
Closer.
Common Goldeneye ducks landing, Rio Grande, Colorado.
“In Thanksgiving week 1984, I made my first of many trips to New Mexico. On this occasion, five of us friends set out on a foggy morning from Santa Fe and made our way north on the high road to Taos. The sites and sounds on the streets of Santa Fe soon opened up to the immense vistas of mesas, and beyond to the Taos Volcanic Plateau.
“We passed through the village of Chimayo, climbing the hill to Truchas (Spanish for Trout). Rapidly gaining elevation, the landscape changed to pristine hills of ponderosa pines and rust-colored tones of scrub oak in the undergrowth. The vast square miles of pine trees in the Carson National Forrest were punctuated by the bare, white highlights of lanky aspen. Through the misty veil of condensation on the window, we were afforded more than a subtle hint of what autumn in the high country of New Mexico might have looked like one month earlier.
“Leaving Truchas for Penasco, the fog set in. The temperature dropped in the sparsely populated, mountain communities of Las Trampas and Picuris. The colder air outside the car became magically enhanced by the aroma of piñon and juniper burning in the fireplaces of scattered homes. At this very moment… sometimes you just know it, the mystery of things unknown and northern New Mexico took a very palpable hold on me.
“Not more than four years later, in the spring of 1988 that hold tightened and I moved to a small adobe building, with two fireplaces, in Talpa, NM, and began stockpiling five cords of wood for what promised to be a cold winter that year…See More
Church cross, Taos Pueblo, 1985.
Taos Pueblo, 1985
Taos Pueblo, South House, 1984.
Apologies for the wrong date on last week’s post.
As. always, thanks for looking. Have a great week. G
Thank you for a great year. Thanks for joining me here, for your support and friendship, and for joining me on one of my photo tour workshops. I hope everyone has a wonderful time. See you next week. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, cormorants roosting along the Rio Chama near Abiquiu, Taos Mountain, a favorite wild horse photo, and the Bisti Badlands near Chaco Canyon.
Twelve years ago, I created the piece below titled “Leaving the Roost.” Unfortunately, the original piece disappeared, so I spent an hour locating the original individual shots to recreate it. The piece measures 80″x80″ and is now ready to be sent to the printer. I particularly enjoy the ‘wild’ panorama stitching that follows the shape of the old cottonwood and how many cormorants utilize this tree. This one is for you, Larry H.
Cormorants leaving the roost along the Rio Chama, Abiquiu, NM
Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness near Chaco Canyon. Over the years, I’ve spent many months camping in this area. I think my first camping trip here was in 1989, when it was a wilderness study area. Here’s a petrified tree stump. Click on the photo to enlarge.
My shadow, an easy subject.
As always, thanks for looking. Have a great week. G
Let me know if you want to go to the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness.
Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness is a designated wilderness area located in northwestern New Mexico, known for its unique and otherworldly landscape. This area is part of the larger San Juan Basin and is characterized by its striking badlands, which feature a variety of unusual geological formations.
Here are some key features of the Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness:
Hoodoos and Rock Formations: The wilderness is famous for its hoodoos—tall, thin spires of rock that protrude from the bottom of arid basins. These formations are created through the erosion of softer sedimentary rocks, leaving behind the harder rock formations.
Fossils: The area is rich in fossils, particularly from the Late Cretaceous period. Visitors can find petrified wood and fossils of ancient plants and animals, offering a glimpse into the region’s prehistoric past.
Colorful Landscape: The badlands are known for their vibrant colors, with layers of sedimentary rock displaying shades of red, orange, yellow, and gray. This colorful landscape is especially striking during sunrise and sunset.
Remote and Undeveloped: As a designated wilderness area, Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah is largely undeveloped and offers a sense of solitude and tranquility. There are no established trails or facilities, making it a destination for those seeking a more rugged and natural experience.
Photography and Exploration: The unique geological features and dramatic landscapes make Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah a popular destination for photographers and outdoor enthusiasts. The area provides ample opportunities for exploration and discovery.
Visitors to Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness should be prepared for a remote and challenging environment. It’s important to bring sufficient water, navigation tools, and be mindful of Leave No Trace principles to preserve the area’s natural beauty.
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, lenticular clouds, and this seems to be the season. Although these clouds can appear throughout the year, they are particularly abundant right now. Their stunning, lens-like shapes add a touch of magic to the already breathtaking landscape, making this time of year truly special.
Enjoy! And click on the image to enlarge.
From our deck in San Cristobal.
Taos Mountain, Moonrise.
Moments before the following photo.
From the deck in San Cristobal.
Click on the image below for a full panorama of the total event. I was driving home from Santa Fe when this happened. I believe it was visible across the entire state.
Lenticular clouds are lens-shaped clouds that typically form at high altitudes, often in perpendicular alignment to the wind direction. They are scientifically known as “altocumulus lenticularis” and are most commonly found in mountainous regions. These clouds form when stable, moist air flows over a mountain or a range of mountains, creating a series of oscillating waves. If the temperature at the crest of these waves drops to the dew point, moisture in the air condenses to form clouds.
Lenticular clouds are known for their distinctive, smooth, and often saucer-like appearance, which can sometimes be mistaken for UFOs. They are stationary, meaning they don’t move with the wind like other clouds, but instead remain fixed in position while the air flows through them.
These clouds can indicate turbulence for aircraft, as the wave patterns that create them can also produce strong updrafts and downdrafts. Despite this, they are often admired for their striking and unusual appearance, making them a popular subject for photographers and cloud enthusiasts.
