Fine Art Images from the American Southwest

Tag: High Road to Taos

Talpa Chapel Crosses

Talpa Chapel crosses. I used to live a few doors away from this chapel when I first moved to New Mexico. I lived where I could hear the bells toll for mass, feast days, christmas processions and funerals. Over the years I’ve made many images of the church of “San Juan de Los Lagos Talpa” on the High Road to Taos. It is always a pleasure to share this chapel with many guests who always leave with a new reverence for this exquisite little place. Thanks for looking. G

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Las Trampas Church On The High Road

Las Trampas Church of San Jose de Gracia de las Trampas. I know, I know, it’s that church again. I made this image yesterday on a High Road photo tour. We were looking for some alternate angles to the usual, oft seen views. The grave marker was photographed by Ansel Adams in the 1940’s. Specifically, he made a tighter cropped image of the cross with the adobe wall as the background. Knowing that Ansel had stood in this very spot can inspire almost anyone. As the sky was overcast and lighting low key I put the camera on the floor and created the low angle view using the grave marker to fill a chunk of the frame and placed the cross prominently over the sky to the right. I thought it created a dramatic and gothic look to the whole scene. Thirty minutes later as we descended into the the Gorge and headed north to the west rim trail along the Rio Grande Gorge the sun burst out and it looked like a different day. This prompted us to recall the saying, “if you don’t like the weather in New Mexico, wait five minutes.” … or in our case, thirty minutes. Thanks for looking. G

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Llano De San Juan, New Mexico

Llano de San Juan. Over the last few weeks I’ve conducted numerous photo tours on the High Road to Taos. There have been some stunning afternoons with great photographer clients and image making. This building has always intrigued me, and I almost always make a stop here in this high road llano (Spanish for plain) to make an image of this old building and the nearby church. The tin roof, typical in New Mexico architecture, the undulating tin portal roof and a dormer window, forever pointing to the sky, always feels welcoming despite it’s abandoned posture. I’ll be back on the High Road to Taos again tomorrow and no doubt we will visit this place. Thanks for continuing to visit my photo of the day page … and keep on looking. G

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San Jose de Gracia, de Las Trampas

San Jose de Gracia Church, built between 1760 and 1776 in Las Trampas, New Mexico. In this image I overlaid the photo of the church on a photo of the mud walls using Adobe Photoshop Mix on the iPhone. Makes for a different kind of look.

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Bucket On A Fence Post

Bucket on a fence. Driving around Taos County one comes across some wondrous objects that often seem to have magically shown up, by their own will, festooning the landscape like an ancient colloquial code. What, or who, could possibly have determined any usage from hanging a flattened bucket on a fence post?

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