San Cristobal Valley Chapel, NM
San Cristobal Valley sunset on the community Chapel of San Cristóbal, New Mexico. Always the golden light after the storm. Always, and thanks be for, the ubiquitous single wide mobile home, with a lopsided swamp cooler, abandoned in an adjacent field. Thanks for looking. G
New Years Eve, San Cristobal, NM
New Years Eve, San Cristobal, NM. The waning light of a waning year on my neighbor Dennis’s tree with the Columbine Hondo Wilderness disappearing in the clouds. Happy New Year and thank you for spending some of it with me. I appreciate all the comments and enthusiasm for my work. My very best wishes to you and your families for a wonderful 2019. Geraint
Valley Cottonwoods This Evening
Valley cottonwoods this evening in San Cristobal. What a difference a week makes. It’s the light that really makes it special, so I turned around about a mile down the road and went back to this favorite spot. It’s not always perfect but being present can make it so. Thanks for looking. G
Venus, Crescent Moon, Sangre De Cristos
Venus and the Crescent Moon this morning over the Sangre De Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. There was peace and quiet at six o’clock as Venus and the crescent moon slipped silently above the slumbering pine ridge into the crystal clear lavender dawn. I had the camera shutter on silent mode so as to preserve the lingering tranquility in the frosty air, my breath fogged the LCD. A few more frames and it was time for the local rooster’s wake up call. It didn’t come! My neighbors turkey beat him to it and let out a blood curdling gobble, gobble, gobble, that echoed around the valley. Time for a cup of tea. Below is an image of the moon as it crested the tree line five minutes earlier. Thanks for looking. G
San Cristobal Valley Fall Highlight
San Cristobal Valley fall. The fall colors peaked in the valley about a week ago. Now the cottonwoods and aspen trees are stark white, ghosts of their former selves. Another kind of beauty in the coming season. Here’s another image of this location. Thanks for looking. G
San Cristobal Valley Fall – 2265
Valley Fog, San Cristobal, NM
Valley fog, morning in our home village of San Cristobal, NM. I had to post one more from this day last week. As I was working on the image I decided that I really liked it and wanted to share it. I love the cold, skin tightening, jaw bracing, turn up the lapels, onward into the wind weather of these mornings, which are promising to get very much colder very soon. Thanks for looking. G
San Cristobal Valley Morning Fog – 2119
Morning Clouds San Cristobal, NM
Morning clouds rising over an old adobe home, cottonwoods and the national forest, in the San Cristobal Valley, NM. I went out to watch the moon set across the plateau. I decided to drive up into the foothills for a better view and found this scene in the valley. The moon had vanished into the clouds on the western horizon. This was the payoff. Thanks for looking. G
Morning Clouds, San Cristobal, NM – 2096
Chapel of San Cristóbal, New Mexico
Chapel San Cristobal, in the valley of San Cristobal, New Mexico. The Magpie knows a good spot when it finds it. The soft filtered sunset light attracted the Magpie and me. An evening drive through the village and foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, softens the heart and nourishes the soul. Thanks for looking. G
Valley Rainbow, San Cristobal
Valley Rainbow, San Cristobal Valley northern New Mexico. I walked out the door into the pasture and watched the rain and golden light traverse the valley under a forming double rainbow. If you’re interested, the pot of gold is under the San Cristobal post office on the right. Happy hunting, and thanks for looking. G
Full Moon Rising, Columbine Hondo Wilderness, NM
Full moon rising, Columbine Hondo Wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. Crystal clear this evening. The sky, the moon and a glass of Talisker from the Isle of Skye. Not bad in my world. Thanks for looking. G
Perseid Meteor Shower, Milky Way
Perseid Meteor Shower, Milky Way. Well, one meteor on this particular night and we only saw five all told. I had used Mars to set the camera focus point when this resulting image occurred. The fireball at the lower end combines with Mars for an obliterating effect in its termination. The streak above to the right is caused by the flashing lights of an airplane. I had meant to post this image a few days ago after it happened. My apologies. Thanks for looking. G
Here’s another image from August 13, 2016.
http://geraintsmith.com/potd/pages/archive/august_16/aug_13_16.html
Random Piece Of Culvert, San Cristobal Valley
A random piece of culvert in the San Cristobal Valley, looking suspiciously like a piece of field art. I admire it sitting there day in and day out, for a couple of years, still shiny and out of place. Scenes and subjects such as this get my attention and inspire me and really float my photographic boat. Thanks for looking. G
Rainbows Over The San Cristobal Valley
Rainbows over the San Cristobal Valley. When simply heading to the mail box, or anywhere else for that matter, it is compulsory here in New Mexico to pull over and look at a rainbow. We waited for the second rainbow to fully form but the storm was moving very quickly and it didn’t quite make it. The main rainbow lasted for about twenty minutes. Not a bad way to spend twenty minutes during the day. Thanks for looking. G
A couple more images.
A rainbow and the local church in San Cristobal last summer.
Fire In The Sky San Cristobal, NM
Fire in the sky over the San Cristobal Valley, NM. Below is a piece by Willa Sibert Cather, from “Death Comes for the Archbishop”, shared by a friend on my Facebook page who was inspired by this photograph. Thanks for looking. G
“The sky was as full of motion and change as the desert beneath it was monotonous and still, — and there was so much sky, more than at sea, more than anywhere else in the world. The plain was there, under one’s feet, but what one saw when one looked about was that brilliant blue world of stinging air and moving cloud. Even the mountains were mere ant-hills under it. Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky. The landscape one longed for when one was away, the thing all about one, the world one actually lived in, was the sky, the sky!”
—Willa Sibert Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Magpie Moon, San Cristobal, NM
Magpie moon, in the cottonwood tree San Cristobal, NM. The moon rose crystal clear over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico as our resident Magpie mimicked my calls seemingly oblivious of the splendor around us. Further south, the moon rose shrouded in clouds of fire smoke. It set this morning, around 4:30am resembling a blood orange through the thick smoke that settled across the valley. As always thanks for looking. G
Looking Down At The Drying Mud
Looking down at the drying mud following a rain storm in San Cristobal. It didn’t rain much and not for very long. The next morning I was fascinated by the shining light on the mud in the roadside ditches. Thanks for looking. G
