Fine Art Images from the American Southwest

Tag: Sunset

Crescent Moon, Venus, Sunset. 02-05-2025

Greetings from San Cristobal, NM where the temperature is a balmy 60º F (15.5ºC) This week the crescent moon and Veus with a beautiful sunset. Red-winged Blackbirds, a crow, and the Village of Valdez, NM

The view from the front gate. All rather pleasant to watch.

Crescent moon, venus, and a sunset
Crescent Moon, Venus, and the sunset.

I zoomed in a little closer,

A Close up
A close-up!

This year we’ve had large flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds, and Evening Grosbeaks, in the old cottonwood tree and Siberian Elm tree each morning and evening. Last year we had thousands of Pinyon Jays in the valley but they haven’t returned this year… yet!

Red-winged blackbirds and a crow, San Cristobal
Red-winged blackbirds and a crow, San Cristobal.

The Lewis’s Woodpecker has returned which I’m happy to see.

If you want to see more birds, click here, or here.

Below is the Village of Valdez, just north of Taos in the snow. The scene depicts the chapel of San Antonio de Padua in the center of the village plaza. This picture was taken in winter 2007. It’s fun to relive past moments and look at them with a fresh perspective eighteen years later.

Valdez Village in snow
Valdez Village in snow.

As always, thanks for looking. Have a great week. G

Happy New Year, 01-01-2025

Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. A very Happy New Year from our family to yours.

This week a sunset to see out the old year and a Red-tailed Hawk to usher in the new year.

Sunset, Happy new year
Sunset, to say farewell to the old year.

… and a Red-tailed Hawk to herald the new year, albeit a little bedraggled and battered but still with enough life left to do the things necessary to live life and do what hawks do.

Red-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk

As always thank you for looking. Happy New Year. I appreciate all the support, kindness, comments, and compliments over the past year and beyond. G

The Red-tailed Hawk is one of my animal totems, and I am uplifted every time one appears. What is your animal totem? Please leave a comment if so inclined.

Below is a poem by the Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes, a favorite of mine.

I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.

The convenience of the high trees!
The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth’s face upward for my inspection.

My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot

Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly –
I kill where I please because it is all mine.
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads –

The allotment of death.
For the one path of my flight is direct
Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right:

The sun is behind me.
Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this.

 — Ted Hughes

Close The Gate, Sunset, Dennis Hopper, Shiprock. 05-17-23.

Greetings from San Cristobal, New Mexico. This week, “Close the Gate”, a sunset from the deck, Dennis Hopper in Taos, and a short video of the outstanding Shiprock formation in the four corners area of the American Southwest.

“Close the Gate, Please!” … and don’t touch the wire in an approaching storm. Stretch gates are a favorite subject of my photography, I can’t pass one by.

Close the Gate
Please! Close the Gate.

Sunset over the north flanks of Pueblo Peak, (Taos Mountain) from the deck, naturally. I shared the view with a good friend and a glass of Talisker single malt.

Sunset 05-16-23
Sunset, with Pueblo Peak, (Taos Mountain).

It’s Dennis Hopper Day in Taos, May 27, 2023. I had the good fortune to take a number of pictures of Dennis. Here is the last photo I shot of him driving through Taos Plaza, shortly before he passed. He was very gracious to me and I enjoyed meeting him.

Dennis Hopper, Taos
Dennis Hopper, Taos Plaza, 2009

I shot the video below of Shiprock driving through the Four Corners area of the American Southwest last spring. It’s time to get out there again. Perhaps this coming fall.

As always, thank you for looking. G

Big Sky Sunset, Northern New Mexico

Big sky sunset, across the plateau, northern New Mexico. I made a little trip south to scope out some locations for tomorrow night’s conjunction. On the way home, this happened. Thanks for looking. G

hondo_mesa_sunset_4965_4966-5689778

Raven Flight, Three Peaks, Tres Orejas, Sunset

Raven flight with Three Peaks, also known as Tres Orejas, and the sunset. I was waiting for the crescent moon when a couple of ravens flew by. I got the second one nicely placed. Thanks for looking. G

raven_three_peaks_sunset_9164-6046252

Monument Valley, Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona

Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona. Sunset from my room in “The View” Hotel. I didn’t make it here this year for the obvious reasons. This was last Spring. I’m looking forward to another photography trip there soon. Interesting that the hotel is built on the former campground where I’d camped many times prior. I often had this view all to myself years ago. Here’s another view from “The View”. Thanks for looking. G

monument_valley_sunset_az_1814-7986113

Taos Plateau, Sunset Rays, Storm Clouds

Taos Plateau, sunset rays with storm clouds brewing. Out here in the west, we get these vast skies and expansive views that go on forever, and these letterbox sunsets are a particular feature when storms roll through. Thanks for looking. G

Taos Plateau, sunset rays with storm clouds brewing.

Three Peaks, Jemez Mountains, Crescent Moon, Sunset

Three Peaks, the Jemez Mountains, a Crescent Moon, in a Sunset. I stepped outside for an hour to watch the moon set across the plateau over Three Peaks (Tres Orejas), and the Jemez Mountains a supervolcano. The moon and sky were bathed in the golden afterglow from the sunset. Thanks for looking. G

Three Peaks, Jemez Mountains, Crescent Moon, Sunset

Sunset Viewing Sofa, West Rim Road, Taos

Sunset viewing sofa, West Rim Road, Taos. Yeah… really, it was deposited and abandoned, probably recycled in some other happy family’s home by now. The things one sees in the most unexpected places, I just had to stop and make an image. Thanks for looking. G

Sunset viewing sofa, West Rim Road, Taos.

Taos Plateau Volcanic Field, Northern New Mexico

Taos Plateau Volcanic Field, moon setting, northern New Mexico. From left to right, Cerro Chiflo, Cerro de la Olla, Ute Mountain, San Antonio Mountain. The road heads west across the plateau, over the Rio Grande, with the waxing moon, and beyond into the sunset. Thanks for looking. G

Taos Plateau Volcanic Field, Northern New Mexico