Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, the red barn and its neighbors, Comet Atlas, the Arroyo Hondo cottonwood tree, and an image from October 27, 2020, with the piles of snow we have unfortunately not received this year.
The red barn is deteriorating before my eyes. The siding might as well fall off while I’m standing there looking, and it’s also starting to twist from the prevailing winds.
Red barn with anthill and Ute Mountain, San Luis Valley Colorado.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3) shot on an iPhone 13 Pro Max on October 13, 2024. I couldn’t resist the ease of what the iPhone can accomplish these days. The comet image is a little soft however, night mode on the phone is very good for handheld shots. It’s even better on a tripod.
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, Bighorn sheep in the Wild Rivers Recreation Area, along with some random mages from the last few weeks. Autumn colors have been stunning this year, and I’ve been busy on photo tours with great photographers/clients. Now it’s time to settle in, light the fires, and enjoy the remaining colors and exceptional light around us.
Bighorn Sheep, Wild and Scenic Rivers Recreation Area, NM.
Avanyu. A water serpent petroglyph along the Rio Grande south of Taos.
Avanyu, water serpent petroglyph.
The fall colors keep on giving in the woods near Hopewell Lake where I spent seven days this month.
Aspen Leaf, Hopewell Lake.
That cottonwood tree in last weekend’s storm in Arroyo Hondo!
Cottonwood, Arroyo Hondo, NM.
I was surprised to see these hardy plants thriving in the colder temperatures. It was the only group of this plant, that I spotted on my two-mile walk with the dogs.
Blanket Flower, Wild and Scenic Rivers Recreation Area.
I took a short drive on the night that nearly everyone in the northern hemisphere could see the aurora borealis. This was the view I had from the foothills behind our house. I used an iPhone and stitched six images together. The next evening I was prepared with a camera and tripod but the northern lights weren’t visible.
Aurora Borealis, Northern Lights.
As always, thank you for looking. Have a great week where you are. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, in the aspens. It’s leaf-peeping time in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. I hope you’re able to get out there. I’ll have six days on the road with wonderful friends and great clients.
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week a gallery of random abstraction in and around the block. I have many more of these taken on personal trips, photo tours, and neighborhood walks so future posts may occur. Mostly shot on an iPhone, I am constantly reminded of what a wonderful and spontaneous piece of equipment it is.
Click on an image to expand and click off it to go back. Enjoy!
As always, Thank you for looking. My thoughts are with friends experiencing the wildfires in New Mexico and California. Have a great week where you are. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week features the day of April 17th from ten years of my archives.
I hope everyone had a good week. April has been beautiful in northern New Mexico,,, so far. I know I said I wouldn’t say anymore regarding my feet but I’m averaging 2-3 miles a day and getting 4-6 mile hikes in. I’m so happy with my two new feet.
Over the last month, my friend, David, and I have been hiking stretches of the road through the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument that traverses the gorge rim and skirts around the base of Ute Mountain. We have hiked a different section each week with the mountain always present, beckoning. All being well, this summer will culminate in an accent of Ute Mountain.
Back to the present that began in the past, here are pictures from April 17th taken from my photo of the day archive from 2006 to 2016.
Beginning in 2016 and working back to 2006. This day we had snow and I made this image. It makes a beautiful print. A couple of hours after taking this photo, the snow was all gone.
Willow tree lane, Arroyo Seco, April 2016.
A roadside Descanso, San Ildefonso, 2015. The internet says “Descansos are deeply rooted in Southwestern Hispanic culture. The word means “resting place” and is believed to refer to the days when coffins were transported by horse and cart or carried by hand over many miles for burial in a camposanto.”
Roadside Descanso, San Ildefonso, NM.
Some vistas around Taos have since been transformed… developed. 2014
Taos Mountain from El Prado, NM.
Here’s a shot of mine and Pami’s shadow in Arroyo Hondo on the drive home from Taos back in 2013.
Arroyo Hondo evening shadows, 2013.
Here’s a former living plant that grew out of a crack in a rock in the Orilla Verde Recreation Area of the now Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, 2012.
Rock brush, Orilla Verde, NM, 2012.
A ubiquitous Taos Raven. They are known to perch in ones or twos. This raven was probably calling for or waiting on its better half. 2011
Raven in a bare tree, Taos, 2011.
I’m still searching for the original high resolution file of this picture of Garetto Rivas, so I’ve added a higher resolution second image from the same day below this one. I’ve forgotten the name of his gorgeous blond horse. The second horse in tow and in training is named “Beauty”.
Garetto Rivas, a Taos Cowboy, 2010.
Garetto Rivas, Taos Cowboy, 2010.
The image below was scanned from a Kodachrome 64, transparency shot in the mid 1990’s and published on my website’s photo of the day archive on April 17, 2009.
Indian paintbrush, 2009.
Just around the corner from my former gallery in Arroyo Seco was a yoga studio festooned in Tibetan prayer flags. I recall shooting this one out of my car window in 2008.
Prayer flags in Arroyo Seco, NM. 2008.
I shot the image below in 1990 and published it on my website in 2007. It has since been published in a couple of local magazines.
Saint Francis church reflecting in my 1958 Volkswagen Beetle wing mirror, 2007.
On April 17, 2006 I paid a visit to the National Cemetery in Santa Fe NM. It’s the only time I’ve been there. Since then I usually post this image on social media on Memorial Day.
The National Cemetery in Santa Fe, NM. 2006
As always, thank you for looking. I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane. You can see more from my photo of the day archive here.
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, a Taos Mountain House in a spectacular location. It’s on Taos Pueblo land. Known as Taos Mountain, its true name in English is Pueblo Peak. A bald eagle has visited the area for the last couple of weeks. The ranch hands still guard the ranch gate on Highway 64 and the eternal fight between light and darkness continues in the shadows at the Saint Francis Church, Ranchos de Taos. My neighbor’s tree lights up at sunset during a mountain snowstorm. Click to enlarge pictures.
Taos Mountain House.
There must be a fabulous view from the back porch! Taos Mountain House is my name for this place. I made it up. Apologies in advance.
A visitor showed up in the Arroyo Hondo Valley a couple of weeks ago. A Bald Eagle usurped the Red-tailed Hawks roost. I watched it indulge in its morning ablutions after which it was ready for the hunt.
Bald Eagle morning ablutions in Arroyo Hondo, NM.
Eyes on the valley’s rodent population… please.
Bald Eagle, ready for the day and the hunt, Arroyo Hondo, NM.
The Ranch Hands (my name for it) sculpture at a ranch gate on Highway 64. You might recognize it from a previous post.
Ranch Hands sculpture Highway 64 NM.
Down at the church in Ranchos de Taos after last weekend’s snow.
Ranchos de Taos shadows and reflections.
My neighbor’s tree yesterday evening when the sun broke through the clouds just before setting. A fitting start to the beginning of Spring.
My neighbor’s tree at sunset.
As always, thanks for looking and for all the kind words, comments, and compliments. Have a great week. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week two sides of winter in Arroyo Seco and Arroyo Hondo.
As they say… “if you don’t like the weather, wait for five minutes”. The scene in the second image was shot a few days apart from the first image and about a 20º F warmer difference in temperature. Looking outside today we’ve had rain sleet, snow, hail, and blue skies. Tomorrow?… tee-shirt weather, who knows!
A winter scene in Arroyo Seco, NM.
The weather in the mountains continues to leave a lot of snow in its wake. I heard that the ski areas are doing well from the last three storms that moved through the area. That’s good for the spring run-off and the farmers. The skiers are enjoying it and apparently, it’s good powder skiing, but that part is lost on me. I’m looking forward to the peace and solitude of cross-country, and snowshoeing again.
If you look closely in the sky, upper right, in the following image you can see a flock of birds, commonly named Pinyon Jays. I waited for them to come closer but they had other intentions. Last year we had very large flocks of Pinyon Jays in the thousands in our San Cristobal Valley. I just counted 157 in this shot, a small number of the ones I saw.
Cottonwood and Willows, Arroyo Hondo, NM.
On the day I shot the image above I drove with the windows down from Taos, across the mesa. When I got to this spot I made a U-turn to photograph one of my favorite locations.
Pinyon Jay or as we like to spell it in New Mexico, “Piñon Jay”
The Pinyon Jay was outside the kitchen window feeding off seeds on the fence that the squirrels stole from the bird feeders and dropped. I was watching the bird through the iPhone wifi tether app on my camera with a 300mm lens.
As always, thank you for looking. I hope it’s a good week where you are. To all my friends in California, stay safe. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week winter in the neighborhood.
I’ll keep it short and sweet this week. I hope everyone got what they wanted. I didn’t want anything and got nothing, it made my day. I already have plenty. That said I am now the owner of two happy feet and have been able to drive a little. So, I drove around the neighborhood and got a few new shots to add to the archives.
Last Friday, I followed a fog bank that was building over the Rio Grande Gorge and came across this scene a little ways up the road in Cerro NM. There was just enough moisture in the fog and temperatures dropped to 26º F to cover the trees and willows in hoar frost that created this winter wonderland.
Hoar Frost, Cerro NM.
I was reminded of other years when the weather elements came together to create the following scenes.
Winter in Arroyo Seco, NM.
When I drove the “High Road to Taos” I felt like I was entering “Narnia”.
On the High Road to Taos, NM.
Back to the present! This was the moon on the winter solstice last week. It stood out clearly against a beautiful blue sky revealing the detail of the craters.
Solstice Moon.
The sunset on December 24, was fuzzy and warm. The outdoor temps were not!
Mountain Sunset San Cristobal, NM.
The view below embodied a feeling of warmth but it wasn’t. Temps dropped to 9º F last night. Of course, it was coldest before dawn so I slept in and missed the moon setting across the plateau.
December 25th Moonrise
As always, thank you for looking, Happy New Year, I hope it’s a good one. G
Greetings from San Cristobal, NM. This week, Crows, trees, meadows, and more.
The crows that frequent our old cottonwood snag are fun to watch from the living room window and deck. I can observe from my chair out the window when they descend on the snags. I grab my camera and move to the deck. This image is a composite mostly of those going and those staying. I never tire of this view. The reason for their routines and nagging, comings and goings as they do, eludes me, but I keep watching. Observers of crows praise their intelligence. The Smithsonian says this.
Our cottonwood with Crows and Magpie, bottom right.
We watched these clouds develop on our drive home from Angel Fire in the Moreno Valley yesterday. They look like very localized lenticulars. The main cloud resembles a stingray or stealth bomber.
Clouds, Moreno Valley, northern New Mexico.
Evening light in El Prado (the meadows) just north of Taos. Snow is predicted for this weekend. We shall see.
El Prado, the meadows, winter light.
When it snows the meadows look like this. El Prado has wide views across the meadows to the mountains.
Cattle in El Prado, Taos, NM.
Things change. I found this tree in the forest. Outlived by the surrounding trees its impact on me inspired me to make a picture. Then this poem by Hermann Hesse came to mind.
SOMETIMES
Sometimes, when a bird cries out, Or the wind sweeps through a tree, Or a dog howls in a far off farm, I hold still and listen a long time.
My soul turns and goes back to the place Where, a thousand forgotten years ago, The bird and the blowing wind Were like me, and were my brothers.
My soul turns into a tree, And an animal, and a cloud bank. Then changed and odd it comes home And asks me questions. What should I reply?
~ Hermann Hesse
I listen and I make a picture.
Pine in the woods.
As always thank you for looking, following, comments and compliments. Also thank you for all the well wihes. I’ll be back in a shoe next week. Happy holidays. G
