new litter

Time passes so rapidly, especially when the yard stick for measuring time is a child, or for that matter, a puppy.

In this particular case, I am referring to coyote puppies.  By the time they are brought to our water dishes by their parents, they are basically tweens or near-teenagers, with behavior to match.  In this year of rare water and slim resources, only one puppy has graced us with its presence.

The only thing to do now is grow into those paws!

Thanks for all of you who have come and supported the La Tienda art exhibit in Eldorado.  If you have not been able to visit yet, it runs through 10 August, this Saturday, and I will be "sitting" once again this Friday from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

What are you lookin' at?

If you participated in the advertising hypathon that has become grey Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, you probably wanted to say to someone you encountered "Hey, what are you lookin' at?"

In photography, that look of surprise from human or beast frequently is just that.  A look of astonishment from your subject.  Here are three of my favorites.

I hope you have the time to enjoy the season, and that it will be full of good surprise moments!

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Hunting season

Regardless of whether your feelings about hunting are in the line of "Run, Bambi, run!", or you revel in the thrill and skill necessary for a successful hunt, there is no doubt this is hunting season.  Deer, elk, bear, and cougar are the animals being hunted at this time of year in our area, and hunters with massive amounts of equipment, including all terrain vehicles (ATVs), numerous coolers for packing the meat, as well as campers, tents, and stoves line the highways.  Each hunter has his or her favorite hunting spot within units designated by the state Department of Game and Fish.

Personally, I prefer hunting with my camera.  Below are two photographs I shot one morning of a mule deer.

The elk herds tend to gather later in the winter.  This shot was recently exhibited in the Taos Select section of the Taos Fall Art Festival.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Wooly weekend

My weekend was spent surrounded by fiber, which was very good because it was a chilly but beautiful one in Kit Carson Park.  For everyone involved in the 29th annual Wool Festival in Taos, life revolves around the animals and fibers they produce.  Sheep fleeces represent the largest part, but alpaca, llama, and rabbit also provide lustrous additions to the mix.  The vendors are incredibly dedicated to their animals, and to the exactness of the arts and crafts they produce. 

My husband, Fred, a real Renaissance Man, who has been both an architect and commercial airline pilot, is a weaver of Rio Grande and architectural style rugs.  He uses 100% Navajo churro wool from Connie Taylor, the national registrar for churro sheep in the United States.  She hand-dyes all the wool in the most amazing palette of colors.

When Fred is working on a rug, using a Rio Grande style walking loom, he generally does a combination of one color lines, shooting a shuttle across the width of the loom.  When tapestry is used to create a specific shape, it requires feeding pieces of wool under every other strand of warp (the vertical strands you see on the loom below that become the fringe at the end of the rug).  This process is reversed going the opposite direction after the using the beater bar to tightly pack the previous run of wool.

Here is a photograph of Fred and his loom with a rug in progress.  The turquoise designs at the end of the rug are considered tapestry.

One of his Frank Lloyd Wright/Charles Rennie Mackintosh-inspired pieces that was on display at the Taos Fall Arts Festival.

until next Monday

DB

a passion for the image

Fierce Puppies: the next generation

Over the years, my husband and I have discovered that gifts of nature may happen frequently but we are not always in the right place at the right time to receive them.  During this exceptionally dry year in much of the Southwest, we have noticed that many things are a bit askew.  The forest fires near Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and El Rito, and the smoke from them that drifted hundreds of miles effected every animal in ways we may never know.  Firefighters said that the fire behavior was unprecedented.

Around our place, the hummingbirds aren't quite as many in number, and the rough and tumble Rufous hummingbirds arrived earlier than normal.  Sheep grazing in the national forest have felt the need to drift with the wind beyond their diligent herders' eyes, through the fences.  And there has been a steady stream of coyotes at the water basins.  Two have been visiting regularly.  We suspected they were litter mates but discovered differently when they first brought one puppy with them and the following day brought three puppies.  It was quite thrilling!  The coats young coyotes sport is short and spiky, giving them a roly-poly look.  Being canines, they have to grow into their big feet and seem to do so very quickly, which makes their little stocky legs become lanky.

Of course, this presented me with a new challenge.  Every time we saw any of them poking around, I would grab my camera, generally to no avail.  But one of the more independent of the litter is a female.  Just for fun, we'll call her Gigi.  The second time she showed up nosing around on our porch, I knew I would be able to photograph her.  So, in all her furry glory, here she is.

 until next Monday

DB

a passion for the image