celestial meanderings

Saturday night, there was the first in a sequence of three"supermoons".  Scientists writing for the online publication NASA Science News indicate that "the scientific term for the phenomenon is 'perigee moon.'  Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. The Moon follows an elliptical path around Earth with one side ("perigee") about 50,000 km closer than the other ("apogee").  Full Moons that occur on the perigee side of the Moon's orbit seem extra big and bright."

Some photographers "major" in night photography - whether photographing man-made phenomenon or the sky - they do a majority of shooting at night.  I am not that kind of person and, as a general rule, don't do much night photography.  Thus, I am here to say I am lacking dramatic moon shots.  But the entire idea of celestial events made me think about our reaction to them as opposed to those of the people who came before us, including the ancestral Pueblo peoples at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico.

The supermoons that occurred in the period when Chaco was occupied - 850 and 1250 A. D. - were no doubt noticed, given the image below.  It is said to be a petroglyph of the super nova of 1054.  I dare say Chacoans were probably more aware of their surroundings than many in our tech-laden world.  

According to the National Park Service, the complexity and size of the buildings at Chaco are a testament to the "organization and engineering abilities" of the people who lived there.  The photograph below is of the back wall of Pueblo Bonito

Window at Talus House

The next "supermoon" will be on August 10.  Given the fact that Chaco has been designated as an official International Dark Sky Park, perhaps it would be a good idea to visit this amazing place next month.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

bee's eye view

Years ago, a nurseryman in Santa Fe said jokingly that I was a penstemanaic, a person who loves penstemons.  And yes, I do love this group of plants that are part of the figwort family.  Paintbrush also belongs to this family, as do a wide variety of wild and now somewhat domesticated flowers.  Rocky Mountain penstemon is a deep blue-ish purple but when these plants occupy space with other species, their colors cover a broad spectrum, including fuchsia.  Recently, I found this one in the shade of a wisteria.  Given the brilliant colors of most penstemons, this almost qualifies as albino.

Here is a Rocky Mountain penstemon, up close and personal.

This genus of the flower world is gorgeous and beguiling, particularly to pollinators.  You can see why the flowers below, from a stalk of Penstemon palmerii, are particularly interesting to bumblebees.  They can fit their entire bodies inside "bumblebee garages", writhe wildly and come out entirely covered with pollen.  Here is a bee's eye view.

The flowing stripes on the palmerii petals is another example of nature's inspiration for abstract art.

From a pure photography standpoint, shooting this week presented some interesting challenges.  The wind blew a lot, moving the flowers every which way, but worse yet, when the wind wasn't blowing the no-seeums discovered me very quickly and began taking their fill of my blood.  Luckily, that part of the natural cycle ends when the monsoon begins.  

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

layers

12 May 2014.   The calendar on the wall displays a photograph of lush, green lady ferns beside a stream in Banning State Park, Minnesota.  But here on the mesa, there is snow on the windows and the sky is bleak.  Snow in May is not without precedent.  Friends of ours from Colorado claim that the most terrifying drive of their 70+ years was when they left our house some years ago, again in May, making their way over U. S. Highway 64 from Tres Piedras to Tierra Amarilla.  The road is narrow, and drop offs occasionally are not for the faint of heart.  In blinding snow, hold on for dear life.  As they did.  The good news about snow in May and fire season, is that moisture of any kind is welcome, and the high winds have diminished, even if temporarily.

Given that backdrop, I turn to photographs in bright sunshine - layers of earth.  Not being a geologist, I cannot tell you the depths nor the ages of the layers, but instead use the photographs as a demonstration of visual beauty and interest.

The first is of a series of dunes at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Reserve in southern Colorado.  The light and dunes constantly change, providing endless photographic possibilities.  I love the way clouds alter the look of the dunes.

Echo Amphitheatre near Abiquiu has distinct geological layers that are stunning in color and shape.

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument contains passageways through the layers of sandstone, waiting to be discovered.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

electrical pasta

From time to time, "progress" requires change in the technical parts of a home or business.  I recall great (and sometimes justified) trauma while working for the state and city when computers systems or software changed.  There have been massive improvements made, but change stirs that limbo feeling in most, leaving one just a bit unsettled until normalcy returns. Thus, this email will be quick and dirty while a technician changes and updates our internet service, another part of spring cleaning.  The phoebes, broad-tailed and black chinned hummingbirds, and the blue birds will really feel it as we poke around in their nesting areas.

So here's to all the men and women out in the field who enable us to use some of the wonderful technology available these days!  Below is a photograph I took while capturing many of the individuals who built the Farmington Public Library between roughly 2003 and 2005.  Fred Cessna has an amazing face!  For the majority of the project, I used a Mamiya 1 3/4 x 2 1/4 format camera loaded with Ilford 400 HP5 Plus black and white film.  This image was scanned from a print I made on Ilford paper.

Also this week, I want to mention a wonderful workshop that will be offered in Taos by an incredible artist of many media, Gail Goodwin.  Check the Great Stuff This Week sidebar for information.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

signs of spring

To many, spring begins with flowering bulbs and fruit trees bubbling with blossoms.  I have been known to photograph these things with an indescribable joy in my heart.  But as is typical in northern New Mexico, more often than not, the fruit trees bloom, and just when they are poised for the first stages of fruit production, a late frost lays over the land, dashing the hopes of fruit ranchers and enthusiastic foodies alike.

But besides flowers and taxes, a sure sign of spring is really interesting weather, and we in United States, have certainly had our share this week.  For weather geeks, the thin and powerful whips of thunderstorm lines reaching from southern Mexico almost to the Canadian border, is definitely a signal that spring is here in earnest.  The radar-indicated colors range from green and yellow, to orange, bright red, and even magenta.  One must hope that most people under the magenta pools are in their basements or safe rooms because there is a powerful brew in the sky ready to stir the pot.  Although not as dramatic as some we have seen in other locales, these cumulonimbus mammatus or "mama" clouds graced us with their drama, but fortunately not a violent result.

I love the understated caution included in the Wikipedia description of these types of cloud formations.

"Due to the intensely sheared environment in which mammatus form, aviators are strongly cautioned to avoid cumulonimbus with mammatus."  Keep safe!

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

documenting common threads

Those of you with whom I have spoken in the last six months or so know that I am on a mission of sorts, to reintroduce writing - not Tweeting, not texting, not emailing - but writing, of the pen or pencil to paper sort.  Before you think of me as a Luddite, let me explain my thoughts on the subject.

Many in the government, media, and industry (as shown during the three weeks since Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 went missing) would like to convince us that technology can solve every problem.  Technology and the pace thereof is nothing short of stunning, but when a satellite image shows a white blob in the middle of the Indian Ocean, rather than McGee utilizing satellite imagery to practically zoom into someone's living room during an NCIS episode, the science is not quite exact as they would have us think.  I realize this is a gross simplification, and that my understanding of the science is very close to being nil, but it demonstrates one of my concerns.  Our trillions of emails, texts, and Tweets are somewhere in the computer mix, perhaps hovering in the Cloud, but the spring wind may blow them into the ether, never to return.

We are in great danger of losing our history, as individuals, families, a country, and Planet Earth.  The history we have was written by our ancestors - sketched, sculpted, painted, photographed, journaled.  Very few of us are doing that now.  We have a wonderful friend who seems to have every single email she has written or people have written her in her computer, but how many people retain electronic communication for any length of time?  Where is it?  We are told that various security agencies and the government can find them, but would they, if asked, go into the bowels of the machine, to get a particularly poignant email from a friend or lover?  Everyone has a story.  Many have incredible stories that need to be told or they will be lost.  Our collective memories are not that acute, and they are prone to alteration.  You and I need to be documenting.

Human beings document using a number of different media, of which cave paintings are some of the earliest.  But I will begin with books.  In the not-to-distant past, books were made of cotton rag paper, signatures bound with needle and thread, and brought together with a leather binding.  Publishers had stables of illustrators whose drawings and paintings accentuated the writing.  Pages even had gold leaf, as did this 1883 edition of Robert Burns poetry.

This page is from a leather bound "autograph album" - beautifully printed simply for autographs from school mates.  What blows me away is the fact I can hold in my hand a book with family members' writing from the 1880s!

Now we begin to add photographs to the mix.  They were much less expensive to have made than a painting.  Everyone wanted to and could document themselves and their families in this manner.

Click on the images to look deeper into the words and photographs.

Thanks to our friends Lucia, Earle, and Cristina, and to Fred for their documentation.  I hope the rest of you will consider documenting your lives, past and present.  Write it, sketch it, photograph it, print it.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image   

ghosts of the dance

An immensely talented, delightful young Argentine couple have been in Taos for the last two weeks, dancing mind-boggling performances, and presenting workshops.  The core of every single participant feels like it has been given a world-class workout!  Although they are now headed to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for a tango festival, Marina Kenny and Guillermo Cerneaz left our community with wonderful memories.

During a milonga (tango dance) at Old Martina's Hall in Ranchos de Taos on Saturday evening, Guillermo and Marina were like hovercraft, flowing over the floor with astonishing cleanness and ease.  Using my smaller Nikon, I was playing around with flash and without flash.  These "ghost images" are obviously made without the assistance of flash, which produced some interesting blurs and day-glo colors from the assorted types of lights in the room.

Thanks to Carrie Field and Mike Malixi of Taos Tango for bringing them here and cultivating the tango community in Taos.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the images

Valentine's Day, part deux

You know me well enough by now that you also are aware of the fact that almost anything you give me will often be photographed in some fashion, and that some of those photographs will appear on my Monday blog.  So this morning, I lift my glass to Cristina and Ben who brought a lovely flower arrangement when they came for brunch last week.

Despite their size and perhaps because of it, the Gerber daisies are the most delicate, and I knew they would need to be photographed first.  Here they are in all their glory.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

water crisis

There is good news and bad news from the western United States this morning.  For American football fans, particularly those following the Broncos and the Seahawks, the Superbowl will feature two teams from the west.  Not being a fan myself, I don't know how long it has been since that has happened, but surely there is much joy in both Denver and Seattle today.  While all the celebrations and recaps continue, the water situation in most parts of the west is becoming increasingly dire.  Several friends made trips to California in the past month and they have never seen it that brown and dry.  For coastal parts of the state, this is the time of year when the landscape could be described as looking like Ireland, filled with Kelly green grass and lovely, lush oaks dotting the hills.  Although you cannot convince climate change naysayers, particularly those in the midwest and East who have just been through an extremely wet and very cold period, that the conditions are part of climate change, but they are.  Governor Jerry Brown declared a water emergency this week, and aerial photographs of the snowpack and normal conditions speak the truth.  This is going to be a tough year.  Am I the only one thinking about moving water from extremely wet areas to the dry areas?  Oil and natural gas are shipped by pipeline, why not water?  Of course, that really is not the answer.

The irony and good news in all of this is that one part of California is not in drought - the Mojave Desert.  Of course, all things are relative and it is a desert, but landscape photographers may want to have their cameras in hand for photographing the deserts of California and Arizona because 2014 may well be a stellar year for wildflowers.  It is a guessing game, but here are a few shots from years past to whet your appetites!  They are third generation - from slides to prints to scan - but still provide some visual warmth and juice.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

gifts

Commercialism has made the Christmas season a time of unbridled gift giving, particularly in America.  But gifts comes in all shapes and sizes.  Like children playing with the box in which a particular gift came, adults revel in time spent with family and friends, and cooking, creating, and growing things for later presentation. I, personally, love it all - giving and receiving - and as you know, spend time photographing these special gifts.

Nearly thirty years ago, a friend gave us some delectable morsels called bourbon balls.  In the years since, I have adjusted the recipe in a number of ways, and quadruple the recipe in order to make multiple batches.  Here are early rum balls in progress.

This year, my sister gave the gift of challenge and imagination to my husband with the adult version of Legos.  One of Lego's architectural artists Rok Zgalin Kobe brought architect Frank Lloyd Wright's blueprint of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo to life.  I just noticed on the website that it took a 14 year old six hours to build it.  It took my resident architect ten hours to complete, which I (totally lacking the geometry part of the brain) thought was excellent.  He says "The next time you need a problem solved, call your local 14 year old!"

Big Al had a bumper crop of fruit and brought some to New Mexico from his home in the Palm Springs, California area.  I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see and eat grapefruit and lemons grown in someone's yard and brought directly to northern New Mexico.  It is a little like receiving gardening catalogs at this time of year.  Aren't they beauties?  

I cannot end 2013 without thanking each and every one of you for reading my blog, and commenting throughout the year.  May 2014 be filled with good health, creativity, joy, and love! 

until next Monday (and next year)

DB

a passion of the image

Santa's reindeer?

Although their noses may be similar to Rudolph's at one point or another, and they are in the same family (Cervidae), Rocky Mountain elk or Cervus canadensis nelsoni, are probably not suitable for pulling a sleigh.  Wapiti, as elk are also known, occupy a broad swath of the western United States, and unlike deer, are grazers because of their four chambered stomachs.  They are alarmingly large animals.  The cow elk weigh roughly 500-530 pounds, and a bull elk's weight ranges between 710 and 730 pounds.  Bull elk need that extra weight for many reasons, one of which is the tremendous racks or antlers they grow and shed each year.

From pure observation, the groups of elk within a given herd might contain a bull and a harem of perhaps 10 cows.  But last week a fairly large herd wandered through the sagebrush.  We counted four bulls, several spikes (yearling bull elk), and as many as forty cows.  It is somewhat unusual to see a group that mixed during the winter months, when the bull elk seem to be more solitary.  They have already done the job of extending their blood line, and can frequently be sighted ambling alone.

...and finally, a demonstration of why they are called Wapiti.  According to Wikipedia, the word is derived from Shawnee and Cree, and roughly translates as "white rump".

Merry Christmas and to all, a good night!

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

 

snow puzzles

It has been quite the weather week all over the United States, not to mention Scotland, Germany, and Denmark.  Snow, ice, wind, hard freezes in the valleys of California (which comprise a large part of our nation's grocery carts), combined to keep people talking about the weather in not so positive terms.  Technically, winter has yet to arrive.  But try saying that to people in Texas who were without electricity due to ice storms, or those in more temperate climates with heat pumps that are not quite working as prescribed.

As a photographer, it is always tempting to tease and show images of tropical islands or lush gardens during this time of year in the northern hemisphere.  But there were some fascinating designs were created on the mesa this weekend from the effects of wind on snow and graupel.  I call them "snow puzzles" because the slight changes in elevations which make the surface look more three dimensional look like pieces of a puzzle.  If you click on the photographs, you will see a larger image as well as some of the details.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

complexity

Some years ago, I photographed scientists at the Santa Fe Institute and many, if not all of them, regardless of discipline, worked on chaos and complexity in natural and human-produced systems.  Nature is extremely complex and I love it when I stumble upon and am able to photograph "in your face" examples of it.

Although it is one of those pesky imports and invasive species, the many types of eucalyptus trees never cease to enchant me.  This particular tree near Morro Bay is a huge puzzle and portrait of life as the tree lives it.

Human made complexity is everywhere.  Barbed wire was created out of necessity to keep cattle enclosed in a small or large areas.  According to Wikipedia, Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio, invented what many open rangers viewed as the bane of their existence in 1867.  To the uninitiated, the wire produces a powerful bite and lasting scars if encountered at the wrong angle (almost any).  It seems benign coiled in the snow, but it will be very interesting getting it untangled after the thaw.

Embrace the complex nature of life.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Let me count the ways....

Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the Sonnets from the Portuguese wrote "How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways."  Flowers have come to represent love - the many ways in which they are arranged, the types and colors of flowers used, and their placement in any given scene - speak volumes.  Arranging is an art form, and an enormous part of the personalized wedding plan.

At our niece's October wedding, I photographed the decorations and flowers.  The bride, her mother, and Maureen Ward, owner of Perfect Parties by Mo in Auburn, California, collaborated to create one of the most stunning wedding backdrops I have seen or photographed.  For the next couple of blogs, I will feature some of the photographs, as I try to count the different ways arrangements and decorations can be created and photographed.

The colors the bride chose are eye popping and worked stunningly together, and the use of paper lanterns complimented the existing architectural elements brilliantly.

The bouquet in the bride's hand, featuring a grandfather's pin and her ring.

"Mo" made sure each surface, even portico walls, were decorated.  Here, red carnations were placed in small containers holding banana leaves at the base, and separated by white votive candles.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

California rhythm

A family wedding is a good reason for a creative driving, photography, and food procurement trip.  Last week, we crossed the great Mojave Desert and central California on our way to Los Gatos and did all of the above.  I find it impossible to get over the fact that California must be producing a huge part of the world's food supply.  Rows of crops and trees creating what could be called California rhythm go on for hundreds of miles up the central valley, yielding to wine grapes along the coast and both west and east of the Pacific Coast range.  Cabbage, brussel sprouts, assorted lettuce, artichokes, tomatoes, and other things that we were unable to identify as part of fast moving traffic, are being harvested now.  The grapes have already been harvested, but that doesn't diminish the graceful rows of vines.  The nets which protect the grapes from bird predation are rolled on top and the length of the vines.  These vines and the wine tanks below are at Eberle Vineyards near Paso Robles.

Vina Robles wine rack

How do I photograph wedding flowers?  Let me count the ways for next week's blog.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

 

Luminosity and color

Besides being a weekend of truly spectacular fall color in northern New Mexico, the first weekend of October brings vendors of fiber and fiber products from Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico to Kit Carson Park in Taos for the annual Taos Wool Festival.  In addition to vendors, people hailing from nearly every state of the union and countries around the world, plan their holidays around this festival.

I spent the weekend of the 30th Wool Festival in my husband, Fred's, booth showing his Navajo churro rugs, preaching the gospel of churro wool, watching other vendors, and greeting all the dogs that made their way into the park with their owners.

Here is one of those churro sheep now.

In an odd way, Wool Festival is a bit like Las Vegas.  Although there are no neon signs flashing, the masses of color jolts the senses.  Here are a few examples.

Some of the colors and designs in Fred's rugs

For me, other than lusciousness, the words that describes much of the fiber on display are luminosity and luster.

Thanks to all the truly amazing vendors involved in the festival - to Lisa Shell, owner of Kai Ranch, and Donna Coates, owner of White Rabbit Handspun - for allowing me to hang around their booths and photograph their work.  Of course, Connie Taylor, registrar for churro sheep in the United States, has and remains the energy behind churro sheep, and provides Fred with the lovely wool with which he produces his rugs. 

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image