Week Twelve - 2016 in Photographs

Day 80

Just when I had complained about being in that space of not winter and not spring with nothing of beauty to photograph that it got better. There was a freezing fog. You have to love the mountains.

Day 78 and 79 were before the gift of frosting on everything. The rest were taken in one day. A frenzy of photography because freezing fog is very time sensitive. Once the sun breaks through it is gone. And it is frequently on only one side of the trees, grasses or bushes.

Day 83

 I love it on Aspens as it accents their bare branches. And on long needled Ponderosas it makes them look like flocked Christmas trees.

Day 84

Day 78

 I did the pots above in colors last week but liked them a lot in black and white. And selfies taken in mirrors are always a good fall back subject. I debated moving these two to another week and doing all frost pictures for this week, but this is the week as it was.

Day 79

Day 81

 The fog also masks the background. The seed drill above competes with the Sangre de Cristo mountains on a clear day. The fog erased them and defined the metal spokes on the wheels.

And in the photograph below it put the bird on the post in stark definition to its forest background.

Day 82

This isn't all the photos I took in that hour. More coming in the next week of photographs.

Week 11 - 2016 in Photographs

Day 71

Sometimes even photographers, or maybe especially photographers, need a different perspective. It is rather easy to get into ruts. Ergo the popularity of workshops. But I live in an area where taking workshops becomes very expensive because of distances to travel, etc. Fortunately the social network has provided groups which can stimulate the creative juices.

The opening photograph for this week was prompted by the need to post something beginning with the letter K in Photoartists Unleashed. Seems simplistic but it does get you walking around your house and the immediate world around you looking for things out of your norm. Ergo the Kettle at the top. I took my camera to work (don't quit your day job) in the hopes of finding a K. And while upstairs noticed the trees outside looked different from that particular angle. And so the next two photographs.

Day 72

Day 73

It is probably having grown into photography in the film era which makes me believe I cannot go home with only three photographs on a card (or previous a roll of film), so instead of turning in at my drive after working on painting window sills I went down the road and got the next two shots to fill a requirement for fence as a subject at another photography group.

Day 74

Day 75

I have been having issues with inspiration of late. As I told my photographer sister, it is just so ugly at the moment. No snow and too early for wild flowers and rather whimpy clouds which are not the great thunderheads we get in the spring. And even the ice is melting.

Day 76

But I luckily captured the still life arrangement above and the venue of crows with pair of geese on the melting ice below. But as week 12 began at Binford-Bell Studio I had only two photographs in the folder for the week. Fortunately the universe provided freezing fog this morning or I would have nothing to post tomorrow for Day 80.

Day 77

Week Ten - 2016 in Photographs

Day 64

It is a hodgepodge this week. And all about jump starting an interest in what is around me. It is that part of winter where it all just seems so the same. Cameras have a way of letting (or making) the photographer see the world in a different frame of reference. I used photography for years as a tool to spark paintings. Then when I gave up painting for a couple of years it became my way of expressing my creativity. Now it plays a dual role.

I carry my camera everywhere with me but sometimes I am just in a mind set that even with it right beside me on the bench seat of the pickup I will not take a single photo. Then I have to make myself do that. To pick it up and point at something which may not even be a good photo.

And sometimes I surprise myself when it turns out to be acceptable or even extraordinary.

Day 65

The photos this week are all just there. Just things I saw all week as I went about my day jobs. I have always had a day job of sorts. I think even if tomorrow I was declared the current Ansel Adams I would keep day jobs. They open a world to view and record which I might not see if I was just at home in the studio or in front of the computer.  My current day jobs are pet sitting, green house care, and refinishing window sills.

All this week's photos are taken at or on the way to one of my day jobs. Picking up the camera from off of the bench seat of my pickup and aiming it at the ordinary in my daily routine this last week yielded these photos.

Day 66

Clearly Day 66 was tending to the plants in a green house. My studio was suppose to originally be a green house. My plants there still think it is. But in a world which provided all the money I wanted there would be more than one green house. And one of my day jobs furnishes me with more than one green house.

Day 67

Day 67 was taken arriving for work on window sills. The day before I had removed all the window blinds and drapes and prepped the wood work for staining by applying blue masking tape. The obsessive/compulsive side of my perfectionism enjoys the taping. But I had never taken a picture of it from outside. The blue made me go a bit crazy about colors when processing. And with no blinds or drapes it was possible to look through two sets of windows.

Day 68

Day 68 through 70 were taken trying to find a chuckhole free route to Casper and Pinky's house. They are two of my favorite purr kid clients. I have several clients which live in the same section of town. And obviously I have to pass a lake to get there. I pass it so often I confess I don't notice it. It is often filled with fishermen and boaters, but on this particular day it was a bevy of activity of the feathered sort. The ice had begun to melt early and the Canadian Geese, which all of us think are early this year, were enjoying the snow free shores and spots of open water.

But I was surprised to find so were the crows.

Day 69

Technically this is a murder of crows. Or a venue as they are meeting on the ice. They are normally very skittish so I shot them from my pickup. 

Day 70

One of the photos I took which did not make the cut shows the geese and crows enjoying the same spot on the ice. The high country version of National Geographic shots of animals around the waterholes in Africa.

And that was my week. How was yours?

So Long, Farewell

Visual prompt provided by Magpie Tales

So Long

Farewell

Thanks for the memories

Please be gone.

Be gone

She said

As she mumbled a prayer

kissed the envelope.

Once good

than so bad

she had tried every way

to say goodbye.

He lingered

Stalked

Haunted her every step

not hearing her pleas. 

She wrote

her goodbye

in words very clear

Dropped it in the post.

Bags packed

Passport ready

She prepared to leave

No forwarding address.

J. Binford-Bell

March 6, 2016

Week Nine - 2016 in Photographs

Day 57

A little late on my week in review. A little late on taking photographs for the photos for this current week too. Wish I could say it was about just being busy but it is also about losing my focus for a bit. And while it has been spring like weather it has not been spring as far as the landscape. It is still in winter. And except for just a little snow which quickly melted off mostly brown.

Day 58

And between my studio page and a photographic group I belong to I feel like I am posting photos everywhere. I even feel as if I have written this blog already. But I haven't. I think. If you have read it please let me know.

Day 59
Renovations begin on Castaneda Hotel

Thought maybe it was a blog on Sidetracked Charley but I didn't find it there. Though it would have been very natural to blog about another trip down to the historic district of Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Day 60
Rawlins Hotel, Las Vegas, NM
Home of the Harvey Girls

 I love photographing old buildings and Las Vegas has become a major draw for me with the renovations of the Castaneda Hotel beginning and the Rawlins Hotel set to be renovated. Longmire season 5 should begin shooting soon so more reasons to go south for the day.

Day 61
Through the portal of Castaneda Hotel to the Rawlins Building

Day 62
Back of Castaneda Hotel, Las Vegas, NM

Day 63
Wells Fargo Building, Las Vegas, NM