Week 16 - 2016 in Photographs

Day 108

 April is oddly enough one of my favorite months in the mountains of New Mexico for a number of reasons. Number one may be that all the tourists are gone. It becomes the state of my youth with vast open spaces and very little population. Even some of the locals leave to take vacations while the getting is good. And I stay because they leave their pets in my care. My day job is pet sitting. Rough making a living as an artist these days but it is always great to be an artist in New Mexico. So much inspiration.

One of the elements this week's photographs have in common is clouds which brings me to reason number two about why April is one of my favorites. It is where the skies transition from winter to spring, and whether they are bringing spring snow or rain the clouds are no longer the low clouds of winter. The clouds themselves become an art form.

Day 109

The skies become noisy. I like the use of that term with New Mexico clouds. I first read it in a photography article about what makes a good black and white landscape photograph. He meant busy or complicated but clouds this time of the year also begin to become noisy in a very real way because we can get thunder snow or thunder showers.

Day 106

And the building of towering thunderheads become an afternoon event. I probably spent too much time watching clouds. But they do make a landscape and it is always good to know where the landscape will most likely produce great towering stacks of clouds to digitally record. Fortunately one of the best spots is the hill across from my house. The clouds are leaving the volcanic plateau of Taos and being thrust high enough to clear the mountain range between there and here.

Day 107

Day 112

New Mexico has an alarming amount of clear blue skies but they are largely boring. Clouds make the mountain range because of the shadows the cast on the peaks and fields of snow.

Day 110

 Frequent readers of this blog and fans of my photography on Binford-Bell Studio Facebook page are familiar with my favorite places, but the photographs above and below are from a new spot. One which usually has tourists everywhere, Monte Verde Lake at Angel Fire Resort. But in April it is free of most visitors except for the newly arrived Canadian Geese. Don't bother looking. On the morning I took these two shots they were not there.

Day 111

But the clouds were.