Week 52 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 357

As noted in last week's blog my numbering is off. But this blog is about the last eight days of the year. And a very busy time. Easy to pop into a greenhouse and do some orchid photos. Or explore again the neighborhood.

Day 359

Day 358

But I also enjoyed playing around with a selfie and the new stain glass fairy in the studio window. The selfie is for possible entry into an exhibit in February focusing on artist selfies.

Day 360

The fairy I got at the new Art Up Holiday Market. I like buying art from other artists. And during a successful show there is a lot of cross buying.

Day 361

And when I am behind in photos for the week I can almost always depend on a few of my old reliables. Loved the light on the Sangre de Cristos. I stopped to take a photo from a favorite spot to show how very little snow is on the peaks at this late time in December. 

Day 362

 And ponds are always a winner for me. Loved the ice reflections. And clouds in New Mexico are always a winner.

Day 363

Day 364/365

Have a Happy New Year.

Week 51 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 350

 It occurred to me a few weeks back that I have erred in the numbering of days. I used to check carefully and check in with calendar sites to be sure I was right. Life has been rather off track of late with pickup repairs and political panic and a winter which has not made an appearance. I did go back a couple months and check my sequencing. The mistake has to be further back than October. But then I decided what did it matter. It is only a way to caption photographs.

I have done this 365 day challenge for a number of years and continue it in part because it allows me a way to sort and rate my photographs. These are the best of a week with my camera.  A week I can firmly put as belonging to a specific week of a specific year.

I will no doubt do it again in 2018. But I am aware I am a little off. It will be really obvious next week. Next week will also have an extra day because of when the year ends. And if forecasts are correct it will also have no snow. When I first posted Day 350 on Binford-Bell Studio a fan noted it looked like fall and not deep December. The sameness of the landscape is why this week I took the camera inside. The weather was still nice outside for walks but it was just the same as it had been before.

Day 351

Day 352

Day 353

Day 354

Day 355

Day 356

Week 50 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 343

 All seven pictures this week were taken at Eagle Nest Lake State Park. I live within an easy drive from three state parks and every year buy an annual pass just so I can park and photograph the treasures around me. All three, Cimarron Canyon, Coyote Creek, and Eagle Nest Lake are known for their fishing, but I love them most when nobody is there to take advantage of that. On the day I took these photos nobody was there at all. There was no wind, and while it looked as if it could snow more but it didn't.

I was early for some appointment, which was so unimportant I have forgotten, and stopped in at the main boat dock just to kill time and maybe catch a pelican or two. The lake was like glass and only a few small ducks and fish feeding disturbed the surface. Frequent followers of my photography blogs will know I love a good reflective surface. I find them mostly on ponds and not large lakes so this was a delight.

Day 344

 Eagle Nest lake was created by a group of ranchers who built their own dam to hold water which is used to irrigate ranch land from here to Raton. The dam is in the V between the two hills which mark the beginning of Cimarron Canyon.

Day 345

I loved the colors of that overcast day. The white from a bit of snow on the ground, the gold grasses and red willows, and the deep blue of the mountains. A lot of my photography is still used as reference for paintings. People believe I make up all my colors, and even that I am guilty of photo manipulation. Yes, I do that. I like to say of my paintings that they are what you think you saw. And I do play with digital images, but all the colors in these photographs, even the one directly below, are due to changing light during my hour killing time.

Day 346

Day 347

Day 348

Day 349

Week 49 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 336 - Reflections on Eagle Nest Lake

It has been a warm and dry winter so lakes and ponds had not frozen when we at last received a measurable first snow. It was a winter wonderland. For a photographer bored by day after day of the miasma between fall and winter it was a call to sally forth with the camera. The snow only lasted during a brief morning interval, but at times it was quite heavy, sticking to branches and fence posts. 

Day 337 - Snow just beginning

And at times heavy enough it obscured the landscape. I have stopped at the same place on the county lane below and recorded it in fall, summer and winter. It changes with every season but the same arrangement of trees calls me to photograph it yet again. 

Day 338 - Down a Snowy Lane

But my favorite aspect of this particular winter snow was that up to this point the temperatures had been very warm, especially at night, and none of my favorite water features were frozen. I got reflections of the water and snow flakes falling at the same time. Those photographs which follow were just those I liked the most. 

Day 339 -  First snow

Day 340

Day 341

Day 342

Week 48 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 329

 I got out of the studio with the camera last week. Firewood was delivered and I got it stocked. And the pickup brake system was fixed. The wind stopped and we finally got some snow. New photo opportunities opened up like reflections on still ponds with ice beginning to form.

Day 330

Day 331

Day 332

Day 333

Day 334

Day 335

Week 47 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 322
Paph Petula's Dandy Lady Slipper Orchid

This week is about color. And dawns and orchids. It was also about getting the breaks fixed on my pickup and finally having a supply of firewood delivered. These activities kept me home bound or on a short leash. Three of this last week's photographs were taken from the studio deck where I have installed the new heated door mat. That means I can stand barefooted and take pictures of the dawn. It is November and we should have snow. But we don't. Which is good since I was totally out of firewood. 

I was chained at home waiting for a delivery of two cords which did not happen. In exasperation I sought another supplier. The last photo in this blog is a progress picture of stacking firewood. I take pride in stacking my own. And I was waiting for the call from my mechanic on the replacement of the master brake cylinder on my truck. So time to sit before the computer and play with photographs. Four of this week's photos are digitally manipulated. I am, after all, a painter. And I pour my skies in a landscape painting. And they can look a lot like Day 323 and 328.

Day 323

Day 324
Phalaenopsis

Day 325
Cattleya

Day 326
New Mexico Ranch Pickup

Day 327
New Mexico dawn

Day 328

Firewood being stacked

Week 46 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 315

Going to get this week's photo blog done early. And interject a bit of a change up from my usual count down. Several of this week's images have another version and, as in the case of the photograph below, have appeared in a weekly blog in that other treatment.

Day 316

Week 44 - Black and White

I think in the case of the old Questa church there is merit in either version.

Day 317

Day 318

The color original

And while I am a lover of color I find the black and white version of this cottonwood grove better artistically. Maybe I will have to try the same thing with dawns. Though that seems unthinkable. 

Day 319

Day 320

The original photograph

In this day of photoshopping everyone asks, "But what did the original photograph look like. And above you have the answer. I also did this one in black and white.  Which brings us to the question of why? Sometimes a photograph has good bones. There is something in the photograph you liked when you took it, and even when it was uploaded to the computer but it just does not shine through. In day 320 it was the lines of the trees and their reflections in the water. The version I finally posted shows that off best.

In black and white

Below is the caretaker's old red pickup. If you are a follower of my photographic blogs or Facebook page you will recognize this truck. But I am still looking for the ultimate picture of it. I love the red on freshly fallen snow but mostly the red gets in the way. There is another picture of this truck coming this week in my daily posts.

Day 321

The old red pickup