Week 17 - 2018 in Photographs

Day 113 - X marks the spot

X marks the spot and that spot was close to home. I did get down to Santa Fe to buy stretcher bars I missed ordering for the stretching of canvas prints for the Trinidad Photography Gallery exhibit in May. But I didn't bring the camera along. Next week it gets to go with to Trinidad. Love photographing Trinidad. 

Day 114 - Homesteading Geese

But the camera went along on my other errands. The geese were setting up house keeping in local ponds I passed. BTW while they may be called Canadian geese because that is where they breed, according to sites which should know, they also breed in the mountains of New Mexico. So are these New Mexican Geese?

Point of truth on Day 115. I was lucky to have on the big zoom (only to 300), and because of training in my youth to lead the dove with the shotgun. I was able to capture this photo. But I also quickly snapped about ten.

Day 115 - flyby of intruder

Day 116 - Standing Tall Together

More trees. I am putting the digital files of Day 116 into the folder for the next round of prints. It missed the deadline for this show.

Day 117 - the crowd on the shore

While in Santa Fe I picked up a vintage mirror for the studio. The studio is becoming a bit of a cabinet of curiosities. That is good with the upcoming Angel Fire Studio Tour, September 29th and 30th. Check the linked site for updates coming soon.

Day 118 - Selfie of the artist in new mirror

Once photographs were all printed and prepared and boxed for transport I turned a weather eye to the horizon as I prepared the raised beds for planting.

Day 119 - First rain clouds; practice run

Week 16 - 2018 in Photographs

Day 106 - topping of new snow

The week I forgot. I was in the middle of choosing, printing, stretching, and framing photographs for my May Exhibition at the Trinidad Photography Gallery in Trinidad .  And before you ask, none of these are in the exhibit even if they are nice. They missed the deadline. It was a week mostly about animals because they were there to be snapped without me having to go far. I was busy.

Day 107 - One of first arrivals

Day 108 - Sweet doe looking for handout

Day 109 - Dogs at play

Day 110 - Filigree of leaves 

Day 111 - Drumming Tom

Day 112 - Full frontal

Week 15 - 2018 in Photographs

Day 99

 The lead photograph is a still life and then the skies captured my attention as we got wave after wave of weather changes. The lenticular clouds in the photograph below is a signal of changes coming. They build over the mountains along a line between wet and dry fronts. And look like space ships.

Day 100

 And that makes for some interesting dawns and sunsets.

Day 101

Day 102

Day 103

Day 104

Day 105

More Than Taking Photos - A Creative Process Blog

Saint Francis
Being printed on paper

Photography was my fun activity. I used it as a tool to paint from, as a way to attract attention to my Facebook Fan Page, a fun thing to do with my sister and a couple friends, and as an excuse to get out of the house. Somewhere in that process it became more. In these trying economic times I sell far more printed photographs than finished paintings. And generally I had to invest no money until someone told me they wanted a print, what size and what platform - what it is printed on.

I was offered the venue of Enchanted Circle Brewery  where I confronted the art if displaying photographs in some place other than my studio. Up until then I submitted printed photos to exhibits and they displayed them. Basically I was dealing with small numbers, and largely individual decisions as to size and platform. So when I was given the opportunity of a solo exhibition at the Trinidad Photography Gallery I was only thinking the number of printed photographs I had and the number I would need.

Until now the vast majority of my photographs live in digital files on my computer. The especially good ones I post on digital media. It is a huge leap to picking 20 to 30 of those which will look good with others, deciding on size, having them printed, ordering the stretcher bars and frames to make them ready to display.

Fortunately I have a printer, an artist with the necessary equipment, I trust and communicate well with. That is huge. I was not totally aware of how huge that was until I talked to other photographers.

Face to Face
Being printed on canvas

Carol is a painter first and the two of us have hung many an exhibit for an artist group we belong to and that experience helped us pick the photos to print from my jump drive of the acceptable to me. Sitting at her computer we visualized them on gallery walls and picked groups three or five which would compliment each other.

Doesn't help that when it comes to photography I am all over the place. Basically I am a landscape photographer who also loves digitally painting on the computer. And of late I have come to black and white photography.

Storm on the Road to Raton
18 x 28 on artists canvas hanging in my studio

Then to complicate it all more I won two firsts and two seconds in a state contest, one of which was butterfly below. I generally don't do flowers but I have three already printed hanging at the airport I can pull which will go with the one below.

Show Off
Being printed on canvas

I finally decided to throw caution to the winds and print more than I needed so I could pick and choose. I have the brewery to interchange with and what doesn't fit anywhere else goes in the studio.

Supplies as to stretcher bars, frames, and mat board arrive this afternoon via UPS. Well, the first wave. As Carol called me today with changes in sizes I placed more stretcher bar orders. This is all expensive and alters my little hobby to a major part of Binford-Bell Studio. Fortunately there are opportunities beyond the May show in Trinidad to offer my wares for sale. And photographs you can sell more than once. I do limit my signed prints.

Meanwhile I am trying to inventory all my photography going to the show or not and put them on a spread sheet like my paintings. Previously they were written notes in a journal.

Who knew when I said yes to this exhibit it would mean so much work which does not include the camera. It misses me.

Heading Away
Being Printed on Canvas

Situation Normal
Being printed on canvas 30 x 20

Week 14 - 2018 in Photographs

Day 92

This week is all about color. In fact only one black and white treatment of a subject. Maybe it is a spring thing. Was just invited by a new photographic gallery in Trinidad, Colorado to hold a solo exhibit in May. Going through photo files looking at photographs to print and realized I have been far to serious lately. Time to find the joy again. The doorway featured in Day 92 received a lot of love on Binford-Bell Studio posts.

In this weekly blog three of the photographs will be printed and included in the May exhibit.

Day 93

Day 94

Day 95

Day 96

Day 97

Day 98

Week 13 - 2018 in Photographs

Day 85

 This week in photograph began because I could not find a photograph I had taken of one of my favorite old trucks, the International at the Eagle Nest Museum. I was going through photos to be put in my folder for possible prints as we are at the beginning of the art season. Some months ago I began the process of storing photos on external hard drives and jump drives and cleaning up my hard drive on my desktop. So since it was not right there on the immediately accessible files it seemed easier to hop in the car and travel the 12 miles to retake a series. It was a great day for photography.

Day 86

I love old cars and trucks. The rust patterns are fun to play around with in photo editing. And you don't have to worry about the glare off of shiny new paint jobs.

I am doing more playing around with black and white processing and the strong morning sun created great shadows which begged for black and white. The absence of color is featured in three of the four photographs featured this week. The leading photo, Day 85, was taken on the way back from Eagle Nest. Definitely past that golden morning hour all photography books and workshops tout. 

But a photographer friend of mine, Terry Atkin Rowe, just completed a workshop in Santa Fe on black and white landscape photography and shared that the middle of the day is better. I have been playing around with that. It certainly worked on the photograph of Wheeler Peak which leads off this week.

Day 87

 But the trip to Eagle Nest and back also yielded more colorful opportunities to record. The museum has various pieces of equipment with no labels but when have labels been important to a photographer.

Day 88

I have driven by this old car and garage and not stopped to take a picture. There is a house in front which is occupied and I didn't want to be a stalker. Plus the ever present power lines. But I had pulled off the road for the mountain pictures and it only took walking a few feet to point my long lens at the backyard.

You cannot pull over for a picture just anywhere because of the power lines. I am sure I am not the only photographer who has cursed them. But I do believe they have moved or removed some of them. A few weeks back there was a flurry of utility truck activity and now there is an empty power pole or two and areas with no lines across the view. I need to take the trip to Eagle Nest again and see what else is revealed.

Day 89

Day 90

 I end this week with a rose from a greenhouse I tend. And I have posted both the black and white version and the red, red rose version.

Day 91