Week 37 - 365 Day Photography Challenge

Day 253 - Mexican Hats

All my pictures from this week's challenge were taken "on assignment" as it were. That includes the Mexican hat flowers growing along the shoulder of the main road in Angel Fire. Some are more obvious as they include subjects like bicycles on the Enchanted Circle Century Bike Tour. I think I discovered the advantage of just setting up on the side of a road and taking pictures of the strange and unusual that passes by like the old pickup below with a load of firewood, chain saw, spare tire and dog.

Day 254 - Gathering Fire Wood

And sitting at the same spot army trucks passed by like the one below in a small convoy. This one was not the average army green (olive drab). I guess this paint job is for our desert wars. The lilac is from my playing around with color intensities.

Day 255 - Convoy Truck

Day 256 - Cyclists

This is another picture from the Enchanted Circle Century Bike Tour. The cyclists are very brightly clothed but I wanted to see the repetition of the wheels and spokes and legs and that is easier in black and white. I also liked the headless leads in this one. The temptation (maybe even directive) with news photography is to include as much as possible. Editing is the function of the editor. It was nice to frame down to the essentials which is wheels.

Day 257 - Eagle Nest Shop

Eagle Nest, featured in the photo above and the one at the end of this blog, is a town I all too often just pass through or gets reduced down to the thrift shop and the hamburger joint. Photographers will travel miles to get photos of cranes migrating but miss the opportunities in their own neighborhoods sometimes. Who knew this sleepy fishing village at the edge of Eagle Nest Lake could be so colorful.

Day 258 - Rolling through Angel Fire

It was really clear to me when I was taking this photo of cyclists going down the main drag in Angel Fire that my nearest community is not as together as Eagle Nest. And yet Angel Fire is supposedly the bigger tourist attraction and more upscale destination with its ski and golf resort. I tilted the photo to eliminate some really tacky business facades and more telephone lines and poles.

Day 259

Eagle Nest has side walks and boardwalks and empty buildings like every small town these days. The reflections in the windows of empty buildings is a mega draw from me. My reflection is in the right window.

Week 36 - 365 Day Photography Challenge

Day 246

The one problem with this challenge is that it is impossible not to know how very fast the years is going. Just 110 more days from when this picture was posted and going fast it seems. Already there is a touch of fall color on some of the trees. I do not think it will be a spectacular foliage year like last because there was just too much drought before we began getting rain and dew and fog.  It has been a dry week but we are warned to expect more monsoonal moisture.

Day 247

Another look at my old Mack truck. Considering printing out a series of trucks on canvas for an exhibition at my gallery. Chimping back through photos always causes me to see what I missed on the first pass.

Day 248 - Dean Douglas bird houses at Arts About Town

A lot of this week's photos are Also Tooks -- Those photos you snapped quickly when on assignment to take other photos. When I first did freelance writing and photography it was with a film camera knowing I was going to have to turn over the roll of film sometimes to who I was working for. Digital cameras have freed up photographers to insert the random also took photo here and there.

Day 249 - we got puddles

One evening it just rained. At my house it was more than a half inch in less than an hour and we got puddles. And run off which created patterns in the moisture starved earth. The morning walk was a competition with the fur kids to record the patterns in the mud before they put their stamp (paw) of approval on them. Mars if the rover discovered water.

Day 250

Quick shot of the geraniums on the window shelf. The rain which formed the puddles did not tear them all up because of the eave protected them. But it was a reminder that the blooms would not be around forever. Fall is coming all too fast. A couple of the colors I am raising this year have to come in for the winter so I can enjoy them again next summer. This is one.

Day 251 - Market in Eagle Nest

Was in Eagle Nest, just 17 miles from my house, to cover a fund raiser. The afternoon sun was illuminating the shops on the north side of the main drag as it were. The assignment got me out of the house and to this location. This photo, if it were a film roll, is sandwiched between pictures of a barbeque.

Day 252 - On top of Palo Flechado Pass

I was at the rest area for the Enchanted Circle Century Bike Tour on the top of Palo Flechado Pass and killing time between photos of the set up of the relief station for the tour and the first bikers to make it to our location. Butterflies move slower as the days get shorter or cooler. This one allowed me literally up close and personal to photograph. No way was it leaving a diminishing source of nectar. And the early morning sun was wonderful Sunday morning. If I had not agreed to cover the race I would have been home and missed this.

Or this photo below which proves being up at zero dark thirty and setting off on a 100 mile ride - or photographing those doing it - isn't just about young people.

Inspiration