Week 17 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 113

More doors, windows and openings. The door on the right is contemporary and I believe being weather aged to sell as old. It is leaning against a real old double door which is not installed. It seems to be a match of the door below.

Day 114

And next to this shop of doors is an old log structure with a window looking through to a door. 

Day 115

The facade of the shop with the doors I have photographed. And with another unique door.

Day 116

Not a door or a window but these three trees lined up like a colonnade of arches.

 

Day 117

Arches were more common in constructions of the past. I miss them in modern design.

Day 118

Day 120

The AT&SF rail station in Raton is a celebration of arches and curves. It almost looks more like a eastern mosque than a southwestern building.

Week 16 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 106

For those becoming tired of trees this week is all about doors and windows and openings. I love old windows and doors, and old architectural elements like arches and cornices. At one time I wanted to be an architect but the University of New Mexico was not allowing women into that degree path. So I settled on Fine Art with an emphasis on architecture, especially historic architecture as found in art history courses.

Most of this week's photographs are from the old town area of Raton, New Mexico. It is undergoing a revival spurred by some government grants available to keep the centers of our old town vital.

Day 107

The archway below is a new addition to this historic area. The park framed in this arch was the site from a Fred Harvey hotel which fell to the bulldozer in an era where we did not prize our history as much. It was in the same architectural style as the train station featured in Day 111.

Day 108

Day 109

Day 110

Day 111

Day 112 is from Arroyo Seco which will have its doors featured next week.
It is leaning against an old log wall. On the Taos side of the mountain history is for sale ins pieces you can add to your fake adobe to look historic. Buyer beware because some Indonesian countries have become very good at faking old doors. The one below, however, is probably real because it is missing a piece. And the photograph is real.

Day 112

Laughlin Peak - A Creative Process Blog

Laughlin Peak from the Ocate Side

Laughlin Peak is one of three volcanic cones in the Raton/Clayton Volcanic Field which creates the Fat Grass country of northeastern New Mexico. Its two sister mountains are Eagle Tail and Tinaja Mountain . All on private land now they can still be seen US 64 and once were main navigation points for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail.

As my sister and I four wheeled in her jeep along the ridges of the mountains in my back yard Laughlin Peak was the distant Cinderella Cone I didn't know the name of. It drew my attention whenever it was visible and I had traveled past it on my way from Ocate to La Cuerva to pick raspberries or just avoid Mora on a trip to Las Vegas.

Last summer an artist friend of mine, Carl Swanson, took me on a trip through the fat grass country and I got to see the other side of the mountain.

Laughlin Peak from the east.

It is easy to see why the travelers on the Santa Fe Trail used it as a navigation point and why some chose to go no further but to settle at its base. The grass is tall and springs abound around the mountain's base. The photographic trip I took last June inspired my fat grass series of paintings and this spring a trip through Ocate made me decide to paint Laughlin Peak from the west.

Photography has long been an instrument for me to aid my painting. So taking the picture which opened this blog I modified it to black and white to better draw the mountain. And the road which led up to it.

In black and white

Laughlin Peak is more imposing from the west but the road which seems to lead straight up it to the middle of the mountain was what in my opinion made the painting. My first drawings for the mountain made it a lot taller as if I was drawing its distant past before time and weather lowered it. Part of me was drawing its outline from the west. So the final sketch ended up being a compromise between the two sides of it.

West side colors laid in

In keeping with my style the peak ended up more colorful. I also identified more with its west face than the green east side. And no way was I going to do the pure blue sky of the photograph. There is something about Laughlin which seems stormy even on the best of days.

Raven Road
18 x 28 watercolor on artists canvas
$1250

And in the final painting it is all about the road.

As I prepared to do this process blog I found other photographs I had taken of this imposing part of the landscape of the high plains of New Mexico. And one in particular I want to paint.

Laughlin Peak from another angle

The rocks in the foreground are a volcanic burp. And in the middle foreground is a volcanic rift. Laughlin and its sister mountains look really peaceful these days.

I realize this isn't my normal process blog. But not all of the creative process is about the application of paint. Some of it is just a head trip. Why does an artist pick that subject and that angle on the subject is part of the process. 

Week 36 - 2015 in Photographs

Day 246

I thought for a while it was going to be a black and white week. First three are. It was largely due to the smoke from the west coast fires being blown in to the state. No it did not turn all the colors off, but it took the blue out of the skies. Landscape photos with white skies just are not good. Black and white seemed to solve that issue. And framing the shot or cropping it to minimize or eliminate skies. It was days of smoky skies.

Day 247

Fortunately I have become a lot more comfortable with black and white post processing. And even without noisy, or cloud filled skies, I managed.

Day 248

Day 249 was an attempt to work with color on the same grey day as the photos above. A filter I love using on old cars managed to get some blue in the sky.

Day 249

And the skies at dawn are not that blue to begin with. But dawn was when they were most likely to have some blue in them because the smoke laid down and became haze in the valleys. Day 250 was taken on the Road to Raton to drop off paintings at the International Bank Exhibit. I always allow enough travel time to stop and take pictures when going somewhere.

Day 250

Then there is the approach of using the gray skies to your advantage. They do take distracting details out of the background like the mountains barely visible in this truck photo. I obscured them even more with a vignette treatment. I very much like this handling of an old International truck I have photographed before at the Eagle Nest Museum. It did require getting down on the ground for the angle. Aah, the sacrifice us photographers make.

Day 251

If the blue goes out of the sky it goes out of the reflections of the sky as well but not as much. In my years of doing pond reflections I have found the sky reflected in the water is almost always more blue than the sky itself so I seldom take photographs with the sky and the water in them. The haze did seem to fog the reflection so I worked with that and minimized the saturation of this photograph. It brought out the ripples made by a fish breaking the surface. This was how I worked up to black and white originally. It gives the photo an aged look I quite like.

Day 252

The smoke is now gone so bright colors will be more featured in the coming week of photographs. Check daily posts out at Binford-Bell Studio.

Week 19 of 2014 One Photo A Day

Day 127

No, it is not spring here yet. This geranium was in a green house right after watering. I like flowers with drops of water on them.

Day 128
Somewhere west and south of Raton, New Mexico

There is something about the eastern plans of New Mexico which makes me want to do photos I take there in black and white or sepia. Maybe it is the drought which seems to have robbed the area of color the last few years. Or maybe it is the call of history. This group of trees is not far from the ruts of the Santa Fe Trail. Or maybe in spite of the color of the first photo I was sort of in a monochromatic mood.

Day 129

 The aspens in this photo will be green soon but for the moment they are leafless. The structure of the branches can be seen clearly. And the reflection highlights the trunks.

Day 130

The glass door was mono was of all clear glass with textures. But the textures picked up the colors beyond the door and turned it into "stained glass."

Day 131
Early Morning Light

The world gets color from bands of light and what is reflected and what is absorbed. In the early mountain dawn it seems to be almost glowing. The spiderweb of electrical lines through the frosty forest was too spectacular to pass up.

Day 132

The same enchantment with muted, almost monochromatic tones, attracted me to this little pot on a marble counter with the morning light coming in window.

But I had to end the week the way I began it with vivid color. This time of an orchid.

Day 133

Today it snowed and I had a wonderful time with my dogs and camera. No doubt some of those photos will be in the next weeks photos. BTW snow pictures are also monochromatic.

Sneak Peek of Photos to Come

My picks of 365 days in pictures

2013 was the second year that I joined in with a couple other photography friends to post a picture a day on my Fanpage Binford-Bell Studio on Facebook. At the end of this year it will be 365 pictures. And here 52 blogs (one per week). I have some obvious favorites but I began to wonder which were the best 12 (one best for each month). I am leaving that up to my fans.

I will write a blog with the favorites of all my followers after the new year. If you want to participate just review the 52 blogs and leave a comment on this blog as to your six favorites. List the week number of the blog and the day number of the photograph.

I thought I would lead off with a few of my favorites picked rather randomly this morning. BTW I had a hard time with January, February and March. And there were too many in May, June, July and August. November did not resonate with me either. September and October are oddly lacking in stand out photos too given it was fall.

Burn by J. Binford-Bell / Day 159
Currently being exhibited in the ANMPAS show in Albuquerque

July and August yielded entirely too many favorites. It is perhaps also the months I took the most photographs if my photo files are to be believed. And went to the most places. Raton, Trinidad, Jackalope in Santa Fe, and various National parks are featured as well as my old time local favorite haunts. Bandelier is featured but not my favorite. I think it deserves a do over this year.

Day 213 - Bandelier Cliff

Day 305

 Both the photo above and the one below were taken in November. What a difference a a week can make and outside versus inside a green house.

Day 312 

 I finally stopped on one of my numerous trips to Raton this year and took the picture below of a truck at a junkyard outside of Cimarron. Lots of old trucks caught my attention  in 2013. And a lot of Jackalope pictures like the one below the truck. What a mint of photographic opportunities is the Santa Fe import store. They were all taken in July but every time I ran short of a photo to post I would go back to that folder in My Pictures and dust off another.

Day 226 posted in August

Day 228 - posted in August

 The umbrella below I have set under before and since but on that particular day in July the light and shadows were just right.

Day 195 posted in July

Trinidad, Colorado also figures high in the total of photos for 2013. I made four trips to Trinidad and am dying to go again. I have not gotten anywhere close to recording all the interesting visual images in the historic Colorado Mining town. As the picture below of the opera house announces it was in its heyday in the late 1800's.

Day 156

What was the Day number one for 2013? The photograph below. For the last photo of the years stay tuned. BTW I took way more than 365 photos. I have way more photo blogs than 52 and way more facebook albums on my Fanpage than 12.

First photo of 2013

Week 22 - 365 Day Challenge 2013

Day 148 - Swallows over the Rio Grande
Rio Grande del Norte National Monument

The photographic week began slowly, and found me looking back at other May photo folders. Swallows Over the Rio Grande was taken on a day of spectacular photographs and so slipped to the back of my consciousness. Another pass through the 200 plus photos I took on that particular day recovered this gem. The swallows did not show up on the thumbnail. Pays to slideshow through your photos more than once.

Day 149 - Rain on the distant mountains

And another photo from that same day. Not overlooked but shuffled behind in posting. I post photos in so many ways other than just the 365 Day Challenge albums. The black and white treatment of clouds made a blog or two and here and there an album. But this one does deserve pride of place.

Day 150 - On the Road to Raton

Then it was off to Raton again with the camera in the passenger seat. And a chance to record more noisy clouds and finally a bit of green. Various framings of this scene made my cover photo on Facebook all too briefly, and a blog on reveal truth in Sidetracked Charley. The new green of the trees made this photo so black and white treatment obviously was not going to work.

Day 151 - The Under a Dark Cloud

Taken the same day as Day 150 above it. Same road within just a few miles. Just looking a different direction. In fact I was photographing some stock pens and took my advice of looking behind me. None of the stock pen photos made the cut this week. Obviously one of those subjects which needs another look.

Day 152 - Makeshift Memorial
Rio Grande Gorge

Not sure why this one popped into the middle of the week. It came from the folder of the first two photos in this week. And was one not posted in the previous week.  I end up with more pictures as possibles in each week and sometimes they do not get pride of place and sometimes they get shuffled to the next week. And it got posted the morning I was heading out to another photo trek. Once again to Raton.

Day 153 - How Much is that Doggy in the Window

This time I took my photography buddy, Jessica Duke. That is her reflection in the window. I was into reflections on main street Trinidad, Colorado. This one with my friend, the dog and the street behind  was an obvious winner. I am told the gallery dog's name is Loosa, short for Appaloosa. Jessica is chimping. That is where you review the photos you just took in the window on back of your camera. We do not know why chimping but it has become our new favorite photography term.

Day 154 - Ode to a Canary

I will end the week with the miner's canary. It is a huge sculpture in Trinidad of a canary in a cage. It stands by the Coal Miner's Memorial. I snapped off a couple quick "we-were-here" sort of reference pictures but could not resist a couple more artistic shots of the subjects. Maybe next week you will even get the Coal Miners.