The Monastery

The Monastery of Christ in the Desert is 13 miles off Hwy 84 NW of Santa Fe and not far from Ghost Ranch. This photograph was taken inside. The high windows over the altar show the sandstone cliffs, many hundreds of feet tall. There are three crosses on top of the cliffs.

This will be very tough in the darkroom. All the dark portions will show any dust.

Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods is a collection of natural rock formations within the city limits of Colorado Springs. There are terrific walking trails that are wheel chair accessible and beautiful climbing for the serious rock climbers (permits required). These two shots show the "Three Sisters" formation and a climber on one pinnacle with his/her rope handler below.

Cadet Chapel

The Cadet Chapel at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is quite a remarkable building. It is up against the Front Range of the Rockies. There are four places of worship. These interiors are in the Christian portion.

New rolls developed!

I developed two rolls of Agfa APX 400 successfully Monday. I had to wait for a good sunny day to stabilize the temperature, critical for film developing. With radiant floor and clouds the house isn't that warm, especially with the price of propane!

These shots should be Garden of the Gods and the Cadet Chapel at the Air Force Academy, both in C Springs.

Developing film

Back to developing film. I have a couple rolls to do and the Cadet Chapel at the AF Academy in Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods must be on them. Hmm. Wonder what else?

If you have questions about developing film, post here and I will answer for all!

Morada in Abiquiu

Abiquiu is NW of Santa Fe on Hwy 84. Both Ansel Adams and Geogia O'Keeffe lived or worked there. A circuitous route lands you at this Morada, a small structure associated with a church. Two men were remudding and the rains came just as I snapped this. The men allowed us inside.

The Sangre de Cristos are in the background.

I'm back!

Sorry, forgot how to get into the blog. Password I know; e-mail, well, I have a few!

Twitter Power

Thru Twiiter, we got to know someone who knows someone and on Nov 11 we will be on a Las Vegas NV (there is also a Las Vegas here in NM) radio show for 1/2 hour to talk about our photographs and business. More to follow on times, but it is also going to be rebroadcast on the internet.

Where the Taos art is hiding

The quality of art has, in our opinion, dropped over the last decade. This past weekend was the annual Taos Art Orginization studio tour. We went to a few and what we saw was art no longer in galleries, but sold privately. Some of it was quite spectacular.

Galleries here are charging at least 40% and many 50%. If they have a buyers' list, that's one thing. But most have no clue as to what inventory they have! So for a $1,000 piece you are forking over $500 for what?

Christopher Lowell

Lowell has started a new web cast on interior design:

www.ow.ly/27dAB

We met him a month ago and he is exactly like he is on TV. Truly an engaging person.

Pilgrimage to Hernadez

Ansel Adams' "Moonrise Over Hernadez" is considered by most to be his finest photograph (although his photographs of Half Dome certainly compete) and is considered by many to be the finest black and white photograph ever taken.

Adams was driving from Ghost Ranch to Santa Fe when he spotted the moon rising over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. He realized he didn't have much time, so he stopped and grabbed his 8x10 and tripod (not easy as they weighed a lot) and set up. He did not have his light meter but Adams, known for his "seat of the pants" style, knew the luminosity of the moon and took his photograph.

Wednesday we decided after a trip to Los Alamos to find the spot. We knew the mile markers on 84 and the church. While we found the spot, buildings had gone up and the trees had grown. Oh well, at least we got there!

A visitor for dinner

Setting up outside for dinner and this fella (or lady, I didn't stop or stoop to ask) was near the table. Similar to a bull snake, this one was clearly a juvenile at about 2 ft long and as thin as a marker pen. Quite harmless and certainly very afraid of us. It disappeared as we loaded up the table with dishes.

Digital vs Film

Not a rant, just an observation. WE went to a private art show Sunday afternoon and I carried my Leica M6. Sat at a table talking over a glass of wine, and people carrying multi-hundred dollar DSLRs would walk by and remark "Now that's a camera!"

Sue went to Namibia several years ago on a photo tour. All the others had rushed out and spent hundreds buying the best DSLRs they could find, and what they found was they couldn't use them without the manual. These cameras are so automatic that it is nearly imposiible to take a photo of an animal through the branches of a nearby tree without the auto-focus grabbing onto the branches! Not a problem with the manual focus on the M6.

DSLRs are very noisy. If Sue could get the first shot with her M6 (a rangefinder, very quiet) it was great, but as soon as the auto-everything cameras fired up, including the IR focus, the animals turned tail. This resulted in numerous "butts of Africa" photos.

Digital has a place in journalism, but has problems with wild life!

A Monsoon cookout

Monday we decided to cook outside; summer is ending at this elevation and we will see dustings of snow at 12,000 ft in a few weeks. About 5:00 I looked at the on-line radar and saw "scattered" (or is it "isolated") storms. So about 5:15 I fired up the charcoal and put a few things on the table, both grill and table in a lee and under a portal.

Rain drops started about 5:40 and ten minutes later I put the Texas toast on the grill. Burgers, jalapenos and cheese ready, I moved the toast back to keep warm and started the burgers as the rain started to pour down. I was OK until the wind came up. Got the burgers flipped, added the jalapenos and cheese and got soaked. Cheese started to melt and Sue took the stuff inside in pouring rain but safely covered. Zapped them in the microwave and had a great meal as the storm continued.

The Gorge Bridge

The Gorge Bridge spans the Rio Grande Gorge and is about 10 miles NW of Taos. The two lane bridge is about 650 ft above the river, which in the late spring has Class IV rapids and can be quite exciting as well as dangerous. Unlike the Grand Canyon, the Gorge was not carved by water over millions of years. Instead, it is part of the second largest rift valley in the world, second to Olduvai Gorge in Africa. The sides of the Gorge near Taos are separating at something like a millimeter a year. The rift starts near Colorado and down in Albuquerque it is about ten miles wide and in the sounthern part of NM maybe 200-300 miles wide.

The Gorge and the bridge are not for the faint of heart. Here's a couple shots I took recently, from the west side. The bridge is shown and the mountains are the Sangre de Cristos. The other shot looks south towards the Picuris Mountains. Thank goodness for chain link fences.

The altitude wins again!

Cousin whom I haven't seen for 30 years visited from Austin. Had a great lunch at the Trading Post, one of the top places in town, with a couple beers. Took her out to the Gorge then back to the Plaza and home. She got out of the car and said "I gotta get back to Santa Fe before I collapse". 7,000 ft catches up with low landers.

My sister visited many years ago, lunch with wine/beer, sightseeing, good snacks and drinks about 6-7. About 7:30 she said back at our condo "It's only 7:30, what shall we do? She was in bed at 8:00.

Taos Art Museum Russia Night

We both submitted a photograph to the TAM (Fechin) Russia Night auction. The museum displayed them together! We have the BW photos with Sue's "Homage to Cartier-Bresson" taken from the top of a tower at Notre Dame on the top, and my Bonne Chance! below.

Sunrise Aug 12

There are some advantages of waking up at 6:00AM. This is one. The string of chilis is a ristra.

Coyote Den!

Well, the den has enlarged. Coyotes, it seems, do not abandon the den after the kids are born. My stick is still there to warn anyone walking, and the water tray I fill daily is drained by morning.

Photo Sale!

Sue just sold a nice photograph of the Picuris Mountains (Pick-yer-ee), taken in the winter out our south window.

Film

Got my developing "straight jacket" out this AM and loaded two rolls from the last few days. Even though we have double roll developing cannisters, I had to use one each because we had an Agfa APX 400 and a Fomapan and they need different dilusions. Both came out fine! "Film at 11".

Cooke City, MT

We went thru Cooke City in 2007 and no doubt drove right past the campground where the bear attachs occurred. Here is a shot from Cooke. Soda Creek runs along the road thru the town.

Heather Ward

If you get on www.redbubble.com, look for Heather Ward. She is a young woman from Los Alamos I saw on RB, and she BW/gray does charcoal drawings of animals that are so well done I even asked her what kind of camera she used! In fact, many others did as well.

The Enchanted Circle

Today we are off with a friend. He needs to hand out some political material but he also knows the CoC President in Red River (she owns a gift shop & deli as well, hey it's a small town!) So we will head in the reverse route of an old fall bike race. Up to Questa (30 mins) over to Red River, down to Eagle Nest, then Angel Fire and back. We start at 7,000 ft and Bobcat Pass east of RR is 10,000. AF sits at 8,400 and Palo Flechado Pass on the way back to Taos is over 9,000.

Stars in the making?

"Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup."

We drove over the the Angel Fire Viet Nam Veterans Memorial, their gift shop may want some of our photos we have taken there. Afer we went to an AF BBQ place Zebidayahs. A local fim was being shot so we sat and ate as extras right next to the two stars. We were directly in line with the camera! Movie name is Big Foot Election. Hope we make the cut!

Cooke City, MT

Tragedy in Cooke City, Montana, northeast of Yellowstone on the way to Cody. Cooke City is basically a one road town, usually closed in the winter, and it has some nice sandwich shops. The campground where the bear attach took place is certainly right off the road. A bear attacked tents, and the folks had taken all the precautions (food either hanging from trees or in locked metal storage containers).

We drove thru Cooke City in the summer of 2007. We were shaking as leaving Yellowstone, a ranger had us stop and she said (her voice shaking!) "keep driving until the next pull in; there's a grizzly with a meal maybe 50 yards off the road!" We did and the grizzly was there, having an early lunch.

The photograph is the Bear Tooth Mountains viewed to the west from downtown Cook City.

Sad show

We went to a closing party for a show, held at a local restaurant 4-6 on Thursday. Not surprisingly, give the day and time, there were few people there. Worse though, the art was poor and included obvious giclee photos; to me they stand out like a sore thumb next to darkroom work. Paintings were also quite amateurish. It was a benefit show and nothing sold!

Once Upon a Time in the West

Possibly the greatest western ever made, badly edited when released 40 years ago and bad review. Uncut it is a masterpiece. Henry Fonda plays Frank, the meanist SOB you will ever see him play. Bronson, Claudia Cardinale and Robards. Fimed largely in Monument Valley with individual frames that are poster quality!

Fuller Lodge Art Center

FLAC is located in Los Alamos, abouy 80 minutes away. Los Alamos is vastly different that during WW II.

www.fullerlodgeartcenter.com

Postcards to restaurant!

Our neighbor owns this restaurant maybe 15 minutes away. This is a shot now turned into postcards (2,000) that he will hand out with the final bill! Summer view north to Taos Mountain just next to the tree trunk.

As our web site is on the back side, great advertizing!

www.stakeoutrestaurant.com

Taos Art Museum

TAM will have its annual "Russia Night in Taos" to support the museum which shows works by Nicolai Fechin. The art donated to their auction does not have to be Russian and my choice is my cat "Bonne Chance!"

This photograph was taken in 2002 near Montmartre on the hill above Paris. I studied geometry as a grad student and I was trying to capture the cobblestones. The negative that preceeds this shot is just that. When I took the second exposure, the cat ran across! Because this was B&W film, I did not know until I returned from Paris, and my film developer said "You got the cat!"

No set up, no photoshop, this is nearly a full negative!

The weather changes

A few days ago we hit 101F; today mid-60's with rain all around. I celebrated by putting my lower back out. A simple callous on my heal (teach me to go barefoot) led to a step imbalance and I spent Friday in bed with a heating pad.

Shooting the Past

This was a three part BBC series rolled into a movie by Netflix. I assume readers like photography and this is well worth searching for as it is hard to find. From the start I could not stop watching! Not to give away the story, but a country home (think of Howard's End) is being foreclosed on and an investor wants to buy, to either tear it down or condo-ize it - I forget. But the stately home has hundreds of thousands of photos from WW II and after and the buyer is...?

BBC at its best!

101F Monday

Like most, we do not have a/c. Rarely need it as house are built well so you cool down at night w/50F and close the windows in the morning. This works well when the temp stays less than 90 but Monday we hit 101. I developed film this morning and had to use ice cubes to get the fluids down to 68F. Tomorrow we are supposed to return to low 80's.

Near Taos, I

I will try to describe a series of short trips around Taos. The first takes you east of Taos (7000ft) on 64, up over Palo Flechado (Broken Arrow) Pass (about 9000 ft) and down into Angel Fire. AF is in the Moreno Valley at 8000 ft. Heading towards Eagle Nest, where it was -47F one winter and that's where the thermometer broke, you pass a Viet Nam Memorial on the left, built by the father of a slain soldier.

Continue north to Eagle Nest and head east toward Cimarron. You will pass by the Palisades, with a nice stream with good fishing. The movie 3:10 to Yuma was fimed in and around Taos, and the interiors were filmed in the St James Hotel in Cimarron.

A good day trip from Taos and lots of photo ops.

The myth of Siberia

Sue and I went to Russia in 2005 and 2008, near the end of June. These trips included Moscow as a stop over, and two Siberian cities. I'd like a dollar for each time I have told a person we went to Siberia last summer and they say "Wasn't it cold?"

OK, today here in Taos it is 95F. In central Siberia it is 37C (that's about 100F). Because of the high latitude, much like Alaska, at the end of June the sun sets about 11PM and rises about 2AM. The daily summer temp is usually 90F and it never cools!

Buffalo

We went to Yellowstone a few years ago, about a good two days from Taos and over three scary climbs in CO (Durango - Grand Junction). If you ever get a chance, start at Jackson and head north into the Teton Nat'l, and then continue int o Yellowstone. When we went the entry was $25 per car, seven days with unlimited in and out and covered both parks. The little fella in the photo wasn't far from me (21mm superwide lens). They sleep on the paved roads at night to get the heat, so driving then is not a good idea!

Allergies

A couple times a year I get killed by allergies. In the spring it seems to be the junipers as they come out. Now, it is chamisa and grasses. I used to take Zyrtec, but while it works, I ended up sleeping all day, I went to Taos Herb and got a Chinese med Bi Yan Pian that works. Usually 3-4 a day but 3-4 every four hours if things are bad. No real side effects. I ran out yesterday and took a half Zyrtec and slept about 10 hours!

More wildlife

Some come in the house. The occasional mouse, usually dead and hidden some where. Having lived in New England, the smell of a dead mouse is quite specific and lasts about 72 hours. In a New England house they usally die inside a wall.

Well, several years ago we had a desert toad, quite alive, come in. It hid in the fireplace (summer, no fire). We released it.

"Monsoon-Like" Conditions

One of my winter pet peeves is when I am sitting in front of a fire, it is 10F outside and it is snowing horizontally with 30 mph winds, and the weather calls it "blizzard-like". My summer version is "monsoon-like". This time of year the usual weather comes from the south, often Baja, and we get afternoon gully washers for maybe 15 minutes (it is very unusual to have a long, rainy day here).

So, what's a blizzard and what's a monsoon?

The Quail

We have quail, very funny birds as while they can fly they prefer to walk. When scared they will lift off about ten feet up and fly maybe 100 feet. A friend of ours years ago said you can't hunt them as you are likely to kill your dogs.

A few days ago we saw babies! Mom had about a dozen out, certainly for the first day. The babies were literally as big as the thumbnail joint on your hand. But they were running around screaming at Mom to feed them. Days later they had doubled in size; Mom must be a good cook.

More about country life

We bought this house in 2000 and in 2001 sold a house outside Albuquerque and moved here full time. The night the big furniture was delivered we set up the master bed and put the TV in the trastero (Mexican cabinet). A local company came out and ran a length of coax down from the roof so we had one working TV. This required leaving a window open about the width of RG 58 (1/2 inch). We went to dinner to celebrate.

When we got back, and Sue called from the bedroom that there was a snake. I said "It's just coax!" and went in to find her standing on the bed. There was a three foot snake on the floor. She played "Marlin Perkins - while so-and-so wrestles the alligator I'll be on top of the RV mixing drinks" and directed me to get rid of the snake. I got a broom and the fire screen, opened the outside door and shoo'd the thing out.

Next day while I reposed in the master bath, a snake head poked out from under the vanity - not something you want to see. We stuffed things in the hole.

A couple days later with boxes all around, I walked into the LR and confronted the snake and it hissed. I was ready and got it into a box and taped it shut. I drove it it about five miles away and released it and learned it was a young bull snake, harmless and they eat young rattlers.

Ah! Country life.

Yes, we have rabbits

We live amongst the sage and juniper, and the coyotes and rabbits. They somewhat get along because the coyotes sleep during the day and the rabbits largely at night. If you put out water you will have bunnies; if you ad bired food (they love it on the ground) you will have lots of bunnies! This AM we saw our first baby of the season, maybe about 5" long. The picture is an adult (just center left) maybe 5 ft from me thinking it's hiding. They are very tame. We have food about three feet from our porch door and I can walk past them without them moving!

Coyote!

No fresh tracks into the den, but I went out a 6AM to water and spooked one. It ran off on our dirt road at an estimated 40mph!

Coyote Den!

We have a low patio off our Master bedroom, and about 15 ft past its wall we found the entrance to a coyotes den. Fresh. We have seen an adult jump the 4 ft patio wall and have spooked one at our watering areas before 6 AM. The opening on the flat ground is about 1 ft by 2 ft, a real ankle breaker, so I added a painted post about 4ft tall. The top shot shows the entrance at the end of the black line with my size 9 sneaker in view. The lower shows me at 5'6" as close as I am going to get! Coyotes are nocturnal and since the cubs are probably 4-6 weeks old now they are ready to emerge. Mom wouldn't be too happy if I got closer!

Viet Nam Memorial, New Mexico

Most agree that the Viet Nam war was a terrible event in US history. But most also agree that the troops lost deserve to receive respect for their service. These pictures show the Memorial built by the father of a slain soldier using private funding when the US government failed to take action. The Memorial sits on a bluff below the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and looks out on the 8,000 ft Moreno Valley.

Taos Rodeo

Every year the Taos Sheriff's Posse sponsors a rodeo. This include young and old, with the rodeo part of a tour of competitve events. The riders range from 4 to 84 and the youngest girls outride the boys!

This is the Posse at the start of the event. The right hand mountain between the buildings is Taos Mountain above the Pueblo. It is sacred land and non-Pueblo are not allowed to climb it.

Temp, humidity and altitude

Sunday night the temp dropped to 42F. Clear skies allowed for radiational cooling. The humidty here at 7000ft is about 10% and I know from experience that dehydration can hurt. The worst thing to drink? Water! As I know from a car accident 4 years ago, drinking plain water depletes the salt, potassium and other electrolytes and you pass out. I ended up in UNM Hospital for skull surgery (I hit a tree). I woke up a week after and learned it had taken 12 hours for the doctors to raise my electrolyte levels to where the could operate. The technical term is hyponatremia (not to be confused with hypothermia) and the lay person knows it as water poisoning.

We met a friend on the Plaza in Santa Fe and during drinks he asked why his friends from the west coast (where he had lived) always said they felt worse when they visited and drank water! The secret is to have sports drinks and salt supplements. The great salt debate perpretrated by Bloomberg of NYC is a myth.

About 11AM we went out to hack dead plants over the leach field. Temp 70, cool in the shade, broiling in the high altitude sun. Copious amounts of Gatorade (developed for the Florida Gators football team). It felt like 110F.

Come visit NM but be careful!

Back to the Stakeout

I drove over to the Stakeout about 7AM today (4th) and got the patio shots I wanted including looking thru a gate and down towards the Rio Grande Gorge about a dozen miles away. It's a view the owner and everyone else likes. He has expressed interest but this is a very busy weekend to discuss anything! I'll develop the roll maybe tonight and post some pix soon.

Architecture shots

We are now taking photos of well known buildings and areas in and around Taos.

This is the Stakeout Restaurant, about 1/2 miles up the hills to the east of the main road into taos. The name derived from the fact the the land behind the building was known as the Stakeout Hills, as that is where outlaws hid from the searchers in the 1800's. The restaurant has been open since 1978 and run by a neighbor for about 20 years. The building was originally a private home built by a man who wanted to get away from it all.

http://www.stakeoutrestaurant.com/

Rodeo weather'd out, sort of

Well the Taos Rodeo was scheduled to start a 2:00. Don't know which genius decided to do it that late as we enter monsoon season with afternoon storms. At 1:00 the clouds darkened, lots of lightning and thunder (a small forest fire started in Tres Orejas (three ears) about 25 miles away, smoke visible). We decided not to sit on metal bleachers under a metal roof, so we skipped the rodeo and hungry, we ate at 3:00 as the sun came out, of course. (Penne with crushed spicy Italian sausage and roasted red bell peppers and garlic-parma toasted bread).

Rodeo etc

Oh well, the localrag said the Rodeo Sundaty started at 7:00 and a checker at the store said 9:00 so we grabbed the gear and headed over about 9:30 to an empty arena. It starts at 2:00, and now that we are in monsoon season it is likely to be muddy. Why why why?

We watched probably the best western ever made, me for about the 30th time, last night. "Once Upon a Time in the West" with Henry "Frank" Fonda playing the most despicable character in his career, capable of shooting a young boy and kicking the crutches away from a cripple, causing him to fall. Charles "Harmonica" Bronson seeks revenge on Frank, and Jason "Cheyenne" Robards plays a gunfighter. Rounding out the cast in Claudia "Jill" Cardinale. If you are into serious photography, besides the story this movie is an artistic gem. Most of the movie was filmed in Monument Valley. Many scenes look like rear screen projection but they are not!

Oops!

Well, I took a roll of Agfa 400 to the Taos rodeo parade and developed it following Agfa's rules. Underdeveloped! Tried a test roll and good good results. We thought the roll(s) may have travelled to Siberia and back, but not in carry-on. Today for the rodeo I am using Fomapan 100.

I'll post after I develop it.

It's not the Macy's Day parade!

We went to the Taos Rodeo Parade, all 10 minutes of it. Great small town fun with most lining the street waving to their friends or kids on horses. Got to get into my straightjacket now!

Agfa APX 400 today with the 21mm lens and orange filter.

Coyote!

I went outside this AM and found myself scaring a coyote off our porch. He/she was too fast for me to get my camera. We put out water these days and the coyote had been drinking.

This weekend is the Sheriff's Posse Rodeo and the parade on the Taos Plaza starts at 10:00 so we'll head there for photo ops.

My straightjacket

We recently got one of the bags you stick your arms in to load film into the developing container, so this AM I grabbed a completed roll, put my tools and tank stuff in and three minutes later I was ready to develop. The shots were taken yesterday and include a local B&B that asked us to shoot their grounds.

Santa Fe

We drove to SF today and had drinks at the beautiful Inn of the Anasasi just of the Plaza with a good friend. He's a well known person to be named at a later date who moved away from LA to escape the constant gawkers. Good fun.

Morning ride

We went out early this AM, first to a nearby B&B with gorgeous grounds, not far from us. We have driven by the Adobe and Pines thousands of times but never worked our way in thru the trees to find it until Wednesday. The owners are happy to have us walk around and take photos for eventual cards or larger sized photos.

We also drove up thru Llano Quemado and found a cute small church.

Tornado!

Wednesday I was looking NW from our house as the winds got high. We can see the north end of the Taos Country Club and I saw what appeared to be a dust devil. I joked with Sue "tornado" and then I could see the faint snake headed up a thousand feet. It lasted long enough for Sue to get a cell phone picture. It probably gave golfers excuses to take mulligans!

I was in my birthday suit about to take a shower when I noticed a large gecko (#3) staring at me from the tub. He/she couldn't get out and probably got in on the tumled marble tiles. I put clothes on, got the mesh waste basket, flipped it in and took it outside. Maybe it was afraid of the tornado?

Bonne Chance! wins a challenge

My photograph Bonne Chance! as seen on our web and on Redbubble won a challenge called "Crazy Paving" and has finished second twice!

Gordon

The great gecko invasion

Northern NM, in fact the entire state as well as Arizona, have been hot and dry this spring. Humidity is typically 10-12% and people start talking if it reaches 20%. Taos has banned all outdoor cooking except on gas grills and although we are not in the town we adhere to the rule.

The dryness has driven little geckos inside searching for water. Two trapped so far and returned to nature near where we have water pans for the animals. We feel like we are in a GEICO commercial!

We are moving into monsoon weather and the hope is "rain, then lightning".

Gordon

Hi! Welcome to our blog

Hi!

I have been remiss and am just starting our VistaBWTaos blog. We do BW photography using our two Leica M6 and three lenses (21, 50 and 135mm). Generally we use Fomapan or Agfa film at 100 or 400ASA.

What we saw on June 21st:

We left in late morning and drove from Ranchos de Taos towards Talpa and the Sipapu Ski area. This took us over US Hill, about 9,000 ft but the smoke from the fire near Los Alamos limited photos a bit. Stopped at the base at Sipapu. From there we went east towards Mora and got nice shots of old churches. Taos is celebrating "Return to Sacred Places" this summer so these are apropos.

We came back through the same route but went down toward Penasco. We stopped at the Picuris Pueblo and took shots of the old church. The clouds were building and the filters really enhanced the sky.

The ride is a real yin/yang with the rundown look of Talpa to the beauty of Sipapu, and back down to rundown houses near Mora and on the Pueblo.

We do our own darkroom work. We just got one of the "straight jacket" bags for loading film during the day, so Monday night we had our shots from the day! We also enlarge up to 11x14.

Gordon

We show at the Taos Art Museum (home of Russian painter Nicolai Fechin who left Russia in 1923). We have many pictures in the gift shop.