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.