Sidetracked Charley

Windows off Main Trinidad, Colorado Every dying town has its cave people. I have been doing research on the Village of Angel Fire, New Mexico for an article I just finished writing. I live five miles south of the village near what was once the town of Black Lake. It once had a store and a school and a church and a post office. Now Black Lake is where they shot the Montana scenes for Lonesome Dove. I love old towns with history. Angel Fire is not old and it does not have history. No old school house or cemetery with tell tale dates to contemplate. It has no grand buildings or even a real main street. No sidewalks. Angel Fire was incorporated as a village in 1986 severing itself from the ski resort of the same name opened in 1965. The resort is still upset. As I was preparing to write this blog it dawned on me I have no pictures of Angel Fire. It has nothing worthy to photograph beyond the mountains which surround it. It has no park like Los Alamos, also a young town, and wh...

On the Road to Raton Had the cataract taken out of my right eye on the 25th and on the 29th drove to Trinidad and Raton. If my first reaction after surgery was that the world has edges, my reaction on the familiar road to Raton were the colors. Who knew the plains could be so colorful even in a drought. Distant Volcanic hills Vision is about light, color and definition. Painting is about all those and sometimes lack of definition as Monet proved. Photography is supposedly about light. Though lately it seems to be about pixels and hyper definition. A photographer friend and I got into a discussion about the differences in photography as a craft and photography as an art. We were, as artists frequently, critiquing the judging on a recent show. And talking about the ones we will not enter again because of the judging. I was thinking about that and color, light and definition as I drove. It takes effort and money to enter shows. I do it to expand name recognition and audien...