Sidetracked Charley

  A wonderful gray day that was hideously cold with a biting wind. Fortunately I have mastered the art of taking photographs out of the window of the car. You can even use the window up and down as a tripod of sorts. So after heading north toward Eagle Nest to procure the fresh farm raised eggs from the new chicks, I turned Spock south to the land of the lonesome Dove. I have a series of four pull off's from Hwy 434 which give me a good view of what movie makers thought looked like Montana for the Lonesome Dove. To me they look like the New Mexico where I grew up. The mountain range is the Sangre de Cristos which lie in the far north of the state between Taos and Angel Fire. Wheeler Peak is the tallest but it depends where you are standing as to which looks the tallest. Old Mike usually is mistaken for Wheeler. Today the clouds kept changing the light. I was surprised to find the cattle in the valley of Black Lake. These must have wintered in. Truck loads of cattle generally arrive...

Eagle Nest Lodge Blindly we move toward 2015, poised on the edge of another economic cliff, and being shoved over by a greedy tea party members.  I say blindly because corporate capitalistic America gets us involved in a feeding frenzy of materialism at this time of year when we should be paying attention to the thieves in DC. But being as I am unconcerned with materialism (well, there is a new laptop I am looking at), I was lured by a spring like day so I set forth with camera to record my neighborhood. Yes, escapism, but one can stand just so much of Scrooge (or Scrooges as in GOP Congress), besides I voted and it did no good, but my conscious is clear. So cameras in Big Blue I motored to the thrift store in Eagle Nest, New Mexico and arrived too early for the favorite to be open but just in time for a great series of photos with awesome lighting. There are three major landmarks which I have photographed as a marker of my time this side of the mountain: Eagle Nest Lodge, Ea...

Christmas Morning Elk Every photographer knows what a gift it is to have a close friend, or in my case a sister, to go a photographing with. People that have not looked at the world through a view finder don't understand when we yell, "Stop. Pull over. No, back there." And other assorted exclamations of excitement. Nor do they see the necessity in going out at the crack of dawn in sub zero weather (-12 F on Christmas Day) to seek the elusive elk. This year's Calf Studying the Dawn Or to catch that early morning light on the surrounding mountains and hills. Most people miss this entirely. Dawn on Cat Scratch Mountain Dawn on Wheeler Peak My sister and I returned after the morning expedition to a Christmas Morning breakfast of eggs Benedict on homemade English Muffin bread. And then it was out for the afternoon off-road tradition begun last year. So Nikon and Cannon in hand and fur kids in back we set off to find unexplored territory and went throug...