Sidetracked Charley

The Climb Trinidad, Colorado May has been very busy, sometimes difficult, occasionally exhilarating, often unbalancing, and surprisingly educational. I am glad it is almost over. I am exhausted. The easy part of preparing for a photographic exhibit was done in April. I would not have guessed that would be the case. But I had all photos selected, printed, mounted, and boxed two weeks early for the May 4th opening. Then began my education in patience, flexibility, and tolerance. The new gallery was not granted an occupancy permit until May 11. My work was not hung until May 12th. The Trinidad Photography Gallery  did not have its grand opening until the 18th. And I could not disentangle from all my obligations to make it up to Trinidad, Colorado until May 25th for my introduction to the photographic community there.  I kept repeating to myself the W.C. Fields quote, " Even a dead fish can swim downstream ," as I kept on keeping one day at a time. I would flip from time ...

Alone in the field The end of the year always brings about agonizing reappraisal. And a questioning of my assumptions. It is always easier to do this with others but not as easy to do it with ourselves. I have promised myself to do better this year at that. A local business just announced it was closing. They blamed us locals because we didn't shop there enough. But who would want to? I asked myself. And I was one of those that shopped there. They stocked products I wanted, but increasingly I was willing to drive over the mountain to get those products. The economy gets a lot of blame for failure of businesses. I do not have enough money to shop local a lot. I try to eat at least one restaurant meal a week. It is a budget line item. If I had more money I would spend more money. I blame the economy for the low sales at my studio. That and Google Maps had me in the wrong spot. But maybe it is that I am not a good painter. Or I have a toxic personality. Admittedly nobody need...

The Gorge Filled with Smoke There are times my singularity stands out so starkly even I gasp at its meaning. Yesterday, standing at the top of the horseshoe cresting the Taos Volcanic plateau was one of those times. It had been creeping up on me all day during my drive down to Albuquerque to pick up a friend. Even my manner of friendship is unique. I have friends in rotation more or less and seldom more. Friends for me do not come in groups, cliches, bunches, collectives, or even covens. They are more often than not artists and as much loners as I am. I make few demands on them and do not accept many demands on me from them. One of the bigger demands is "stop the car." In my wild and crazy drinking days that had one meaning but now as a photographer it is infinitely more serious. My photographer friends totally understand this and are therefore preferred in the rotation, others are definitely befuddled. Yesterday as my non-photographer friend and I emerged from the E...

Christmas Morning Elk 2011 When my sister lived in New Mexico she would come up to my house for the holidays and we would almost always have several photo exhibitions. The Christmas Day photography trip was a tradition. Snowshoeing Christmas Day 2012 Last year we had snow but we have had some warm Christmases in the past few years which allowed for more playing around. In 2010 we even had a picnic on Christmas Day.  Crystal and Debbie Looking for Picnic spot 2010 Ponil Creek 2011 2011 was a bit chillier but in the sun it was definitely warmer than expected. We took tons of photos and had great laughs. But 2010 was exceptionally warm as the picture below indicates. Off road in Ocate 2010 There was always animals and great photos to be had and memories to be made. Everyone else was at home in front of the television and we were able to have the wilderness and off roads to ourselves. Nobody to spook the buffalo which were sunning themselves. It was b...

Along the Rio Grande The aspens because of the drought have not been colorful this year like last. So in a last ditch effort to capture some gold in them thar hills my photography buddy and I set off for the river edges in the area. First was Embudo canyon along the Rio Grande and then on to the Rio Chama near Abiquiu.  We got lucky but not without getting out of the car and hiking remote paths to get unique perspectives. Unfortunately after about two hours of doing that and taking some 80 pictures my card in the camera failed. So I cannot show you those pictures. They are forever the "fish that got away" sort of thing. And they included to fly fishermen on the Rio Grande. A fly fisherman told me once that it was not the gentle and passive sport it appears to be. Wading through rushing water and standing on slippery river rocks and casting in an exact rhythm does involve lots of fine tuned muscle movements and balance. So does photography. Reflections in the Rio Gr...

I have reached 68 a few months back. It was a major milestone for me not because of any physical issues but because both my parents had died at 67. Them and what seemed an inordinate number of my relatives. Only two seemed to live past 67 and they went into their 80's but one forgets that in the year of your parents' death. So happily into 68 I find myself feeling invincible except when around a friend of mine that seems preoccupied with dying soon. Now reason why she will. Probably won't. But she is always saying she is old and she is a year younger than I am. I pass it over because she is recently widowed and her late husband wanted most that she die with him. Yesterday the topic was retirement homes in Florida. She obviously has done some research. "We're getting old. We need to be looked after." This said as we were putting up snow fence. "I'd be dead in six months if I did that," I told her when she proposed I join her in this. Flori...

I ran with scissors when I was a kid. Now a days we call it hyper active attention deficit disorder - HAADD. My late brother-in-law always said of my sister she had trouble monotasking. I do not know if the name is important. The bottom line is sometimes if you are running with scissors you miss what is going on around you to avoid tripping. Since Lent began I have been occupied in two exercises I thought were previously unrelated. First I was giving up trying to reduce my life to status messages on Facebook. I undertook that exercise because I believed I was playing to my audience instead of being real. Any artist, actress, musician, performer or writer is prone to do that. Maybe it is why some very successful comedians like Johnathan Winters lost who they really were. It is certainly why some authors begin putting out formula mysteries and us readers drop them from our reading list. Be limiting my Facebook participation to comments and responses to others and links t...