Sidetracked Charley

Me and the Land that I love  The selfie craze has been at times annoying. And maybe that is because it is really hard to do unless you own a smart phone. I have tried a few with my tablet but I am a DSLR owner and with the long lens on do not have long enough arms to photograph myself. Besides I am not that great of a subject. Why do you think I own the camera? If I am taking the pictures I am not in them. There is something lacking about the basic smart phone selfie like context or content or just why. Here I am at the Arc de Triumph and none of it shows. So I set about to improve selfies and challenge the DSLR limitations. I wanted my selfies to say something about me and my life. Ergo the one of my shadow in a map of Colfax and Mora counties with mountains outside the windows also reflected really says it. Me and my "Shadow" I love playing with reflections so the obvious solution to the SLR issue was a good reflective surface. But I also wanted a surround or ...

Reflections on the Rio Grande September is my favorite month. Always has been. Even in those dreaded days of my youth when it meant going back to school and all the teasing and not fitting in. September meant, more than any other month, new beginnings. In school it was new subjects, possibly new friends, definitely new books, and new clothes. I really love September. It smells wonderful. So fresh. And every day there will be oh, so subtle changes as vegetables ripen and foliage begins to turn, and flower petals fall and reveal seed cases of fascinating shapes. Fresh flowers I have left outside all summer long. Dried grasses and seed pods and dried flowers I will cut and bring inside to fill all manner of containers. And I will collect the seeds; the promise of a new spring. Fall reaches its culmination in October with the harvest but September is the beginning of the fall. Spring is the promise and September is the glory of that promise. And yet there is always this bi...

Ducks on the pond The ice has melted off the ponds and streams and the ducks and geese have returned. As a photographer I am thrilled. I love reflections in the still water of a mountain body of water. Hanging gardens My dogs, both of a retriever subset, have yet to meet a body of water they did not like even if it is just a shade over freezing. I was going to wash the dog rug in the back seat of my car but think I will wait just a bit. I delude myself into thinking they will get tired of this. Magique in her element As fond as they are of wading in water both shun swimming in it and do not chase waterfowl. Which is a major relief for the geese and ducks and for their photographer owner. Following her across the pond A pond of their own I had not intended to do a photo blog today but Facebooboo does not want to load photos and I had just taken a wonderful number in two days time. Had to share them somewhere. Oriental water feature Just click on the...