drum/basket
I have been known to say that I have a crush on New Mexico. I like the food, the scenery, the color(s) of the light, the climate, the people. I like the cultures that are represented there and the way that translates into cemeteries and towns that look much different than their counterparts anywhere else I’ve been.
Thinking back through photos that I’ve made, I realize that my strongest images are from New Mexico. That’s not me saying that I’m a photographic genius (because: are you kidding me? OF COURSE I’m not) as much as it is me acknowledging that I am a different and more engaged photographer when I am there.
I am also not saying that this image is the best one I’ll ever make. But I am happy that I found this out of business place by the road. I’m glad I stomped through the weeds to get close enough for the photo I needed. I’m satisfied with the amount of ragged things in one place. But my most favorite part of the whole scene is the way the “S” in “DRUMS” is actually upside down. That thrills me to level I can’t understand or describe.
Sometimes is really IS the little things that matter the most.
near Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 9.20.2026
it didn’t feel like there were too many emergencies
This little building is right beside a scuba-diving location in New Mexico. So the potential does exist for a scuba- or swimming-related emergency, in addition to just normal emergency stuff that happens.
But the way that sign is just left there in a spot that’s not even visible from the parking lot OR the water makes me think there aren’t really THAT many emergencies. (But I can also make myself believe that there are so many emergencies that everyone already knows where the emergency vehicles and the sign itself is just unnecessary.)
Blue Hole
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 9.18.2026
beyond my interior walls
I’d been here a while and had already taken all the photos I thought I needed. But then, I sat on the bed of the truck and had lunch, which lined me up with this arrangement. Maybe a normal person would have finished lunch first, but I don’t have any experience being normal. So I (temporarily) abandoned a nice chicken salad sandwich so I could get this shot. First things first, or whatever. The food could – and did – wait.
Santa Rosa de Lima
near Abiquiu, New Mexico
photographed 9.19.2026
four aces
As it turns out, “Four Aces” could refer to a variety of things:
- A popular American traditional pop music quartet formed in 1950 known for hits like “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing” and “Three Coins in the Fountain”, OR a different group by the same name that had hit in 1947, OR a even different group with the same name that was a popular backing band in Jamaica.
- A famous American tournament bridge team from the 1930s that popularized a dominant bidding system. (To be honest, the only part of that sentence that I understood was “1930s”.)
- A group of four American Export Lines ships known as the Four Aces that ran Mediterranean routes before serving as WWII troop transports.
- A literary allusion popularized by Mark Twain regarding “the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.”
- Or, in this particular case, an apparently out-of-business place near Española, New Mexico.
Española, New Mexico
photographed 9.20.2026
the place I couldn’t park
If you have always assumed, based on everything that I’ve revealed about myself here, that I probably drive a lowrider…
However, this is my favorite parking-zone sign of all time.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 9.20.2026
