One Day | One Image

I have gone on and on lately about the light, haven’t I?

I am sure you’re relieved that you weren’t with me on the afternoon I took about 30 shots of a yellow newspaper vending machine. It takes a lot of patience to hang around with me. That’s pretty much a general statement, no matter what I am doing. But it’s also very specific when it comes to me when I’m in The Right Frame Of Mind to do crap like this!

Unrelated: I often travel by myself.

Santa Fe New Mexico
photographed 9.20.2026

Since my friend David Marks showed me this place a few years ago, it has become an obligatory stop when I’m in the area. Every time I go my attention is caught by something small; this time it was the array of crosses on the walls. Bonus points go to the pieces of hay embedded into the adobe and the way the lit up on the shadowed wall.

ruins of Santa Rosa de Lima
near Abiquiu, New Mexico
photographed 9.19.2026

The casita where we stayed last month was a delight. I’d fallen in love with it the minute I saw that blue screen door. The inside was so nice, spacious and comfortable, with just the right amount of decor. But I loved that blue door so much that the inside could have looked like a sketchy motel room and I wouldn’t have minded that much.

But in addition to the screen door, check out the shadows – New Mexican shadows are somehow…more shadowy that anywhere else. And those painted windowpanes?? Are you kidding me?!

(“Just let me know which windows you want me to start painting designs on when we get home.” – actual thing I said to my husband, who backed slowly away from me with a panicky look on his face.)

Tesuque, New Mexico
photographed 9.18.2026

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