Monthly Archives: June 2022
going up against chaos
I’ve been thinking about the way our eyes and brain work together to parse out a scene that’s got a lot of reflections in it, rendering a version that makes sense. But a camera doesn’t do any of that, and a scene caught by a lens stays chaotic – in a way that I am quite fond of. Especially when it involves fancy silver goblets and pedestrians.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 5.16.2022
the nicest smile I saw all day
“Just TALK to someone. Say you like their smile and then have a chat. Then ask if you can take their picture. It’s not that hard. You can do it.” – oft-repeated advice from my photographer pal Don. I am sure he thought I never heard him say that to me any of the approximately one hundred times he happened to mention it.
Surprise!
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 5.16.2022
before everything comes undone
Here are some more distant forest fires. The one on the right expanded from a barely-visible wisp of dark smoke to what you see here in about three minutes. It was fascinating. It was horrifying. It was unbelievable. And as sometimes happens, a song lyric presented itself to my brain as I made this image. I heard “got to cover some ground before everything comes undone” from the Bruce Cockburn song “40 Years in the Wilderness”.
Galisteo, New Mexico
photographed 5.15.2022
dome + clouds
I can’t even count the number of times I drove right past the turn to Cerillos, but it’s equal to all the times I’ve driven the road, minus one: the last time there I finally made the turn. And obviously it was well worth it.
Cerillos, New Mexico
photographed 5.16.2022
where there is smoke
I could not look away. For an entire day, no matter where I was, my eyes sought out the awful (yet strangely beautiful) smoke from nearby forest fires.
The fires were so intense that by the end of the day they would have created their own weather system, clouds known as pyrocumulonimbus, which contain lightning storms that can in turn ignite more fires. An article in Scientific American says, when you see these clouds, “you know you’ve got big trouble below.”
near Chimayó, New Mexico
photographed 5.15.2022
One Day | One Image 