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sant’agata’s day begins
The bells woke me up. I stepped out onto my little balcony to see what the day looked like, and this was what greeted me.
And it only got better.
Catania, Sicily
photographed 2.4.2025
by the light of the spirit
Some photographers will carefully plan when they’ll be in a specific place because they’ve got an exact idea of where the light should be coming from to get The Best Photo. There’s apps and stuff to help you figure it out down to the exact minute and accounting for things like mountains or buildings that could block the light.
I am not one of those photographers.
My technique is far less technical and involves wandering around to see what’s interesting and would make a photograph.
And when I go past a church I didn’t even know was there and the afternoon light is flooding a window on the far side of the building, I like to think the light appreciates my faith in its ability to do the right thing. Without an app.
San Antonio Catholic Church
El Porvenir, New Mexico
photographed 11.10.2025
cholla, ribbon, church
Right about where the road is closed due to lingering danger from the 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Creek forest fires, there’s a little church settled into the trees. You probably can’t even see it unless you’ve already gone to the end and had to turn around.
The (locked) gate was decorated with pieces of cholla cactus in the shape of a cross, with a yellow ribbon looped around it.
As far as I could tell, the church doesn’t have a name.
El Pornevir, New Mexico
photographed 11.11.2025
fire/bug
I would have preferred for the church to have been unlocked.
But since it wasn’t, I had to resort to my familiar shoot-through-the-window-and-see-what’s-there technique. In this case it was a glass candleholder, with a bugged-topped candle.
La Sagrada Familia Catholic Church
Garita, New Mexico
photographed 11.11.2025
church, unused
My traveling partner and I had a discussion about the appropriateness of opening a closed (but not locked) gate to gain access to this abandoned church and similarly disregarded graveyard.
Argument One: It’s a gate. It’s shut. With a chain hooked on it keeping it shut. We should stay out.
Argument Two: The gate also has a sign that says “Please close gate” which implies that someone has granted us permission to, you know, open it.
Anyway, here’s an old church.
near Sapello, New Mexico
photographed 11.9.2025
One Day | One Image 