Blog Archives
Pronunciation Guidance Included
So. This place comes with helpful signs on every road into town, letting us city folk know the correct way to pronounce it.
If you want to know more about where this odd town name came from, you can head over here to read about it. Once you read it, especially the sentence that includes the phrase “whatever one steals,” you’ll see why I didn’t include the text in this post…
Quitaque, Texas
photographed 2.14.2015
One of the lanterns
Quite a few of the streets in the neighborhood where I stayed in Dana Point had “lantern” in their names: Blue, Golden, Ruby, Port, Crystal lanterns were all represented. And there was Lantern Bay Park adjacent to my hotel.
What’s up with that?
The original plan for Dana Point was for a Spanish-style town with wide streets named after “Lanterns,” and when the streets were laid out, there were actual lanterns for street lights, modeled on the old sailor’s kerosene lanterns. This is still part of the community, in street names like Street of the Golden Lantern, Street of the Blue Lantern, and even a recent newcomer, Street of the Crystal Lantern.*
And, here’s one of those “actual lanterns”, though this one doesn’t appear to be workable.
(On a completely unrelated note, my photograph “Where the Wind Gallops” has been shortlisted on the current Digital Lightroom competition. I’d appreciate your vote, but a vote for any of the images would be appreciated!)
Dana Point, California
photographed 1.7.2015
*I found this information here.
Not as portable as planned
Hernandez, New Mexico, is very famous. (This is why.)
It doesn’t quite look the same any more.
But that surely doesn’t mean there aren’t photos to be made if you stop by. This very textured little building (which may be a portable toilet?) was right there along a path, just waiting for me to come along. From the looks of things, it had been waiting for a while…
Hernandez, New Mexico
photographed 7.2.2014
Secrets to a cooler room
- Get the air moving.
- Keep the sun out.
Or, go someplace that’s air conditioned.
In college, I lived in a mobile home that had a not-very-efficient window air conditioner. If you could sit about a foot away from it, it wasn’t too bad. Any further, though, and it got pretty hot. Summer school terms were especially bad in that tin-can house. I didn’t spend much time at home: I was at the library, or the design studio, or the bar. Or anyplace that was cooler than my place.
in my room,
Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 7.2.2014
Re-vote
1. Earlier this week, my blogging friend from Infrared Robert and I exchanged a series of comments on our tendencies to second-guess ourselves.
2. I usually write my blog posts a week or so in advance, which gives me a cushion if I get busy and also gives me ample time to (you see where I am going here) second guess myself.
3. Every now and then, I’ll look at a post and think, “Nope. Won’t work.”
4. And that’s exactly what happened last night. I looked at what I’d scheduled for today and hated it. I can’t even think why I wanted to post it in the first place. In a manner of speaking, then, I took a re-vote on the photo. So, instead you get this shot, which I made on the plaza beside the famous and overly-photographed church at Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico*. I have an interest in the regular things that happen in places like Ranchos de Taos, which surely gets overloaded with camera-toting tourists. I wonder what it’s like to have a house there, or run the little cafe. And I think about who feeds that big black cat I saw on an adobe wall. Or who brings the newspapers in from Albuquerque and Taos to put in the machines. And if anyone even buys papers any more.
5. There was a re-vote and Kit Carson Park is now known as Red Willow Park.**
Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
photographed 7.1.2014
*Google it and you’ll see what I mean.
**A song about Kit Carson; that name change was a little bit overdue.
