Blessing of the Horses

More than ten thousand faithful and curious attended the two day Blessing of the Horses in the village of San Martin thirty minutes south of San Miguel de Allende. A temporary city blossomed as hundreds of horses and riders rode across the Campo for a pilgrimage and celebration of all things equine. Dozens of food stalls purveying the likes of carnitas, barbacoa and tortas lined the pathways leading to San Martin's splendid square where riders, hat in hand, bowed before young Padres sprinkling holy water on them and their steeds.

Abuela

The shawl and checkered apron are traditional attire for older Mexican ladies from the Campo. This Dolores Hidalgo grandmother is crossing the square to church; a visit she makes every single day.

Two and Half Garretts

Some 25 years after his mother painted him as twins Garrett Immel is pictured in a reminiscent pose. A musician, make-up artist, guitar maker and all round good guy he makes his folks mighty proud.

Cerillos Curtains

The vilage of Cerillos just south of Santa Fe on New Mexico's Turquoise Trail is in a time warp. Though charming in a dissolute sort of way it also has a forboding subtext where you're not at all sure that you're welcome. This abstract of billowing curtains behind mesh and glass captures neither but appeals nonetheless.

Waves

Seeing southern Colorado's Great Sand Dunes in nautical terms seems to work. This image depicts the ever moving sand in an abstract form resembling waves or building surf.

Lines and Cleat

Just before embarking on the short hour voyage from Port Clyde to Monhegan Island, Maine this compelling still life caught my eye. The lines were gracefully looped around a cleat on the weathered dock as if intended for artistic purpose.

Peter's Fedora

On a long weekend of photographing in The Needles of South Dakota I had the chance to shoot rock climbers on the spectacular spires for which the area was named. On a couple of evenings we enjoyed the company of Sylvan Rocks guide Peter Lev. One day Peter and long time friend George Hurley put up a new route that they named Most Gruesome and rated 9 plus on the climber's scale of difficulty. After their first ascent George computed that 2008 is his 50th year on vertical rock. For Peter a scant 48. A doff of the hat to these young rascals.

Conservatory Dome

Built in the early 20th Century the Rose Hills Conservatory at Pasadena's Huntington Museum is a misty, fecund repository of exotic plants. The conservatory was remodelled to the tune of $1.75 million and re-opened in October 2005. The intricate lath and glass evoke turn of the century design and aesthetics.

Old 24-16

Trains, peeling paint and good design are a marvelous combination. The Mount Washington Scenic Railroad in North Conway, New Hampshire offers a treasure trove of worn and rusted locamotives, cars and cabooses.

Justin's Palette

Several years back I spent a week in Canyon de Chelly on a horseback painting trip where I was the sole photographer. One afternoon shortly after lunch our Navajo guide, Justin Tso, set up to paint and I caught this colorful still life of his tubes of oil paint and palette.

Found Art

On an exterior wall of a closed gallery in Rinconada just south of Taos I photographed these bedsprings displayed as some kind of artistic statement. I liked the design and was struck their strong graphic quality.

Salt Marsh

In early fall with evening light the salt grass in Moody Beach, Maine wove a sweeping, glowing pattern against the brackish water.

Leather Tough

Joe Graves is a real Mountain Man. Born and raised in Taos Joe is part cowboy, part miner and a big part craftsman. His buddy Lindsey says he can make anything and that he once carved his own false teeth out of wood and tied the things in with fishing line. Later he got real choppers in Mexico. Did I mention Joe's tough?

People in Places

For an exhausting week fifteen photographers explored the world of portrait lighting on location with the estimable Alan Thornton. In a rigorous, sometimes frustrating and ultimately exhilirating workshop Alan and his able assistants Kevin and Karen turned a bunch of natural light shooters into reasonable facsimiles of professional location photographers. Our best work was perfectly lit and startlingly rendered. I am transformed.

Dreamscapes

Though I had been photographing for a very long time I had never photographed the undraped female form. When the Dreamscapes workshop became available I jumped at the chance to participate in a weekend long session shooting the nude in a northern New Mexican hacienda and on the Zia Pueblo. I departed the workshop with a grasp of natural light augmented with reflecters and diffusers and with several memorable images to remember it by.

Elegy

The lovely adobe church in Las Trampas is one of my favorite northern New Mexico subjects, rivaling famous Ranchos Church in Taos in form and expression. Called San Jose de Gracia the church was built in the early 1700s to serve the faithful along the High Road between Penasco and Chimayo. Within the church's courtyard is a tiny graveyard with ornate crosses of crude wood and wrought iron.

Chaco Canyon

An extraordinary Native American culture flourished in northwestern New Mexico before mysteriously disappearing around 1400 AD. The Chacoans mastered a complex and highly precise construction process using flat stones rather than adobe to erect massive ceremonial structures in a pastoral mecca that was central to an ancient Puebloan religion.

Sketches of Winter

Early in December just after our first real snowfall I photographed La Morada de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, a lay chapel built in the early 1800s by the Brotherhood of Penitentes. As I made my way around the little church I was taken by patterns of weeds and fences that peeked through the foot of fresh snow. Through the Winter I found similar subjects in my travels through northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. These images became the first in a series I've named Sketches of Winter.

Cow Spring

Though it was late Fall the weather in northern Arizona's Four Corners region was warm, bright and glorious. There was little traffic on US 264 east of Ganado on the vast Navajo reservation and I looked for images that would depict the high desert and its empty beauty. Out the side of my left eye I saw an iconic southwestern scene with cattle and horses gathered around a stock tank. Consulting my Gazateer I discovered that the nearest settlement was called Cow Spring.