April 2011

Taos Pueblo #6
Taos, New Mexico
2011

Look carefully and you can see that this one is also part of my Patriot’s Dream series.

Taos Pueblo #5
Taos, New Mexico
2011

A week ago when we visited Taos Pueblo it was pleasantly calm, warm and sunny; a good day for some of the locals to sit outside and watch us tourists. Today at our house here in Montana it’s 19 degrees and windy with six inches of new snow on the ground and more coming down. I think we might have left Taos a bit too soon.

Taos Pueblo #4
Taos, New Mexico
2011

The cemetery at Taos Pueblo.

Taos Pueblo #3
Taos. New Mexico
2011

This view shows a traditional horno (beehive shaped oven) in front of the pueblo. (I’m not sure what that buttress like thing is sticking against the back of the horno–that’s not typical.) Hornos are everywhere in the Taos area. Lots of people have them in their backyard, some for show but many are actually used to bake bread.

When I lived in Tucson many years ago I got interested in adobe buildings and made my own horno in the backyard of the place I was renting. I never did bake anything in it though. Later when I bought my own little adobe home, I added onto it using traditional adobe building techniques. I had a truckload of dirt hauled in, built a brick form, made a big mud pit and molded and sun-dried my own bricks. Some friends from graduate school (a few who are POTD readers) helped me on the project, stacking bricks, plastering, and painting. At least for me it was a welcome diversion from all that studying. I went by the house the last time I was in Tucson and the addition was still standing after all these years, so I guess we did a decent job.

Taos Pueblo #2
Taos, New Mexico
2011

Originally the only way to enter any of the rooms in the pueblo was through a hatch in the ceiling. The windows were quite small too, as they still are. This was all done for security purposes I believe. Even with all famous bright sunlight of northern New Mexico, those rooms must have been quite dark inside. If it were me, I would have spent most of the time outside, except in really bad weather.

Taos Pueblo #1
Taos, New Mexico
2011

Taos Pueblo is one of those famous well-photographed locations that I had no aspirations of providing any particularly noteworthy new views of the place. But still, I had fun and will post some of the results in a short series over the next few days.

Back Door Beauty
Taos, New Mexico
2011

Yesterday’s photo was accidentally pictorialist. This one I set up that way on purpose. The lighting on the back of this vacant building reminded me of an Edward Hopper painting, so I convinced Connie to sit on the steps and provide the trademark lone figure.

Sizing It Up
Taos, New Mexico
2011

When I travel and take a lot of photographs it is always a struggle to decide if I want to work through the photos sequentially or just randomly cherry-pick the ones that look like the most fun to play with each day. Randomness has won the day for now as I am skipping a lot of Wichita photographs as well as some from the trip to Taos for the time being.

This out of focus photo of some gentlemen checking out a piece of property that was for sale is so blurry it seems an unlikely candidate for cherry-picking. But I thought it has merit in an impressionist sense. The blurriness takes your attention off of the specifics of the scene and allows the eye to enjoy the bright splashes of color and the warmth of the evening “magic hour.” Just to be clear, this was not a planned effect with the camera, it was due to operator error. Whether the error was fortunate or unfortunate is in the eyes of the beholder.

Corral
Wichita, Kansas
2011

Another semi-abstract image from the Cowtown farm. By underexposing the shot, it makes the corral posts and rails into just a series of bright lines on a dark background.

One-Off
Wichita, Kansas
2011

A little abstract image from the back of one of the out-buildings of the farm at Cowtown. (I guess the official name is the Old Cowntown Museum.)