February 2022

Shooting Star
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona
2022

When I first glanced over at this dead agave (a.k.a. century plant), it looked very much like a shooting start exploding as it hit the ground.

Senita Star
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona
2022

The brightly lit tip of a senita cactus.

Queen Victoria Agave
Tubac Presidio, Arizona
2022

Infused With Light #7
Tumacacori, Arizona
2022

The front of the mission at Tumacacori has a very similar look to many other missions, cathedrals and other structures around the world. But for some reason the front of this particular mission brought strongly to my mind some of the facades on the famous ruins in Petra, Jordan. (That’s famous as in many movies including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.)

Infused With Light #6
Tumacacori, Arizona
2022

Infused With Light #5
Tumacacori, Arizona
2022

Infused With Light #4
Tumacacori, Arizona
2022

I think photographers are attracted to adobe structures to a large degree because of the abstract minimalist qualities of the images that can be produced, abstract forms whose shapes can often be quite smoothly voluptuous. At least I know that is the case for me. The log end in this image adds a different kind of abstract component to this minimalist image.

Infused With Light #3
Tumacacori, Arizona
2021

The sculptural forms and shadows of adobe buttresses on architecture of the southwest are a long time attraction for photographers. This includes Ansel Adams as well as Paul Strand who both took well-know photographs of the well-known Saint Francis Church, Ranchos de Taos. But they also have drawn many other lesser known photographers and less impressive buttresses such myself and this image.

Infused With Light #2
Tumacacori, Arizona
2022

Infused With Light #1
Tumacacori, Arizona
2022

The term “infused with light” is one that is tossed around quite a bit among writers about photography. Much of the time I think it is a term not particularly informative about photographs because isn’t everything we see infused with light to some degree or another? Otherwise how would we see it. But when I looked at the group of photos I took at the San José de Tumacacori Mission Church, my first reaction was wow, these images are really infused with light! Against my usual tendency to promote deep shadows and high contrast in working with my images, I was so impressed with these rather glowing images with open shadows, I chose to buck my usual approach and process them to reflect (no pun intended) that initial feeling I got from them. And so, rather than naming the series after the subject matter itself, I chose to name it after my gut reaction to the photos.