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The Road Less Traveled

road less traveled
The Road Less Traveled – Off the Beaten Path in New Mexico

The Road Less Traveled

“New Mexico, Land of Enchantment.” So true. It is true even if you are in a city such as Albuquerque, or off the beaten path. If you must travel Interstate 40 or Interstate 25, you will see beauty all around: the desert, the mountains, the river valleys, the sky, the clouds… Beauty is everywhere in this state.

But, the road less traveled, whatever that is for any individual, perhaps offers the greatest chance to enjoy the beauty, to be “enchanted.”

road less traveled
Autumn Beauty in New Mexico on the Road Less Traveled

On this particular day in October, my mom, along with our friends Tim and Laurie, were celebrating together Tim’s birthday and my birthday. We do “photographic excursions” periodically, and on this day the only thing we particularly set out to do was see if many sandhill cranes had yet arrived in Rio Grande Valley south of Albuquerque on their annual migration route. We wanted to check at one place in particular, but, other than that, the day was free to go wherever we felt like going. We took Interstate 25 south out of Albuquerque, but soon found ourselves more content on the road less traveled.

I missed a turn right after exiting the interstate, and we found ourselves crossing the Rio Grande and going on a bit. When I turned around to head back to the “other” road less traveled, this was the landscape that greeted us. Tim photographed, Laurie sketched, I photographed, and my mom enjoyed the scenery.

This wonderful landscape with the golden cottonwoods in the Rio Grande Valley, the mountains, the sky, the clouds, and a glimpse of the road less traveled was an auspicious beginning to a day filled with enchantment! Watch for more images from that day on this blog.

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November Sunrise

November Sunrise
November Sunrise
November Sunrise
November Sunrise

New Mexico, “Land of Enchantment” is known for its light and spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Sunrises such as this November sunrise may not happen every day, but they do occur with remarkable regularity.

DH Lawrence stated it beautifully, and the New Mexico Magazine provided the quote:

I think New Mexico was the greatest experience from the outside world that I have ever had. It certainly changed me forever. . . . the moment I saw the brilliant, proud morning shine high up over the deserts of Santa Fe, something stood still in my soul, and I started to attend. . . . In the magnificent fierce morning of New Mexico one sprang awake, a new part of the soul woke up suddenly and the old world gave way to a new.

There are all kinds of beauty in the world, thank God, though ugliness is homogeneous. . . . But for a greatness of beauty I have never experienced anything like New Mexico. As those mornings when I went with a hoe along the ditch to the canyon, at the ranch, and stood in fierce, proud silence of the Rockies, or their foothills, to look far over the desert to the blue mountains away in Arizona, blue as chalcedony, with the sagebrush desert sweeping gray-blue in between, dotted with tiny cube-crystals of houses: the vast amphitheater of lofty, indomitable desert, sweeping round to the ponderous Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the East, and coming up flush at the pine-dotted foothills of the Rockies! What splendor! Only the tawny eagle could really sail out into the splendor of it all.”

First seeing, and then photographing a sunrise requires getting up in time to see it. 🙂 That would be very easy to do if one knew the night before that a sunrise like this would occur. For this particular sunrise and photograph, I thank my cat for demanding that I get up and provide breakfast! It was definitely worth it!

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Horizons

Horizons

The choice of placement of the horizon line in a photograph certainly affects what the image conveys to the viewer. Last fall I took a photography class in which one of the assignments was to take 5 photographs which were the same in all respects except for moving the horizon line. I took multiple series for this assignment, but finally decided on one from the West Side Open Space, taken last November. All were shot at f8, 1/125 sec, 24 mm, ISO 100, on a full frame camera. I also used a circular polarizing filter.

Of the five, this image was my favorite:

horizon lines
Horizon Lines – West Side Open Space, November 2012

Although that particular one was my favorite just as a choice out of the five, which one would be “better” would depend entirely upon the uses to which the image was to be put, as well as individual taste. Further, this series of images was taken for a specific assignment. Had I been photographing for myself, I would have chosen a time closer to sunset when the light was on the trees and mountains in the distance.

The results of changing the horizon line can be seen in this very brief video containing the five images.

The assignment was certainly effective at showing how much difference in appearance a simple shift in horizons can make in an image.

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A Beautiful Sunrise

A beautiful sunrise from February 20, 2013.

Susan Brandt Graham
A Beautiful Sunrise

Albuquerque, and the Desert Southwest, are known for beautiful light and amazing sunrises and sunsets.

This image is from the morning of February 20. In the afternoon, the wind really picked up and clouds rolled in. That night, and in to the following day, we had snow. Although it was not a large amount of snow, we were grateful for it. The Desert Southwest is in the grip of a severe drought, and any precipitation is welcome.

Colorful and beautiful sunrises and sunsets are quite common here, but they are short-lived. This particular sunrise was extremely short-lived. The dark cloud you see on the right in this image moved in quite rapidly, and the reds and oranges in the sky disappeared as quickly as they arrived.

But, no matter how short, a beautiful sunrise is always welcome.

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