Susan Brandt Graham Photography

September 16, 2015

Autumn Sunflower

Autumn Sunflower. Autumn in New Mexico is a magical time of year. Corresponding to events rather than calendar dates, its beginning is generally marked by the arrival of the season’s green chile crop, with the pungent smell of roasting chiles everywhere. Major events following in quick succession are the New Mexico State Fair (EXPO NM), the Corrales Harvest Festival and Pet Parade, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (accompanied by the Corrales Fine Arts Show at the Old San Ysidro Church, one of my favorites!), the Marigold Parade marking the Day of the Dead, and the the All American Thanksgiving Day celebration. For me, mixed in with that, are personal celebrations and activities with family and close friends. Autumn is my favorite time of the year in New Mexico! And, also, the busiest!

Autumn is, of course, ultimately followed by winter. (Reminder to self: buy a new snow shovel before winter’s arrival with a predicted strong El Nino!) Even early in the current season are little signs the glorious days of autumn cannot last forever. But, even these signs carry their own kind of beauty.

September 13, 2015October 8, 2015

Cooper’s Hawk

Correction 10/08/2015: This is a Sharp Shinned Hawk and Not a Cooper’s Hawk!

Young Cooper’s Hawk

The Cooper’s hawk is an accipiter that has adapted to life in what has been termed “the urban forest” of the northeast part of Albuquerque. Here, in a limited part of the city, their concentration is as great as in any of the “natural” habitats. What you see in this image is the type of environment in which you might see them.

Those of you who have been regular readers here know of a rather prolonged encounter I had in August of 2014 with a young Cooper’s hawk. I had seen them passing through the yard sporadically before and after then, but I really became interested in them at that time. I kept waiting for another prolonged, intense encounter with one of these beautiful and impressive birds. A pair was known through the summer to have set up housekeeping at the arroyo at the end of the street, so I thought that sooner or later a young one might appear.

You can’t plan these things. This afternoon I was rushing around, trying to get some place on time. I had everything ready to go, and glanced out. Well, you can’t just ignore these wonderful things – any wonderful things – when they drop in, no matter how unexpected at the time. I hurriedly changed lenses, and made a few images.

I expect – perhaps I should say hope – to see more of this bird in the coming months.

September 10, 2015

Morning Sky

Morning Sky in the “Land of Enchantment”

Morning sky: what a way to start the day here in New Mexico, “Land of Enchantment.” And, it seems never to be the same. Day in and day out, the morning sky is different from the day before.

The very colorful sky is short-lived. Today it was four minutes, and that is typical. Over the years I have learned many of the signs that signal the possibility of a spectacular sunrise or sunset, or rainbow, and, every now and then, other phenomena.

Skies like this do not happen without clouds. If I see clouds when I awaken, I’ll watch, with camera near, and start to photograph as soon as color appears. I’ll continue photographing until the color fades. I’ve watched the position of the morning sun change throughout the seasons. I understand the expression, “up before the birds.” (The birds do come to feed shortly thereafter, though.)

Just one more amazing morning sky in New Mexico. (The intense colors at present are probably contributed to by the smoke from fires in California.)

September 8, 2015

Old Cars and Sunflowers

Old Cars and Sunflowers – Icons of New Mexico

Old cars and sunflowers are each, in their own right, icons of the New Mexico landscape. Imagine my joy as a photographer when I found the two together!

Those of you who have followed this blog for some time are aware of my interest in old adobes and every now and then, in old wooden buildings. I don’t have a series of old cars (yet 🙂 ), but more sunflowers are definitely on their way.

I could not resist this image of an old car surrounded by sunflowers!

September 6, 2015

Late Summer Insects

Late Summer Insects in Corrales, New Mexico

Late summer insects were certainly abundant yesterday at the Corrales home of friends Tim and Laurie. I met them years ago through the local rose society, and we have become great friends with a wide variety of shared interests. They grow many roses, but they also plant a wide variety of other things aimed at encouraging pollinators and other beneficial insects. Their land was covered with abundant wild sunflowers, and also naturalized with cosmos, brown-eyed Susans, coreopsis, echinacea, black bamboo, and one I found especially fascinating for the variety of insects it attracted, garlic chives. All of these had been intentionally planted at one time, and then allowed to naturalize their land, which was spectacular in its color. I have been there many times, but I had never seen so much in bloom at one time before. The insects seemed quite happy and were buzzing everywhere! This is a small sample.

Bees, many different varieties, were everywhere. This one seemed to beg to be photographed. The plant is garlic chives.

summer insects bee — Bee on Garlic Chives

If you read my other blog, Southwest Desert Gardening, you recently saw a dead one of these, a Western Green June Bug, also called a Figeater Beetle. On that one, it was easy to show the metallic underside, which was quite beautiful. On this image, you can see some of the metallic parts. The plant is cosmos.

summer insects june bug — Western Green June Bug, Figeater Beetle

This is a Narrow Waisted Wasp on Garlic Chives

summer insects wasp — Narrow Waisted Wasp

Although I generally am not a huge fan of the grasshoppers that arrive in late summer, this one seemed to have a beguiling expression, and I also liked the blue legs. Once again, the plant is Garlic Chives.

summer insects grasshopper — Grasshopper

Butterflies will be in a separate post.

I enjoyed the opportunity to photograph these late summer insects not frequently thought of as “beautiful,” but I liked them. 🙂

August 23, 2015

Datura: Beautiful and Mysterious

Sacred Datura

Datura grows wild throughout the Desert Southwest. Also known as Jimson Weed and “Georgia O’Keeffe’s Flower,” ranchers, among others, find it a noxious weed that can kill livestock. It has been used in rituals by some Native American groups. All parts of the plant are poisonous, and I did not grow it when children and outdoor pets were a concern. I bought my first plant at a nursery, and it has continued to reseed itself over the years.

In 2013 and 2014, caterpillars (sometimes called “hornworms;” they attack tomatoes also) of the sphinx moth really damaged my datura. This year, I have not yet seen one of these caterpillars, although I have seen several sphinx moths in the last week or so. I’m watching closely for any evidence of these caterpillars so I can remove them before they completely destroy a plant.

Although these flowers are beautiful, I find them challenging to photograph. They unfurl at dusk. At first light of dawn, they begin to droop. This photograph was made in the early morning of a cloudy, hazy day.

The seed pods are very interesting, and I expect to have images of those a little later.

August 17, 2015

Some Rainbow! Some Sky!

Tonight’s sky and its rainbow were rare, even by New Mexico standards. Although this view from my house shows a boiling sky with much turbulence up above, there was no wind at my house and, sadly, no rain. Other places nearby, however, got both.

Several things were unusual about this rainbow. First, it was essentially a single rainbow, in contrast to the many double rainbows seen frequently in Albuquerque. Even triple and quadruple rainbows are not unheard of here. A single rainbow is relatively uncommon.

On close inspection, the rainbow appears not to have a smooth edge or smooth curve, in contrast to what is usually seen. Low clouds were passing by, and light from the sun in the west was broken up in different places by these clouds, giving a somewhat jagged appearance. At one point, the rainbow appeared to be cut in half by a passing cloud.

Perhaps the most unusual thing about this rainbow was the length of time it lasted. I do not know how long it was out there before I saw it. I began photographing at 7:15:29 pm, and stopped at 7:36:13 pm. Remnants were still visible near the base when I came in. A minimum of 21 minutes is a very long time for a rainbow to remain visible, at least here in the desert!

Of course, the dominant feature in the sky was the cloud/clouds. For all of that upper level turbulence, it was calm on the ground at my house. And, the whiteness at sunset is somewhat unusual for clouds, even looking east to the Sandia Mountains.

Once again, Albuquerque and New Mexico had an amazing sky. Thanks for your patience with this oft-used phrase, dear readers.

July 28, 2015

Fading Light

Fading light, at the end of a beautiful day. The light here in the high desert of New Mexico is so clear and brilliant that even an “ordinary” sunset here is extraordinarily beautiful. Even from the time I was a child passing through on family vacations, the light here has always touched my heart and soul. Fading light – a phenomenon in itself, but also a metaphor for many other things; almost anything you want it to be.

The fading light at sunset last night was nothing extraordinary for here. It was quite peaceful and soothing. The first image, with the sky itself still in various shades of grays and blues shows the pink alpineglow of the Sandia (“Watermelon”) Mountains. This image was taken at 8:11 pm, MDT. The second image, taken at 8:21 pm, MDT, shows the Sandia Mountains already almost dark, but the clouds still with a wonderful pink glow.

It should be noted these images were taken looking east toward the mountains, rather than the more typical sunset images taken looking west toward the setting sun. Here in Albuquerque we are fortunate to often have multiple views of changing light at sunset.

fading light sunset — Looking east toward the Sandia Mountains, 8:11 pm

July 12, 2015

Dawn, 24 Hours Apart

Dawn, 24 hours apart during this active monsoon season, looked very different. Each was beautiful, as New Mexico skies tend to be.

At 6:05 MDT on July 10, a light rain was still falling, after significant overnight rainfall. The overcast sky was like a giant umbrella casting back a beautiful orange pink glow, while individual clouds in the mountains provided separation and depth to the Sandias. Although colorful, it was a gentle sunrise.

The following day, at 5:47 MDT, slightly less than 24 hours later, a very different dawn appeared. The sky was clear with only a few wispy clouds, and the moon seems to sparkle as the day dawned. It was just as beautiful in its own way as the sky had been the day before.

Although different, each was typical of a sunrise in New Mexico, “Land of Enchantment” and remarkable light with amazing skies.

July 6, 2015July 6, 2015

Image New Mexico Opening

Image New Mexico Opening Reception was held on Friday, July 3, at Matrix Fine Art. This was also part of First Friday Artscrawl, as well as part of the Independence Day holiday weekend. I went with the intention of enjoying myself, and I did. These are casual phone photos from the evening. Thanks to friend Tim Price who took the images of me. (We know about the glare on the glass at the beginning of the evening 😉 )

The majority of the images are black and white. Some are classic New Mexico, some show what can be done with digital art not “straight from the camera” nor intended to be. It is nice mix. The show will be open through July at Matrix Fine Art.

Image New Mexico 2015 — Laurie looking at some of the other art

Once again, the two images I have in this show are “The Observer/The Observed” and “Living Jewels – Harry’s Pearls.”

I thank everyone who came to the opening, and especially my friends, some of whom really had to work hard to make it there. Thank you!

Susan Brandt Graham Photography

Posts

Autumn Sunflower

Autumn Sunflower

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Cooper’s Hawk

Young Cooper’s Hawk

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Morning Sky

Morning Sky in the “Land of Enchantment”

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Old Cars and Sunflowers

Old Cars and Sunflowers – Icons of New Mexico

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Late Summer Insects

Late Summer Insects in Corrales, New Mexico

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Datura: Beautiful and Mysterious

Sacred Datura

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Some Rainbow! Some Sky!

Some Rainbow! Some Sky!

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Fading Light

Fading Light

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Dawn, 24 Hours Apart

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Image New Mexico Opening

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Autumn Sunflower

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Young Cooper’s Hawk

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Morning Sky in the “Land of Enchantment”

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Old Cars and Sunflowers – Icons of New Mexico

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Late Summer Insects in Corrales, New Mexico

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Sacred Datura

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Some Rainbow! Some Sky!

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Fading Light

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