Susan Brandt Graham Photography
Life from a Southwest Point of View
Sandhill Crane on January 1, 2014, in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico.
The magnificent Sandhill Cranes overwinter in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. They are spectacular in flight, as well as impressive on the ground!
Happy New Year to readers here.
Fall was very busy with photography. In these winter months I’ll be catching up with new posts here.
The 25th Old Church Fine Arts Show presented by the Visual Arts Council of the Corrales Historical Society opened on Friday, October 4 with a wonderful reception for artists and their family and friends. The 2013 Exhibition of Fine Art is open daily from 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM, closing on Sunday, October 13, 2013 at 4:00 PM.
Net proceeds and donation from Artists’ sales go to the preservation and maintenance of the Old Church. Visit the Visual Arts Council on the web at corraleshistory.com.
The Old Church is a beautiful venue for a Fine Art Show, as these images from this year’s show indicate:
All adobe structures require constant maintenance. The Old Church is a much-loved historic structure, and this spring it received its annual “mudding.” On July 26, 2013, the Albuquerque metro area along the Rio Grande River was hard-hit by a strong, severe storm, eventually described by the National Weather Service as “hurricane strength.” Odd for the desert, but it did happen. The north side of this beautiful old historic building was severely damaged. A lot of time and money will be required to restore it to its condition before the storm.
Winners were announced at the Opening Reception on Friday, October 4. Congratulations to Frank Dobrushken for Best of Show with his black and white photograph, “The Dancers.”
Cheryl Cathcart was awarded Second Place for “Suspended in Air.”
I was very pleased to received Third Place for “Floral Fireworks.”
Thanks to Jurors of the Show, and to the Visual Arts Council.
I have a second piece in the show, “Cycles of Life: Sacred Datura:”
The results of the 5th Annual Pollux Awards have just been announced, and I am very honored and happy that five of my images placed as Finalists in this year’s competition.
In the category, “People,” my image ‘Muertos, Marigolds, y Motorcycles 1’ was a finalist.
‘Spirits of the Old Adobes, Spirit 3’ was named a Finalist in Digital Manipulation.
Two images were finalists in the category, “Nature.”
This image will be shown in the Corrales Fine Arts Show at the Old San Ysidro Church during Balloon Fiesta, October 4 -13, 2013. It is also a finalist for this year’s Julia Margaret Cameron Award.
The second image in the “Nature” category to be named a finalist is this Japanese sea nettle. This image also won 3rd Place in the People’s Choice Awards in this year’s PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris.
A fifth image, ‘The Wonder of It All,’ was named a finalist in the “Portrait” category.
I would like to thank the WPGA and juror Julio Hardy for recognizing these five images.
I would also like to congratulate all the winners. Many of my friends are winners in multiple categories, and I’ll list them later, when I am sure I have checked and double checked to make sure I have not left anyone out.
This has been a good day! 🙂
– gloriously bright flowers that almost require people who see them to smile!
2013 has been a great year for sunflowers in New Mexico, and I have enjoyed photographing a variety of them, as well as some of the creatures attracted to them: bees, crab spiders, and even some attractive flies. I’ve been surprised at the different sizes and colors of the different flowers themselves.
Fall is approaching, and the blooms of the sunflowers around me are coming to an end. But they have seed heads, which are attracting house finches and gold finches and jays, among others.
This is the summer I have been smitten with the humble sunflower.
This slideshow has some of my images from this summer. A few more will probably be added before the bloom comes to a complete end. I hope you enjoy these sunflower images.
All of the images in this slideshow are available for purchase as prints at Susan Brandt Graham Photography.
Some of them are also available as 5×7 inch folded note cards, either in landscape orientation or in portrait orientation.
25th Annual Corrales Fine Arts Show
The Corrales Fine Arts Show, held annually during Balloon Fiesta at the historic Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales, New Mexico, is set to kick off the fall fine arts show season in the Albuquerque region. This will be the 25th Annual Fine Arts Show held by the Visual Arts Council to raise money to support the upkeep of this beautiful old adobe church. This is a venue in which I love to show my work. The show has all kinds of work in it, not just photography. While there is photography, there is also painting of all varieties, especially oils and watercolors; textiles; pottery; just a great variety.
I would like to thank this year’s jurors for selecting two of my pieces for inclusion in this show: ‘Floral Fireworks’ and ‘Sacred Datura.’
The show is open 11:00 am – 5:00 pm daily, October 5-12, 2013, and
11:00 am – 4:00 pm on Sunday, October 13, 2013.
You may find more information on the Old San Ysidro Church and direction to it at this link.
If you live in the area, or if you will be visiting during Balloon Fiesta, make the Old Church and the Fine Arts Show a stop on your visit. There is no charge, and parking is free. The church is a part of old New Mexico, and part of the proceeds for the sale of artwork goes for maintenance of the Old Church.
A big thank you to the jurors of this year’s show.
Tonight’s so called “supermoon,” when the moon is closer to the earth than at some other times, making it appear larger and brighter.
Water is a valued resource in the desert, especially in these days of severe drought. Ponds can be found in places along and near the Rio Grande River, and a variety of plants and animals are attracted to such spots. Water is life-giving.
Sometimes water can be appreciated for simple beauty. I loved the various reflections in the water this particular day – the duck, the clouds, the trees, the rocks…
Dutch Iris
These Dutch iris were blooming earlier in May. Dutch iris are about as common as water here in the high desert of the Southwest. But sometimes the magical light, in combination with Dutch iris and water near the Rio Grande River, can produce some unexpected results. This image brought a smile to my face when I saw it uploaded on the computer. 🙂 I hope you enjoy it also.
The two-tailed swallowtail butterfly is, to me, one of the most beautiful butterflies around. It is large, very colorful, and at times almost seems to “pose” for lucky photographers.
Last Friday, May 10, was a perfect day for a lot of things at the Albuquerque BioPark. You have already seen the variety of iris that were in bloom that day. Close to where a lot of the iris were blooming, was a patch of deep pink flowers whose name I do not know, but to which butterflies were attracted. The BioPark has a butterfly enclosure, but it will not even open until the weekend of May 25. This two-tailed swallowtail butterfly is one of our native butterflies out in the open. This is the State Butterfly of Arizona, but we certainly have our share here in New Mexico (for which I am grateful). I have them in my yard, which is in the middle of Albuquerque, every summer.
Here are a few images from last Friday.
Here are some fact sheets, where you can compare the two-tailed swallowtail to the western tiger swallowtail to the eastern tiger swallowtail.
My personal favorite is the two-tailed swallowtail, but maybe that is because that is what I have here (and they let me photograph them 🙂 ). I hope you enjoy these.
Iris
The iris were gorgeous last week at the BioPark. For my iris-loving friends, I am sorry I do not have the names of these – they were not marked. But, I think you can still enjoy the beauty of the flowers. They were everywhere throughout the BioPark.
