Broadway on the mesa
June 19, 2017
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7 Comments
Another show opened on the mesa today. This time, it was the hedgehog cactus, and I must say, costume designers for Broadway musicals must have seen these babies in bloom. Check out the headdress.
Although it looks like an anemone, the strawberry hedgehog cactus, Echinocereus fendleri, is known for its blossoms' retina-piercing color. The body o...
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outside the box
June 12, 2017
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There are days when I feel like the Julia Child of photography - happily experimenting, adding and changing ingredients, flinging flour into the air, reaching for eggs only to have them explode and land in a gooey mess on the floor. She was just a little outside the box in her approach to cooking. I would consider myself no more than a basic cook,...
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timing is everything
June 04, 2017
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On our planet, terrestrials - animals and plants alike - are controlled by the passing of time. Day into night, night into day, days into weeks, months, and years. Whether or not a creature or plant measures it in the same way humans do, everything is governed by it. The leader of a photographic workshop I took at Point Reyes, California years ago,...
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remembering
May 29, 2017
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Today is Memorial Day, a day set aside for remembering those who died while serving in the country's armed forces. Although Veterans' Day is the day we celebrate all veterans, I will take the liberty of attempting to list all we know who served and live, while remembering those who died. I am also thinking about those, unknown to me, who are still...
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other worldly
May 22, 2017
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Perhaps it is because I have been reading Truk Lagoon: Legends Beneath the Waves, vol. 1 by Andrew Marriott, and viewing the truly spectacular underwater photographs Marriott has taken to accompany his text, but I am seeing underwater and slightly otherworldly scenes in the New Mexico landscape. Much of New Mexico was underwater at one point millio...
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garden variety
May 15, 2017
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Looking back at my blogs this year, I realize there has been a preponderance of them featuring flowers of assorted varieties. Flowers and blossoms offer nearly endless photographic possibilities, waiting for your camera. Buds are just as captivating as the flower when it opens, and again when it fades. All stages are up to the interpretation of the...
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solar living 101
May 07, 2017
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This week, Fred and I celebrate the 40th anniversary of our first solar house. Then, as now, we felt strongly about energy conservation, and, on 10 May 1977, we embarked on the construction of our first solar home. Fred and I built it all by hand, without power tools. Fred finished building the bed on Thanksgiving day, and put the turkey in the woo...
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and the winner is...
April 29, 2017
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...Coyote Pup. It received Honorable Mention at the Santa Fe Reporter Photo Contest. The silent auction held by The Reporter on Tuesday evening, 25 April, for the benefit of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, featured 12 pieces of photography printed on linen by Monsoon Design. The work is included in the newspaper's "Annual Manual" of...
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life blood
April 24, 2017
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The one thing that differentiates our planet from others is water. It is life blood coursing through our veins. El Agua es la Vida. Water is particularly evident at this time of year when snow melt is filling streams and rivers and ponds, overflowing and spreading its wealth over the land. Although in New Mexico we have a tiny percentage compared t...
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little surprises
April 17, 2017
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While California and Arizona are having epic wildflower blooms in all their eye-popping array of color, spring has a much slower reveal in the piñon/juniper forests of New Mexico. Occasionally, there will be glimpses of color, but in many cases, I will only notice a bloom when it appears at my feet. Much too frequently, I have stepped on flowers wh...
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creatures of convenience
April 10, 2017
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All creatures on this earth, including humans, are very practical. Our mission is, first and foremost survival, and all that entails. In order for birds to successfully breed, they need a nest. This week, we have watched chunks of wood flying from a hole in a piñon tree as nuthatches decorate the room, while robins yank mats of thyme from their roo...
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Gifts - chocolate and flowers
April 02, 2017
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Again, I ask your indulgence this spring season, as I follow my photographic obsession with flowers and food. In this case, both subjects were birthday gifts that just happened to become photography subjects. Regardless of where or when things enter my field of vision, they often become part of my practice of photography.
A single iris and a box o...
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a touch of white
March 27, 2017
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Not just a few times have I addressed the color white in this blog. It fascinates me. On the southwest corner of St. Francis and Cordova Road in Santa Fe, an explosion of white is happening right now on what are probably flowering fruit trees. Huge puffs of white hang on every branch. I don't know the variety of tree and don't have a clue who did t...
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welcoming spring
March 20, 2017
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Today is the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere. The beginning of spring. Some of you are still dealing with mountains of snow while others are seeing a very toasty summer in their future. Here on the mesa, much of the snow has disappeared, while grass is beginning to appear as are some very early wildflowers. But I thought featuring spring'...
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signs of spring
March 13, 2017
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I literally am unable to count how many times this month people have said to me variations of these questions or declaratives - "Is it spring yet?" "When is spring going to get here?" "I cannot wait for spring!" "I am so tired of winter." The equinox arrives next Monday, March 20, although meteorological spring (designated as March, April, and May)...
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© Daryl A. Black