A Year in Trees

It's a bit more than a year, but you get the idea. I did not realize that trees were playing such a central role in my photographs until I started to photograph trees themselves with all their unusual shapes, textures and colors.

In each of these photographs, trees play a central role in the composition. The trees are either the main subject or they frame the photograph. In several cases, the trees create balance and perspective.

This collection of tree photographs spans 4 countries (Brazil, Chile, Mexico and the United States) and two states in the US, California and New Mexico.

I hope you enjoy the tour.
Radzfoto

Using the work of others to build something better

From Schmap selections

From Schmap selections

Recently I received a request for the use of a couple of my photographs (above) from an online mapping and travel guide company called Schmap. This company searches the photo sharing website Flickr for photographs that they like and then ask the owners for permission to use them as part of their online service. As an amateur photographer, I was flattered to receive the requests and I immediately gave them permission to use my images.

When I told my friends and family about this, almost everyone asked: "Are they paying you?" It never occurred to me to ask for money. I was simply pleased that more people would get to enjoy the two photos that they selected. This question made me think about the fundamental idea behind Creative Commons which is to offer a flexibile licensing structure so that others can build on your work. All of my photographs and all the content in this blog are marked as "Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License".

I realize that Schmap may make some money from the use of my photographs. I am happy for them to do that. Some photographers may be angry that the "value" of the photograph is somehow lessened by us amateurs. But I think that photography is going through a dramatic shift from "profession" to "vocation", not unlike what blogging is doing to the mainstream press. This does not mean that professional photographers will disappear. There will still be a place for professionals who are hired to shoot events, models and specific assignments. However, many photographic requirements will be satisfied through the self-organized content on the Internet.

A couple of months ago, I saw a video presentation on ted.com by Clay Shirky entitled Institutions vs. collaboration (see the video here) that specifically addresses the social transition from institution to collaboration. He argues that certain tasks are being done through strong communication tools such as cell phones and the Internet that allow groups of people to self-organize and for others to benefit from this type of self-organization in ways that the individual contributors don't even realize. He describes the use of "tags" for photographs in Flickr and how they help organize searches for photographic content. In my particular case, Schmap was looking for specific content for their travel guides and searched the images that individuals had uploaded to Flickr.

Mr. Shirky does not apply a value judgement to this transition. He merely describes a societal process that is occurring. For me, it is enough to know that my photographs are now published and that others will enjoy them or that they will be useful. I know many amateur photographers from my youth before the Internet and before digital cameras that have large collections of negatives, slides and prints sitting in boxes. It is impractical to scan large quantities of photographs, so they just scan a small number. But, in my case, Schmap selected photographs that would not necessarily have been my first choice. The ability to search through a large collection with the use of tags provides a new way to view and use photographs that was not possible before. Schmap is building a business around that concept.

I hope that others find ways to use my photographic efforts to build bigger and better things.

Radzfoto

Remembering a year and a half of travel, October 12, 2008

I always want to post new photographs with new ideas, but sometimes it's important to look back and remember where you've been. So I decided to do something a little different.

This video is a travel log of the cities, states and countries that I have visited in the last 18 months from mid 2007 until now.

I hope you enjoy the worldwind trip in 7 minutes.

Radzfoto

Good friends

Good friends, Santiago, Chile, September 5, 2008

I have been friends with Pepi since as long as I can remember, and I really mean that I cannot remember a time when I did not know her. My mom says that we met when we were two months old.

I took about a dozen photographs just before lunch on a beautiful September afternoon as we talked together with her husband. I think that the photographs tell a story, a story of love and happiness, but also a story of a life with difficult lessons and great trials and sadness. She is normally very difficult to photograph, glaring at the camera, but for some reason that afternoon she was relaxed and open.

I would rather say no more about her life or the photographs. I will let them tell their own story.

Enjoy!
Radzfoto

Intersections, Albuquerque, New Mexico, November 2007

Intersections, Albuquerque, New Mexico, November 2007

I am primarily a landscape photographer with a portrait here and there. I rarely photograph textures or geometric patterns for their own sake since I like stories. This photograph, however, really captured my imagination.

During the late fall in Albuquerque, you can see hundreds of geese each day migrating to their wintering grounds. Some of the more enterprising, or perhaps lazier, geese stop at Bosque del Apache just 2 hours south of Albuquerque where you can find a congregation of up to 20,000 snow geese and similar numbers of Canadian geese.

I was walking along the Rio Grande river with my wife and spotted this typical flight formation of geese overhead. At the time I was upset that the contrails disrupted this particular frame. It is only months later that I realized the beautiful overlay of angles of flight at two levels. There is the intersection of the contrails which in turn intersect with with the V of the geese formation. But there is another intersection, between two very different kinds of flying objects. The natural world is intersecting the mechanical world created by humans.

I think there is a story here; maybe even a bit of poetry.

Enjoy!
Radzfoto

Accidental Portraits, July 12, 2008

I was sick with a really bad flu. The night before, a terrific windstorm shook the trees and the house all night. That morning the heavy rain started to come down in sheets blown almost horizontally by the wind.

We put on waterproof rain gear and headed up a gravel and dirt road to take some photographs to document an agricultural land survey. The heavy rain and the strong wind seemed to mock our waterproof garments and proceeded to drench us in the cold, winter rain (July is winter in the southern hemisphere where these photographs were taken). As I hurriedly shot a couple of 360 degree panoramas, I trembled with fever and exhaustion from the climb, and my lens was sprayed with the rain that blew against it.

I had insisted on this particular venture, and, as you can see from the hasty portraits that I took of my companions, they thoroughly enjoyed every wet minute of it. I call these "accidental portraits" because, quite honestly, my fevered brain does not remember how I captured these brooding moments. I thank my brother, who knows much more about photography than I do, for the confidence to post these images. He liked the emotions on the faces combined with the sullen weather.

Radzfoto

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2008

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2008

As some you may have realized, I travel a great deal for my work. However, this is the first year in my life that I got to travel to Brazil. I was in Rio de Janeiro for two days and I had a chance to tourist briefly. Here are some of the pictures that I took on this short trip.

This city certainly lives up to its reputation as a beautiful tourist destination. It has wonderful beaches, great night life and amazing views of its harbor.

Enjoy!
Radzfoto

Architecture, Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 2008

During a business trip in Argentina, I had the opportunity to stroll through the famous Calle Florida in Buenos Aires which is a pedestrian street lined with shops. You can get great deals on leather goods there. It was late in the day on a grey, winter day. The weather was fairly warm, however, and great numbers of people were out and about.

I wound my way to a nearby park that has one of the oldest Ombú trees in the city. These trees have spectular roots and branches that curve and coil in all directions.

Finally, I went to some other neighborhoods including the posh Puerto Madero.

Enjoy the photo travelog!

Radzfoto

Almuerzo con Tita y familia Ernst, 13 Julio 2008

Cuando estuve en Chile en viaje de trabajo a mediados de julio, me toco almorzar con la Tita en casa de la familia Ernst. Todavía no habia llegado Daniel de los Estados Unidos pues hubo tormentas que le cancelaron el vuelo. Robert Ernst y yo habiamos manejado todo el día desde el fundo en Villarrica donde estuvimos para el fin de semana y llegamos directamente a la casa de la Tita a buscarla. La encontré increiblemente mejor que como había estado cuando la ví en mayo. En esa visita, la encontré en cama y con pocas energías. Esta vez, caminó sola al auto. Se sentó sola y cuando llegamos a la casa de los Ernst ella pudo pararse sola y caminar hasta adentro conversando todo el rato y riendose.

Estuvimos juntos desde las 14:00 hasta las 16:00 durante el cual comimos un muy rico chancho con piña que preparó Piedad. Estabamos Robert, Piedad, Valentina, Max y yo con la Tita y conversamos sin parar.

¡Gozé!

Para ver la fotos grandes pueden verlas haciendo "click" en el slideshow de arriba o en la foto aquí:

2008-07-13 Almuerzo con Tita y familia Ernst Santiago Chile

Grandes saludos y cariños a todos.
Raúl Antonio

Berlin Holocaust Memorial

The Berlin Holocaust Memorial, March 2008

The Berlin Holocaust Memorial is a quadriculated geometric environment devoid of any markings. Yet each stone cube is unique and slightly asymmetric. It is a good place to meditate. It does not remind me of death, but it feels like a very cold and lonely place.

At first I was shocked at the sterile and, well, inhuman, structure that was the memorial. I wanted to feel a more personal, human connection to those people who suffered and died in that terrible time. But on that cold, grey day, as I photographed the very abstractness of the location, I began to notice the subtle differences in each stone slab, some very small, almost flat to the ground, others rising much taller than a human being. The slabs were not uniform cubes. Each one seemed to possess some asymmetry, some individuality.

It was an unusually effective place to meditate and ponder. I heard, but never saw, the sounds of children playing amongst the blocks of stone. Those sounds reminded me of life against the coldly indifferent, unchanging, unique slabs that spread out in all directions.

I normally end my photo blogs with the word "Enjoy!", but that does not seem appropriate for this entry. I prefer to leave you with thoughts of shape, substance, time, connection, life, eternity.

In these times of war, torture, corruption and abuse of power, let us remember so that we may never forget.

Radzfoto

Canonical New York

In 2005 I traveled to New York and spent several hours at the top of the Empire State Building photographing the unparalleled New York City skyline. It was an overcast day, so I decided to wait until sunset and hoped that the sun would shine through in the break between the clouds and the horizon that I had noticed. The wait really paid off with fantastic warm light bouncing off the clouds and the buildings.

I have also included some street level shots primarily from Broadway at the Theater District.

Enjoy!
Radzfoto

Sunset on Mesa south of Chaco Canyon New Mexico

2007-12-30 Chaco Canyon New Mexico 7255 light, originally uploaded by rauldiaz.

Everyone has a favorite set of photographs that captured a scene especially well. For me, this is one of those photographs. My brother and I had just spent a long day exploring and photographing the amazing Chaco Culture National Historical Park (I will post some photos of the Chaco Canyon and its beautiful ruins in another post).

We left the park in the late afternoon on a cold, crisp winter day to head back to Albuquerque. As we drove out of the park via its seldom used southern entrance (it's not used as much because it's a dirt road and you normally need a 4-wheel drive to navigate it, but the cold, dry weather made the road fairly easy to manage), we took a county road towards Interstate 40.

We were truly in the middle of nowhere. As we took one of the few curves of this county road, I looked to my left and noticed the mesa lit by winter sunset. I pulled over although there were no other cars on the road and we proceeded to photograph the glorious light reflected off the snowy mesa.

On the upper right in the far background, you can just make out Mt. Taylor in central New Mexico. This tall but lonely peak is revered as a holy place by the Indians of the many pueblos descended from the Anasazi who inhabited the enormous buildings and villages in the Chaco Canyon around 1,000AD.

This place should have a name. Using Google Earth, I located the exact place where I took this photograph. Although there is more than a good chance that I made a mistake, I think that this mesa is called "La Mesa de las Vacas" (the mesa of the cows), or, at least, that what the map says.

It's not a romantic name for such a special place.

Enjoy!
Radzfoto

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, New Mexico

The photographs in this slideshow were taken over a two-year time period as we visited the park which is quite near our house in Albuquerque. Since the park presents short, moderate hikes, the entire family can enjoy a wonderful morning or afternoon (just don't hike there in the summer in the afternoon. It gets hot!). The white weathered rock formations create surrealistic sculptures against those huge New Mexico bright-blue skies. Once you climb up to the top of the ridge, you can see the broad central Rio Grande valley which runs straight down the middle of New Mexico on its way to Texas and Mexico.

The national monument is nearby the Cochiti Pueblo, one of the many Indian tribes in New Mexico. You are also 30 minutes from the capital, Santa Fe, with its exquisite adobe architecture, its history and numberless art galleries.

Enjoy!
Radzfoto

Albuquerque, not really such an ugly duckling

Albuquerque, not really such an ugly duckling

Many, if not most, New Mexicans consider Albuquerque a boring, if not outright ugly, city. But the New Mexicans that makes these claims suffer from a lack of perspective because of the gift of riches they enjoy that few other states can claim: almost limitless space, a proud and rich history, and a collection of national parks and monuments that requires a lifetime to visit and appreciate. I will show photographs and discuss some of these parks in other blogs, but, today, we want to give Albuquerque a chance to defend itself.

Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico. Of the 2 million inhabitants of New Mexico nearly half live in or around Albuquerque. With the capital, Santa Fe, only an hour away by car, comparisons begin immediately with Santa Fe's wonderful adobe architecture that pervades the city and it's amazing collection of art galleries rivaled only by New York. But fewer than 75,000 people live in or near Santa Fe. Albuquerque, on the other hand, is a working man's town, a business traveler's destination. The city proper has a population of about 525,000 with the surrounding towns of Corrales, Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, Placitas and Los Lunas bringing it up to 840,000 or so.

If you think about the area of New Mexico, which makes it the fifth largest state in the United States, you can imagine the vast tracks of empty land between the cities and towns of New Mexico. I have photographed many places in New Mexico in which the word “awesome” does not suffer from exaggeration, but Albuquerque always gets short shrift. Albuquerque is somehow the L.A. to Santa Fe's San Francisco. Santa Fe is considered beautiful, wealthy, artistic. Albuquerque is the place New Mexicans love to put down.

The photo slideshow at the top of this blog presents different aspects of Albuquerque from its architecture, to its impressive hot-air balloon culture, to its more quaint and, perhaps, sad, side. Albuquerque certainly has its seamy side with dirty, run-down and dilapidated, even crime-infested, neighborhoods. But it also has wonderful areas with stunning skies, mountains, art and architecture which is what I have chosen to show you.

Radzfoto

Adobe walls with snow

Adobe Walls with Snow, June 13, 2008

I took these photographs at my house in Albuquerque, New Mexico on December 31, 2006 after an unusually powerful snowstorm that left a large part of the state paralyzed for three or four days. In Winter, Albuquerque normally gets a dusting of snow that lasts a few hours and is gone by lunch time. This storm dropped between 18 to 24 inches of snow in the city and much, much more at the higher elevations. For those of us in the city, it was an opportunity for snow play and fun, especially as it occurred just at New Year's Eve. For travelers, those using air or car, it was a nightmare waiting until the airport and the freeways were reopened.

For a photographer, it was a chance to take beautiful pictures around the city. I particularly like the look of adobe walls with the bright New Mexico sun glinting of the snow.

Enjoy!
Radzfoto

Ploughed field, Corrales, New Mexico

Ploughed field, Corrales, New Mexico, April 2008

It is Spring and the owners of this field are preparing for the planting in this little village outside of Albuquerque. The sun was setting and those stunning New Mexico skies begged to be photographed.

What drew me to take these photographs was the brown/blue contrast of the field vs. the sky. As the sun began to set, the clouds formed over the Sandia Mountains in the east creating a textured sky against the ploughed lines in the field.

Enjoy!
Radzfoto

Crumbling building, port of Valparaiso, Chile

Port of Valparaiso, Chile
May 2008

The day was grey and foggy, so instead of postcard-style photographs of the ships at port, I decided to focus on the less well maintained areas of the port. I found a wonderful crumbling building with graffiti on most walls.

The self-reference of the "broken" graffiti is in direct contrast to the clearly new paint and stylized design of the "broken" sign.

The stunning calligraphic design of the "fuck" graffiti makes you reconsider the word, the meaning and the context all at once. This term, which is so often one of derision and disparagement, here appears to be an affirmation of life and renewal. And yet, it is a sad and temporary triumph painted on these crumbling walls.

I find it fascinating that this old, ruined carcass of a building struck me as one of the most beautiful objects of the area.

Radzfoto

London - A Study in Light

London - A Study in Light, December 2006



I spent a week in London in late 2006 and the weather was typically grey, wet and dreary. But one day, for a few hours, the pale winter sun shone low against the horizon as it does in those high latitudes. The angle of the sun and the weak winter light create a special light that captures the tips of buildings and churches and casts shadows all about.

The last photograph was taken just after sunset as evening came and lights were turned on inside buildings. I held the camera on a metal fence as carefully as I could since I did not have a tripod. You can see the indoor lights shining out of the windows of the building while the traffic races about madly.

Enjoy!
Radzfoto

Cumbres & Toltec Railroad

The Cumbres and Toltec railroad that begins its six-hour scenic tour that crosses the Colorado/New Mexico border eleven times is an unforgetable experience, especially during the month of October when the Aspen leaves turn the mountain sides to gold.

This narrow gauge railroad was built in the 1880's climbing through the rockies from Chama, New Mexico to Antonito, Colorado crossing rivers and skirting thousand foot cliffs that fall to a deep river canyon.

With the advent of the automobile and modern highways, the return trip by bus from Antonito to Chama takes only one hour and a half because the highway and its modern bridges can climb much more steeply and cross vast chasms that the 1880's railroad could not manage.

You can read all about this delightful excursion at http://www.cumbrestoltec.com/. I have no relationship with the company that runs this railroad. I have written this purely as an avid photographer that enjoyed the wonderful trip with my entire family.

Radzfoto

Triangles in the Sea

Triangles in the Sea, June 2007

Last summer I had the wonderful opportunity to travel from New York to Maine on vacation with my family. During a visit to Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous "House of the Seven Gables" in Salem, Massachusetts, I wondered around the park-like gardens outside the house.

I had been photographing some beautiful flower gardens for my wife, when i approached the rocky beach that borders the famous landmark. I immediately noticed the triangular composition before me. I was early morning and a soft sea fog hung in the air. It even rained a little. In theory, the lighting was terrible for photography, but i never let something like that bother me. I just take a different kind of photograph.

I have done very little to the photograph except to increase the contrast slightly and to convert it to a black and white image. The color image is very grey and I almost decided to leave it in color since the beach and sea had a slightly green tinge that looked quite in character. However, i felt that, since I really wanted to highlight all those great triangles, color had to give way to texture and geometry.

Radzfoto

Summer storm in Santa Fe

Summer storm in Santa Fe, August 2007

Last summer I had the pleasure to go the Santa Fe opera. While I am not a huge opera fan, the setting is amazing. While we waited for the opera to begin, a summer storm rolled through just at sunset.

The sunset lit the storm clouds from the side, creating vivid colors. These photographs are unmodified, straight out of the camera.

The colors of the sky in New Mexico are truly spectacular. Every day is different and the colors change throughout the day. This storm took that sunlight and created myriad palettes of colors. The first image is the storm itself as it came by. In the second image, the sun had set and the storm had passed into the north. Finally, I turned around and took a photograph of the sunset itself.

Enjoy!

Radzfoto

Not just any forest

Not Just Any Forest

I am fortunate to have had a grandfather who owned an old growth forest. During his 90 years of life, my grandfather cared for the ancient forest by leaving it virtually undisturbed, adding just a narrow dirt road that wound around the large trees so as not to cut them with barely enough space for a single car to pass.

This forest grows next to a large glacial lake just opposite a volcano in the south of Chile. The forest is composed primarily of native trees up to 400 years old. These trees are not conifers. They are deciduous trees that grow 60, 80, 100 and more feet high. He called this forest “Los Raulies” after a particularly tall and beautiful native tree that grows only in this area.

This land was occupied long before the Spaniards first arrived in Chile in 1536. The Mapuche are a proud and fierce people that held off the Spanish from this area for over 300 years. Mapuche means “People of the Earth” in their language, and they call the volcano that overseas this region “Rucapillan”, which translates literally as the “House of God”. In a deep part of my grandfather's forest are the remnants of an old Spanish fort which today is little more than the depression of a moat and some coins, metal fragments and other artifacts. The Spanish soldiers cleared the area around the moat cutting those beautiful trees to build their fort. They would have had a beautiful view of Rucapillan, but it is hard to say whether they appreciated its beauty. These Spaniards came looking for gold and they renamed the volcano “Villarrica” which means “Rich Town” in Spanish taking the name of a small settlement nearby, which is ironic since they never found much gold. The Spaniards were killed or driven out in 1554 by the Mapuche. Descents of these original Spaniards and other colonizing Europeans would not return to this land until 1883 when, using modern weapons, they killed or forcibly removed the Mapuche and placed them on reservations.

My great-great grandfather, a man of German descent, purchased some of this land. Now that my grandfather is gone, my father has inherited a part of this forest, and, like his father, he also intends to care for this land. To help look after the land, my father hired a caretaker whose name is Nelson Manquecoi. Nelson is Mapuche. His last name means the Condor and the Snake. His first name comes from the popular use of European names, especially English and German names since many settlers in the area came from northern Europe. Nelson is proud to be Mapuche, but the effects of European colonization have left him only a thin veneer of his original culture. He cannot speak Mapudungu, the Mapuche native tongue, and he knows little about his tribe, the Pehuenches (literally the People of the South). Chileans of European descent have not been kind to the Mapuche. Historically the Mapuche were treated as savages too brutal to make good slaves. Even today, many Chileans consider the Mapuche to be “backward”.

Nelson is a master carpenter able to build everything from beautiful, delicate furniture to an entire house, which he has done for my father. Instead of hiring him just as an employee, my father decided to make him a partner in the business of running the land and, together, they purchase non-native pine trees from other farms which they make into lumber. Nelson is not only in charge of the entire operation; he is a part owner. He buys the wood, sells the lumber, pays the salaries of the workers and manages the books. He is incredibly hardworking, prompt, diligent, and he has a sense of personal integrity and pride that would never allow him to cheat anyone out of a single penny. Nelson, his wife and two daughters live in a house that he built right next to the one that he built for my father.

I studied the intense conflicts between Europeans and Native Americans when I was a child in school. I thought that I was studying history. I did not realize until very recently that that history continues today and that my family and I are integral parts of that often inhumane relationship. Like the relationship that we have with the environment, including the old growth forests, we European descents remain entangled in an abusive relationship with Native Americans that was born of a false sense of supremacy and conquest that we thought gave us the right to take and expropriate anything and everything for our own purposes.

Little did we understand that we were stealing from ourselves. When we destroy the old growth forests, we are stealing our children's future and perhaps cutting down the very trees that help maintain our climate and could help produce medicines to help us. When we oppress Native Americans, we are denying ourselves the opportunity to create a new culture that blends the best of the Old World and the New World. My father's rare act of working side by side with a wonderful Mapuche represents one minuscule step in returning so much that was taken away from them.

There is archaeological evidence in Chile that today's Native Americans arrived in boats that crossed the pacific approximately 15,000 years ago. If that proves to be correct, that means that Nelson Manquecoi and his ancestors have probably lived side by side with the native Rauli trees of the region for at least 150 centuries. I, for one, intend to listen to what Nelson tells me about these trees while I immerse myself in the sights, sounds and smells of the deep forest.

Balloon Fiesta Park, Albquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

It is difficult to describe to describe an event so huge that it needs a space equivalent to 54 football fields or 365 acres to host it.

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta promotes itself as the largest gathering of hot air balloons in the world. Considering that each balloon is the size of a small building and that they launch 700 balloons simultaneously from the site, this claim is not difficult to believe.

Albuquerque receives about 100,000 visitors during the first week of October when this event is held. It is a wonderful, celebratory time here with cold mornings and spectacular days and balloons landing all over the city and the surrounding areas. A particular favorite is to arrive early when it is still dark and grab a coffee and a breakfast burrito from the hundreds of stands at the park. All visitors are allowed to stroll amongst the balloons as they are inflated and launched. You can listen to the roar of the giant propane burners as they heat the air inside the balloon while you watch the 30 foot flames light up the balloons like giant light bulbs in the pre-dawn darkness. Then, just before the sunrise from behind the 10,000 foot Sandia Mountains in the east, as the sky begins to grow lighter, they begin to launch in waves of 5, then 10, the 20, 40, until you have 700 balloons sailing around you and scattering with the wind.

I had never heard of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta until I moved here. I am a richer person for having experienced this truly one-of-a-kind event in person.

As a photographer the challenge is to show the grandeur and scale of each balloon and of the entire gathering of balloons as well. I tried to do that in this photograph which was shot just before sunrise at the event called, appropriately enough, “mass ascension”.

Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Bosque del Apache (Spanish for “Woods of the Apache”) in central New Mexico is a spectacular wild life reserve that is the winter home for tens of thousands of Arctic Geese, Snow Cranes, and many other kinds of birds including Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, Red Tail Hawks and many kinds of ducks.

These birds attract coyotes and other predators into the area causing sudden flights of hundreds or thousands of birds in great clouds.

Unfortunately, I am not a wildlife photographer and I don't own the kind of photographic equipment that one needs to capture such wonderful animals in their natural habitat. But I love photographing there nonetheless because of the unique colors and light that play across the flood plane originally formed by the Rio Grande.

I took these photographs just after sunset on a very cold November day. I can't do justice to the gigantic flocks in flight, but I hope that these photographs inspire you to visit this amazing park.

Taos Pueblo, New Mexico

I had been skiing to Taos before, but I had not visited the Native American pueblo located just a couple of miles away. So, just before the new year, on my mother's recommendation, I decided to visit Taos Pueblo in northern central New Mexico.

The Acoma Pueblo with their famous Sky City on a mesa in central western New Mexico and Taos Pueblo each claim that they have oldest continuously occupied settlements in North America. Archaeologists tend to favor the Acoma's claim, but, in any case, Taos is ancient with its beautiful North House and South House that are each possibly more than 1,000 years old and are still used today as residences.

After the Spanish had conquered Mexico, they went into New Mexico in search of the fabled seven cities of gold. Unfortunately for the Spanish, there was no gold in New Mexico, and the fabled cities likely refer to the breathtaking Chaco Canyon complex which already lay in ruins for centuries before the Spanish arrived in the New World. The Spanish occupied New Mexico and the Spanish missionaries began to convert the native populations. In Taos, they built an adobe church in 1619. This church was destroyed and promptly rebuilt after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt that briefly drove the Spanish out of New Mexico. The church was again destroyed in 1847 in the war between Mexico and the United States for possession of this territory.

This photograph of the church ruins with its cemetery lies near the entrance to Taos Pueblo. The cemetery was in active use until 2006 and shows the strong influence of the Spanish Catholics in the region. Today, approximately 90% of the population of Taos Pueblo is Catholic.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

In February 2006, a few months after moving to New Mexico, we took a family trip to White Sands National Monument in the southern part of the state. The clouds were moving quickly that day on the strong prevailing winds that push the pure white gypsum sands constantly eastwards. The sands are cool even in summer and they really do feel and crunch like snow, except that they are not icy cold. Sledding down the steep, leeward side of the sand dunes is a popular activity for all ages.

This photo of White Sands exemplifies what I love about photography in New Mexico: crystalline air that lets you see mountains as far away as 150 miles etched sharp against a huge sky, and cloud formations that are never the same. And did I mention the light? Colors glow vividly and the sunrise and sunset reflect crimson against spectacular rock formations. I took this photograph in the mid afternoon, the sunlight etching sharp contrasts against the brilliant white sands.

Radzfoto