After 20 years I returned to the Grand Canyon to find quite a different landscape. In March 2000 there was only patchy snow/ice along the south rim, and as I hiked all the way down via the Kaibab Trail to the Colorado River, the temperature actually increased as I descended. Visiting now in December 2019, the winter season presented Grand Canyon views dominated by white. Snow blanketed all the trails, viewpoints, and even the walls of the canyon itself. In fact snow was all I could see at first because the entire canyon was filled with clouds, or mist, or cotton candy for all I could tell. Finally, after several hours the clouds lifted and the Grand Canyon in its winter colors were revealed!
The BMW Car Club New Mexico Chapter got invited to a very unique car show right at the top of a mountain at Santa Fe Ski Resort! We actually drove from the Sanat Fe BMW dealership on to the foot of the ski slope itself! Yes, that means my M3 along with a host of other sports cars and classic cars actually went off road. This could not have been a more stunning setting and a fantastic day overall. It felt like a whole different world up there. We capped the day with a hike up to the summit of the mountain, some 11,000+ feet of elevation! To top it all off, they had great veggie burgers grilled right before us with green chili and homemade cookies. In a side note, from the photo below you can see that Jessica and I are living in two totally different temperature zones!
In my 10-year pursuit of getting a posed photo of Kiki where she does not look like she is being taken back to the pound, I share another unsuccessful attempt at a studio shot of Kiki, where she yet again looks like she is being taken to the pound. Why does Kiki look so sad when I try to take a photo of her?? In candids outside, I can get her looking happy, but trying to get a nicely lighted portrait, nope! She is actually a very happy dog!
This is an unusual blog post or me as I do not usually post much personal content on this, my business website. It is also extremely rare that I have an entire weekend off, and even rarer that it is spent out of town on an overnight trip that was not part of a photo job. Then also I have not really talked about realizing a life long dream a few months ago of owning a proper sports car. However, a weekend trip to Las Vegas, New Mexico with Jessica and our dogs Kiki and Artie was that good I decided to share. This all came about because of the RSW Cruise 2019, otherwise it would never of happened!
I do not know if the movie Forrest Gump put this view into my mind, or maybe it was from a time long before, but certainly for years and years I dreamed of seeing this iconic western road view. I believe it to be the signature view from the road of the American West. A road that vanishes and falls and rises into the mesas of Monument Valley that looks alien, futuristic, and ancient at the same time.
I traveled down to Belen, New Mexico with my photography gear and Kiki for a rural land photography shoot. I have been to this exact area of Belen twice before, and know it so well I knew where to look for a cow skeleton, which was still there even though I have not been to this area for over a year! I got my daylight shots, then had time to walk around with Kiki in total silence save for the blowing wind. Then we settled in a spot and I setup my Nikon D750 on my Indoor carbon fiber tripod and waited for the sun to get into position. I decided to make the shot just as the sun peaked below the cloud cover while still above the distant mountain. Since the land itself was just desolate, I composed to show more of the spectacular clouds. I got paid to enjoy this view. Sometimes, being a photographer is not too bad, sometimes.
On a recent multi-day rural land real estate photo shoot in Navajo Dam, New Mexico, there was free time one day for an afternoon trip up to nearby Durango, Colorado where Jessica and I pretty much stumbled upon Pinkerton Hot Springs. Right on the side of the highway sits this natural hot spring that you can take your shoes off and dip your toes in the warm water burbling up from somewhere way down below. Usually these natural hot springs require a hike or at least a small trek to reach. This one though, you can drive right up to! It's a small hidden gem worth stopping for if you are ever near or in Durango, Colorado!