Blog

Rodeo season

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 23:22:01 -0600

As basketball gave way to baseball and little league, those sports too give way to rodeo.

There are so many things going on and so many people, you can pretty much just go wild shooting features.

Sheep buster Jake Silago, 6, waits for the call into the ring for the Lion's Club Rodeo at Red Rock Park.

Dance in the light

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 21:50:40 -0600

This is what makes photography so interesting and exciting for me.

Just as the sun starts to peek over the canopy at the Window Rock Fairgrounds, Stetson Herrera, of Magdalena, New Mexico, dances his horse right into the last light of the day.

It’s there and then it’s gone.

Quick hands

Sat, 5 Jun 2010 23:22:32 -0600

Young Zach Fleishhacker picked up more than the ball at shortstop on Saturday here at Indian Hills park.

There’s never a dull week out here. Just as little league has just about come and gone, rodeo season is barking down the door.

Elivs has left the rodeo

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 16:41:21 -0600

Where else can you find Navajo cowboys competing in an Elvis persona contest?

Only the Window Rock fairgrounds that is.

Been real busy so it’s light on text this week.

Mind, Body and Soul

Thu, 3 Jun 2010 23:22:19 -0600

“Yoga isn’t just exercise, it is a way of connecting with oneself.”

Can’t really argue with that.

What next?

Sat, 29 May 2010 22:40:30 -0600

After a busy two weeks, graduation “season,” so to speak, is over.

I barely remember my high school graduation from way back in 1998. I skipped out on my Wyoming Tech and New Mexico State University ceremonies.

Give me the paper in the mail.

Here, St. Michael Indian School senior Amamda Hubbard wonders what life holds next before making the walk for graduation in Window Rock on Saturday.

Up in Smoke

Thu, 27 May 2010 02:02:29 -0600

What a day.  You know how the story goes. I was in my car minding my own business on the way to buy groceries, when an SUV in the Lowe’s parking erupted into a ball of flames and huge gulfs of smoke.

Got some good light in a terrible situation.

“I’ve had better days than this,” said the SUV owner watching his vehicle go up in smoke. True, but as I shook hands with the Gallup Fire Lt., he had some words of his own as I asked how he was doing.

“I’m doing just fine. Could be worse you know. You could wake up dead,” he said.

Choice words. And with that I was on my way to Albertsons to grab a six pack of beer and some watermelon.

Volver a Comenzar

Sun, 16 May 2010 16:33:42 -0600

Photography is many things to many people. Digital photography has only widened the reach of this broad meaning it is for people to capture imagery. But broadened doesn’t always mean “improved.”

There is this myth among photographers with digital photography. Photography is “better” than it has ever been. I don’t believe that for one second. All I have seen is more photography, some good, some bad. Just as a person who writes a blog every day is not a writer in the same sense as Sebastian Junger is a writer. So the same is true for photography. Digital has made things appear more accessible for more people, but at the end of the day, you still have a lens, a shutter curtain and one frame to make it happen.
 What made photography so interesting to me, what captured me, was the process of photography. Waiting for the light, waiting for a moment, making the picture, processing the film, making a contact sheet and finally, producing the final print. Each frame you made was so much more valuable. And it was REAL, not some pixel interpreted instruction set of ones and zeros. That is not to say the thousands and thousands of great images made every day should be ignored. Absolutely not.

Where Kodak and Nikkor, Fuji and Zeiss all took a bit of credit for the images made in days past, those same names must now share the bulk of credit not just with the photographer, but with a program called Adobe Photoshop. Ansell Adams was a darkroom magician, but Photoshop is a miracle worker. Make the analogy to other creative arts - perhaps sculpture. While mechanized tools may aid the process, look at history’s magnum opus of hand made work. Michaelangelo made David by hand through time and suffrage with simple tools . Today David, literally still stands tall. Do we rid the world of a chef after the advent of TV dinners? Do we ignore the symphony with a sampling board?

Now my Macbook Pro is an engineering masterwork of the highest order. It is machined to perfection from billet aluminum - but it is no David. It is mass marketed precision. And to a degree, the same has become of modern imagery. All the while confined to computer screens and not to a frame on the wall where images belong.  As a daily user of Photoshop, you will find no user more faithful in what it offers for my work. But the process is not what brought me to where I am now. So I’m going back. I’m hitting eBay. I’m buying up enlarger lenses, film reels and bricks of Fuji Neopan. I’m dusting off the process and time tested hands on approach that began a long torrid affair with documenting light. Many years ago, the darkroom completely changed my life.

After running around with a digital around my neck for awhile, it’s time for me to go back to the beginning.

Nun with a Gun

Sun, 16 May 2010 01:01:05 -0600

The Gallup Little Sisters of the Poor held a shindig of sorts called a Rock-a-thon, where donors and visitors got to sit around on rocking chairs, play games and enter raffles.

It was a charming place to be for all. Even those in the order had a chance for fun. Sister Ophelia brandished a nerf dart shooter and aimed for the bulls eye.

Taco Hell

Sat, 8 May 2010 15:27:12 -0600

There is a contest for everything.

For the weekend Cinco de Mayo festivities, Taco Bell sponsored a taco eating contest. Participants stuffed down as many tacos as they could in three minutes.

The winner claimed his title with a score of 8. I didn’t get his picture, but in things like this, almost any shot is an easy standalone feature.