HDR... Adding Art to Art

Tractors @ Frontier Gas Museum
Santa Fe, New Mexico

HDR_ I recently went on a photo workshop with Matt Suess and Christine Hauber. It consisted of Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico. What a beautiful place. I also had the chance to learn something new in photography with HDR being precessed through Nik Software. Incrediable fun, here is a few images I have managed to work up so far...

Pumps@ Frontier Gas Museum
Santa Fe, New Mexico



Wagon@ Ranco de las Golondrinas
Santa Fe, New Mexico

 This is a very neat way to add art to art...

"Roaring Fork"

Back in the 1830's the Bales' family took up residence in the Roaring Fork area of the Smoky Mountains. Looking at  this image one only has to use alittle imagination to live in your mind what they must have seen as everyday life. Beautiful forest surround, and the name Roaring Fork shouldn't be taken likely, the water flows viciously around every corner and over every boulder.
The deep green on every tree and bush is like no other place I know, it seems almost too much at times, but errotic at others. It is easy to loose ones self in such an area and have your breath taken away...

" Legend Of The Dogwood"

  

            
"When Christ was on earth, the dogwood grew
To a towering size with a lovely hue.
Its branches were strong and interwoven
And for Christ's cross its timbers were chosen                           
Being distressed,
At the use of this wood
Christ made a promise,
Which still holds good:
"Not ever again shall the dogwood grow
To be large enough for a tree, and so
Slender and twisted it shall always be
With cross-shaped blossoms for all to see.
The petals shall have bloodstains,
Marked in brown
And in the blossom's center,
A thorny crown.
All who see it,
Will think of me,
Nailed to a cross,
From a dogwood tree.
Protected and cherished,
This tree shall be
A reflection to all,
Of my agony."

Man's Best Friend...

                                                          " Kisses"... Gentle and sweet, very loving.      

My love of photography takes me places.In my travels I get to meet alot of great people and photograph alot of very interesting subjects. Aside from the great landscapes, bright beautiful flowers, delicate butterflies, and birds of every color in the rainbow.
One interest that is close to my heart and not to mention alot of fun is photographing people's pets. Many of these subjects have the best and most independent personalities.

                                                              " Shorty"... Timid and playful

                                                                  "Jeta"... Explorer and Curious

I have a pet of my own that I spend a great amount of time with and there is alot to be said about a man's best friend, or woman's.

Waterfalls...

Waterfalls...

I love shooting waterfalls, the piecefullness and solitude of it all as the water rushes over rocks and along creek banks.

I spent a day at home shooting along Poland Creek, and there was waterfalls at ever turn.

Waterfalls seem to play their own music and carry their own beat, you can hear it in the sounds of them passing by, clarity like no other, it can never be mistaken for anything else.

Let it be...

History is a pattern of our past, changes or distroying our history alters our future

because there is nothing to represent how things were done.

Early 1900's Al Caggiano lived in the house known as the Board & Bath house.

In the 50's Mr. " Pap" Abbey laid claim to the house and cleaned the grounds and started what was to become an extensive orchard.

 His daughter and her husband moved into the house with their two boys. But since the time of Pap the house has been known as "The Abbey House".

The Abbey house is positioned on Forest Service land. It is in ruins, much work would be needed to bring it back to it's glory. But it still holds part of the past for the town of
Crown King. Destroying the house that sits in the pines away from town would be a shame. Leave our history so that the patterns don't get lost...

Let nature take it course so that it my be there for a few more generations to see,

Let it be...

Silk Water Canyon

"Silk Water Canyon"

Passing by this shot, I captured the image in my mind. Without my camera and tripod there was little else to do but hope when I got the chance to return, the waters would still be flowing.

Flowing they were, the sun was high but the image I had spotted days earlier was in a shaded section on the canyon. Sitting on the side of an ice covered rock with my tripod trying to slide into the pool below, I captured the image I had seen before, now not only is it a image in my mind but an image for me to share.

Tabatha Osborne w/ My Photo Dreams

Sunrise over the Dragoons

" Sunrise over the Dragoons"

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the urge to throw the alarm clock across the room and bury your head back under the covers is not a photgrapher's choice. Mine either as I was up way before sunrise to capture the morning's beautiful glow coming over the Dragoon Mountains in southern Arizona.