Friday, July 18, 2008

New Mexico Vacation - Day 3

My parents home in the Red River Upper Valley is one of the few stucco homes in the Red River area. The morning of July 5, I took this photo showing the contrast of the tan stucco with the blue sky and the reflected sky in the windows. I also took the photo below of the southern ridge and the sky with clouds.







This is the day we were to go to Taos. I had been reading some of the books on the cabin bookshelf about the area and was learned about some of the early Taos Pioneers of Arts and Literature that were known throughout the modern world. Three names that show up in this history are Mabel Dodge Luhan, Dorothy Brett, and Frieda Lawrence. Mabel Dodge Luhan was the a cultural leader in the area and invited many well known writers and artists to her home and ranch in the Taos area, including Georgia O'Keefe and D.H. Lawrence, who lived in the area before moving on to their respected lives in other areas. D.H. Lawrence returned to Europe only to come back to the Taos area in an urn ultimately to have his ashes poured into the cement of his own memorial. Georgia O'Keefe returned to New York, ultimately to come back to Northern NM to paint 20 or so years later and remained the rest of her life.
Road to Mabel Dodge Luhan's Lorenzo Ranch, where she entertained many visual and literary artists. Additional photos including those of the D.H. Lawrence Memorial and Dororthy Brett Cabin may be seen in this Gallery.
Mabel Dodge Luhan's home in Taos New Mexico. This home is now a retreat and Hotel on the east side of Taos. An interesting note is that this home was briefly owned by Dennis Hopper when he was directing movies in the area. Easy Rider was filmed in the Taos area in the mid 60's as the Hippie invasion shook the Taos area. Additional images of this home are also in the gallery link above.

Friday, July 11, 2008

A Red River Fourth of July

I Spent the 4th of July in Red River. At 9am we headed to downtown Red Red River to find a spot to view the annual 4th of July Parade. I think nearly everyone in the Valley was in Red River that morning. We had to go to the west side of town to find a spot. The photo on the right was one of my favorite entries which I call Segway Sam. He wandered up and down both sides of the street handing out treats. There were many great floats and other entries in the parade of which I have posted some highlights in this Gallery.
In the evening of July 4 we went to the Red River Community Center for a concert by Philip John Brooks. It was a wonderful concert. In addition to singing and playing his guitar, he was using his feet to play the percussion instruments.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Moreno Valley Cowboy Evening


My first full evening in Red River We went to the Moreno Valley Cowboy Evening at Bobcat Pass. This was a great evening of cowboy steaks or chicken, Beans, Corn on the Cob, Biscuits, and finished off with a great cinnamon roll. Entertainment started with Dulcimer Dan singing and playing nearly every stringed instrument known. There was also dummy roping, horse shoe tossing, and a great after dinner show of singing, cowboy poetry reciting, stick horse racing, A little cowboy zydeco by a campfire.
I have posted some sample photos in this Moreno Valley Cowboy Evening Gallery.

New Mexico Vacation - Red River Day 2


My parents have a stucco home in the Upper Red River Valley. This is a view from a hill behind the house.

My first full day at the cabin we took a short hike up the Copper Canyon Road. This groundscape is a photo I took during this hike. Additional images may be found in my Day 2 Gallery.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Northern New Mexico Sunsets


On the way to Red River we made a few photo stops to document the dramatic cloud and sunset views.

Pasqual's in Downtown Santa Fe





On arrival in Santa Fe we first stopped at Pasqual's, a great restuarant in downtown Santa Fe. a great restuarant in downtown Santa Fe. Below you will see the dishes we ordered. The first are chicken enchiladas covered with a rich Mole sauce. The second is a combo with a chicken tamale, chili relleno, and a skewer of carne asada. Both of these dishes was served with posole and cilantro rice.

New Mexico Vacation - Georgia O'Keefe Museum

I am back from my first real vacation in about 4-5 years. I will be posting some of the images in the next several posts. After I arrived in Santa Fe, my parents picked me up at the shuttle stop and we headed to lunch and then the Georgia O'Keefe Museum where we visited the current exhibition.

Georgia O'Keefe Museum on Johnson Street in Santa Fe, NM.





Cafe next door to the Museum.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Monday, June 30, 2008

Blossom has early experience with cutting


Blossom, a Doc O Lena Twist x Colena Colena Filly, rehearses her future career by cutting Remy, a Vizsla Pup. She was able to keep him in the working area even after several attempts to cross over into the pasture.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Foal Whisperer?

What is this filly, Blossom, whispering into this colts ear?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A Rousing Game of Water Bottle


My favorite game to play with the vizsla pups at the ranch is "Waterbottle." I give an empty waterbottle to Kiwi, the female and then the chase is on as Remy, the male, does every thing he can to take the water bottle. Kiwi is able to beat him at every turn as long as she does not get into a corner or tight spot.


Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Eye 2 Eye - Keeping an eye on that cow

I photographed this horse keeping pace with this cow in a cutting competition this past weekend. You can see that this horse has an eye in this cow and is not going to let it get away.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Foal Fun

This past Saturday evening I visited the front pasture to see what the foals were up to. After observing for a short while the filly approached me to see what I was up to with that big camera.

After he got used to me spying he wandered around and decided need a good scratch but the fence was the only handy tool.











Since the pasture is right next to the interstate, litter is a constant problem. The filly is doing her part to pick up after the litterbugs.





After a while the filly goes over to a colt new to the pasture and invites him to race. The goal is his dam.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Jazz on Ross




The last weekend of May each year, Chase Bank sponsors Jazz under the Stars on the Ross Avenue yard at the Dallas Museum of Art. Thousands of people gather under the stars setting up, often with quite elaborate table settings, enjoying a variety of jazz bands along with their food and wine, starting the last Thursday of May and lasting through June.

Sketching in the Galleries - Onderdonk Landcape with 3 color palette


Tonight our assignment was to draw a landscape in the Julian Onderdonk exhibit using 3 colors in the color wheel triad. I chose an undated painting entitled Landscape with Coreopsis.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Eye 2 Eye - A Paradox

I was going through the images I took in the ACHA weekend cutting horse show searching for good eye to eye communication between the horse and cow and found this image. See if you can find the paradox in this image. I have to note that there is no digital manipulation done to this image other than cropping and fixing the contrast. I have posted other eye2eye images in this Gallery.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

ACHA Weekend: Select Images

I took this first image as the rider was riding toward the herd in the Cutting Competition. I was drawn to the composition with the horse, boots and spurs, and the lone black cow out of focus in the herd.


In my review of my behind the scenes images from this show I was drawn to this shot of the lone rider loping in the large roundpen. I thought of Hoppers paintings of that showed isolated figures in urban settings.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

ACHA Weekend Cutting - Arena Supervisor

During the past week I have been in the Brenham Texas area, this time photographing the ACHA Weekend at Nueces Canyon Ranch. This little pug was constantly patrolling the arena and trailer areas. After watching him over several days I had the opportunity to quickly get down to floor level and take a photo of him on his rounds. He seems to be looking at me with some suspicion. I was told he belonged to one of the employees and was considered the Mascot of Nueces Canyon Ranch.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Sketching in the Galleries: Julian Onderdonk

I missed last week at sketching in the galleries due to my Bluebonnet Stakes shoot, but returned this week to go back to the Julian Onderdonk exhibit. Our assignment was to pick elements from a variety of the paintings and compose our own drawing. The background tree came from one painting while the front tree and fence came from another. The Windmill came from the same as the foreground image but I moved over to the left. The cactus came from separate painting as did the cliffs in on the right hand side of the landscape.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Bluebonnet Stakes Dog show - Costume Class


The winner of the first costume class was Delila the Biker. She is a year old Wire Jack Russell Terrier owned by Jon and LeeAnne White. This was truly one of the best and well planned costumes I saw.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Bluebonnet Stakes Finals Day Dog Show

Today was finals day at the Bluebonnet Stakes in Brenham, Texas. In conjuction with the cutting, a Dog Show was held during cattle changes and settling. Classes included best dog under 12 inches, best dog over 12 inches, Costume class for dogs, and Costume Class with dogs show by kids. The image to the upper left is Dr. Janet Bowers coaching a Barbara Sparkmans dog on how they were going to demonstrate cutting. The bottom photo shows the "Trainer" and Dog :cutting the the "cow." See more photos of the dog show in this Gallery






Saturday, May 03, 2008

Bluebonnet Stakes 2008

Yesterday we had limited age (3-6yo) classes but today was a regular NCHA show. We started with the Open. Yesterday started with overcast so backlighting was minimal, but today we had a bright morning sky that made photographing difficult, even with strobe. I decided to shoot some side shots so I would not be dealing with the worst of the backlighting.
This shot is of Wilds My Thing ridden by Casey Morris and owned by Francie and Bobby Butler. This was one of my best shots of the day.
I have been at the Bluebonnet Stakes in Brenham, Texas for the last few days. Today they were using two arenas and from time to time had to drive another herd across the arena, and I set myself up to photograph this drive.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Cowboy Shooting

Sunday after Church I decided to go over the the Cowboy Collections Arena across the creek to see about the all the gunshots I had heard for the past hour. I came to find that there the Cowboy Mounted Shooting was having a show there this weekend. I arrived during a lunch break, but was able to take some photos before I had to leave for the ranch about 1pm. Using my Digital SLR in High Speed mode I was able to actually catch the cowboy and cowgirls firing their sidearms at the balloons, with subsequent fire and smoke. Although there is no actual bullet, the black powder is ejected from the shell and these tiny fragment (much like from a shotgun) are able to reach out quite a ways to pop balloons that are set in a course. I was also amazed by the efficiency of the youth balloon team as they ran out between riders and replaced the balloons in about the time it took the next rider to enter the arena. Additional Cowboy Shooting images may be seen in this Gallery.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

New Filly

Late this last week a new filly arrived. She is by Doc O Lena Twist out of Colena Colena. The star on her head is in the same spot as her sire, but much larger. When I arrived at the ranch today I saw her with her dam in the far NE corner of the pasture, and returned to get the photo of her with her dam. Later that evening I returned to get the photos of her laying in the pasture next to her dam. The other 3 mares in the pasture are allowed no where close to her. Anytime they get close the mare gets between them and the foal and pins her ears and shakes her head.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Sketching in the Galleries: European Landscape in the style of Japanese Print

Today the sketching in the galleries class, our instructor, Michael Tole, took us first to the Asian Art Galleries where we looked at some Japanese Prints and how they use line and shading to show depth, without reflecting the true direction of lighting. When then moved to the 18th Century European Galleries where we picked an painting to draw in the style of the Japanese Prints. I picked a landscape by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1775) and focused on the castles, trees, and mountains.