Picture Package

Sketches: Behind the Chutes

Last fall I attended several local rodeos here in New Mexico: the Casper Baca Roughstock Rodeo Fall Series and the Bosque Farms Rodeo Association Fall Rodeo. Both rodeos allowed me up-close access, for which I am grateful. This kind of access allowed for photographs beyond the action in the arena and a glimpse into the focus and preparation involved in rodeo competition.

Recently a short series of behind the scenes images from these rodeos were posted on my Instagram, Facebook, and Flickr feeds but were neglected here. This post rectifies that.

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A young cowboy awaits his 8 seconds on the steer. Bull riding is as much a mental game as it is a physical one.

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Bull and Rider

Bull Prep

A bull rider sits on a bull in the chutes leading to the bucking chute. A sense of familiarity appears to exist for both cowboy and bull.

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A cowboy awaits his ride. There is a lot of time spent waiting for the 8 seconds aboard a bull.

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A cowboy perhaps ponders what could have been after a Bosque Farms Rodeo Association Rodeo, Bosque Farms, New Mexico.

Posted by Brian Miller in Nuevo Mexico, Picture Package, rodeo, Sketches

Wyeth Country

In a small town in Southeastern Pennsylvania, one of the United States’ most renowned painters set up his studio and began to explore the light, the people, and the landscape of the area.

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It is a small area, tight with hills and trees and creeks. A revolutionary battle was fought nearby, as was a Civil War battle. General Lafayette spent the night in a spot here once, so the sign says.

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North and South, East and West seem to hold little meaning here as roads tend to wind alongside creeks leading northeast and southwest – or they head straight up a steep ridge to top out at a momentary vista only to plunge down into another valley to cross another creek and rise to the next ridge. The result is a feeling of living in a dream with no up or down; no left or right. Driving here feels like going in circles. Disorientation is common.

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Part of my childhood was spent here and as I returned recently to visit my parents I noticed once again how small my world was then. It spanned perhaps a few square miles, for the twisting, winding, narrow roads, the endless trees blocking any hope of a view, did not spark a teenage boy’s mind with exploratory imagination.

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Andrew Wyeth painted nearby during the same years I explored cornfields and chased water skeeters in the nearby creek. He painted old barns, railroad tracks, even my neighbors, as I played pond hockey on the neighboring land, walked home from school through a dairy farm and cut corn fields. He explored the depths of his psyche while I attempted, albeit unknowingly, to forge mine.

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I didn’t discover him until after I left – LONG after I left! And his paintings draw me home to the place I came of age: where I learned to drive, where I enjoyed my first romantic relationship, where I first explored the solitude natural spaces brings. Is it the light that touches me, or the sense of place? Or perhaps time? I know the places he painted. I nearly ran my car off the road numerous times on Ring Road. When I see his painting of that scene I remember finally mastering that surprising blind curve, unofficially marking me as more than a visitor to Chadds Ford, but a resident, an insider.

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I visit Chester County occasionally now and try to take in Wyeth’s paintings at the Brandywine River Museum. But mostly I reconnect to a period that seemed uneventful and yet is rich with the stillness of time and place, breathing in a formative history. I drive the roads; I show my family the important spots; I seek out Andrew Wyeth’s vision in order see my high school days with new eyes.

Then, perhaps, memory can catch up with nostalgia.

My God, when you really begin to peer into something, a simple object, and realize the profound meaning of that thing—if you have an emotion about it, there’s no end.”

~Andrew Wyeth

Posted by Brian Miller in Creativity, iPhone, Picture Package, sketches

Sketches: In The Beginning

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Posted by Brian Miller in a la casa, at home, Creativity, Fuji, Monochrome, Picture Package, sketches, Sketches, X100

Soft Summer

I am just returned from vacation. A family trip, to visit family. Time by the lake. Play in the water. Tubing, swimming, paddle boarding. The sound of children laughing, cousins playing, music on the stereo, motorboats, ice cream, bonfires, glow sticks, and s’mores. The things summers at the lake are made of.

But the morning rose slowly, softly. The visual accompaniment to the childhood snores emanating from the children’s’ room. A mist blanketed the lake and seeped through the trees.

Quiet held off the advance of day as long as she could.

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Posted by Brian Miller in Monochrome, Picture Package

Sketches: Gone Fishin’

A two-fer here today as I play with the way I present these sketches and work through what I am photographing and presenting. A good friend asked a couple of weeks ago about these sketches and why I consider them so. In truth, I consider them sketches because I am trying things. I am trying things out in the field capturing the images, and I am trying things in terms of presenting the images. And I am learning, curiously learning; making stuff. To my mind, this is the process of art, no?

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So today, an image – in color – harvested (pardon the pun) from a long series of images made on President’s Day as we spent the day with two neighbor families fishing at Isleta Lakes on the Isleta Tribal Pueblo here in NM. Following the color image is a series I shot with my iPhone and Hipstamatic’s app telling the little story of the day in broad strokes. Let me know what you think. I am playing with storytelling, both in single images and in series of images, and I am limited in my photographing explorations by the necessities of my family. So I do what I can, sometimes wishing I had more time to photograph, but grateful that, as I was reminded, I get to do my hobby all the time….! True that. It is the limits that forges the creativity after all.

The series below you may have seen already if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram as I posted the individual images over the course of the day. Here it is again with two additional images to round out the series. I attempted to capture the cooking process (stuffing the fish with garlic, lemon and herbs, and grilling them in foil) without much success. To my mind that is missing from this series. Lesson learned.

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Posted by Brian Miller in Creativity, Culture, Fuji, Hipstamatic, iPhone, Monochrome, Picture Package, Sketches, X100
Go For Launch: A Picture Package (Balloon Fiesta 2011)

Go For Launch: A Picture Package (Balloon Fiesta 2011)

This series of images is a continuation of the story I began telling a couple of weeks ago. You can access that blog post here. In that series I attempted to tell the story of the lead-in to the balloon launch at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. I’ve lived here in Albuquerque for 16 years and have visited the Fiesta often and I had thought I would try to depict the wee hours of the morning (the end of the night, really) and not just replicate what 250,000 cameras do daily at this yearly, nine day festival. I hope it worked.

This picture package, this short story, is an attempt at telling the story of what happens once the night ends and the launch begins. I hope to give a feel for what it is like on the field for it is really indescribable.

With a “Go For Launch” clearance from the Dawn Patrol, the Balloon Fiesta Morning began in earnest. Launch coordinators dressed in varying zebra-striped patterns made sure launches were safe and I switched from my black and white, night photography focus to one that better suits the color and excitement of the Balloon Fiesta Mass Ascension.

The dawn sun began to hint toward a beautiful morning and the energy on the launch field grew more palpable as balloonists and gawkers alike looked eastward in anticipation of the sun’s first warm rays peeking over the Sandia Mountains.

This land of near eternal sun, this Land of Enchantment, has a very simple and very appropriate state symbol; the Zia Sun. I found myself fortunate as the Zia Balloon inflated right near me as it readied for takeoff.

All of a sudden balloons begin to rise en masse. All around balloons are lifting off, flying over, being laid out, inflated. Wave after wave, to rousing cheers, these silent sky carriages lift their cargo skyward.

Drawing the loudest applause, the Creamland Dairy Cow took flight. A thunderous beast, she often inflates but flies only on perfect days. She’s a bit temperamental in wind.

It’s a bit of a wonder that all this can happen due to the simple differences in behavioral properties of hot and cold air.

Before long the sky becomes an ever changing technicolor tapestry. If the viewer is fortunate the winds will play to his favor and create a “box wind”; a low elevation wind moving one direction while a higher elevation wind moves the opposite. This allows skilled balloonists to ride these opposing winds and rotate around the launch field.

The great fun of this event is the accessibility of the balloons. Viewers can walk right up to and talk to balloon crews, peer inside the inflating balloon as it lays on its side, even touch the balloons. Kids especially love this fiesta and spend lots of time gazing skyward.

Despite its early hour, it is a very family friendly time.

 

Posted by Brian Miller in Nuevo Mexico, Picture Package, Tierra Encantada

Picture Package (Balloon Fiesta)

As some of you may have notice I’ve taken a turn toward documentary photography as of late. I really like individual photographs and their power, but there is something in trying to tell a story in a series of images that really captures my creative imagination-and challenges me to no end!

I that vein I’ve really been captured by the idea of “Picture Packages”, the idea that Daniel Milnor (aka Smogranch) put forth in this post. Basically, he tries to capture a short series of images that can stand on their own as well as tell a story as a group. Also inspired by Daniel’s willingness to make the process of his latest project (New Mexico) open and transparent by posting his images, thoughts, audio and video on tumblr, I thought I might share my latest efforts at creating a series. Below is a series of images I shot at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta yesterday (Sunday) morning.

I went into the Balloon Fiesta Park with a set of ideas that I wanted to capture and that really drove my intention. Along the way I discovered some other opportunities that presented themselves and fit well into my idea. Still other pictures seemed to fit in as I was looking through the day’s images later in the evening. I’ve more to shoot and more to share to make this story more complete, but I’m really happy with the results. I hope you like the images as well.

 

Posted by Brian Miller in Monochrome, Nuevo Mexico, Picture Package, Tierra Encantada