Keith Sanchez, the musician I wrote about recently, was making a return engagement at Il Vicino Canteen recently and warranted another listen from me and my family. So we loaded up the car and arranged to meet some friends there for good food, good beer, good company, and good music.
There is a bit of a tradition in New Mexico of sitting out on a winter’s eve around a fire. It is not that different from other parts of the world where people gather to look into a fire, feel the warmth, commune together, and get lost in thoughts in the dancing flames. Except here in NM the fire is built in a Chiminea, a clay fireplace that is open on one side with a short chimney raising the smoke toward the stars. We had such a gathering in my neighborhood the other day – an impromptu coming together of several families from the block. Parents, kids, neighbors. Food, drink, good conversation. There was laughter, giggles, bantering, warmth, community. Eventually the food was shared and finished, the children were ushered to bed, the sun completed its daily recession, and the glow of the fire drew us toward its respite from the evening chill. Here my neighbor, Herbey, ponders.
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?
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.
It is Valentine’s week so an appropriately themed image to recognize this day of love, lust, Hallmark, Cupid, arrows, chocolates, roses, dinner dates, etc.
Cupid was on the hunt in Albuquerque yesterday
Click on the image to view larger
Spectators and competitors watch bareback bronc riding at the 2012 International Indian Finals Rodeo in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A Professional Bull Rider from Belen, New Mexico greets his wife and daughter before his comeback from injury ride in the Casper Baca Roughstock Rodeo in Belen, New Mexico, Spring 2012.
A young child shields his eyes from the bright sun while riding his tricycle in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2012.
Revelers and a vendor interact, if only non-verbally, after the Dia de los Muertos Parade in Albuquerque, New Mexico, November 2012
17 year old Eloy, apprentice horseshoer, prepares to take 2 guest children for an ATV ride in the first snow of the season during the family Matanza in the mountains in New Mexico. Meanwhile the family dog, Buddy, eyes a place for himself.