The Long Light of Winter

Winter in the San Simon Valley is generally characterized by warm sunny days and chilly nights.  Temperatures drop to freezing but rapidly rise back into the 60's once the sun rises and crests the mountains to the east.  The sun rises and sets fairly far south and the mountains views in the afternoons are frequently bathed in a warm yellow light.  Below are 2 images taken on 2 consecutive days with the warm late afternoon sun illuminating the Peloncillo Mountains of southern New Mexico as viewed from the Painted Pony Resort outside Rodeo New Mexico.  The rich yellows and reds with the long shadows created by the sun's path across the southern sky creates an almost 3D effect in the photographs.  It really is hard to take a bad photograph down here.

The Rustic Cabin and the long light of a winters afternoon.

A view further south the next afternoon.

 

Portal Rodeo is a Big Place

Many visitors to the twin cities of Portal Rodeo are surprised at the scale of the area, things that look close are really much larger and miles away.  The landscape is large and snapshots rarely do it justice.  Zooming in to get a particular aspect of the view always excludes the surrounding landscape and the final image seems lacking.  To compensate multiple images are usually collected and stitched together not only to highlight a particular aspect of the landscape but capture some of the surroundings as well to provide context.  Below is a sunrise image of a short lived rainbow that appeared just at sunrise over the flanks of the Chiricahua Mountains.  To completely capture the rainbow as well as its' context, 2 snapshots were taken and stitched together to create the final image making for a much more interesting scene.

A sunrise rainbow in the Chiricahua Mountains