Photo Compilation - The Many Faces of the Chiricahua Mountains

Over the past 8 years during my tenure in the San Simon Valley, first with the Sky Gypsies then as estate manager for the Painted Pony Resort, I have been taking pictures.  The incredible landscape here is inspiring and just begs to be photographed.  I'm not alone in this view as evidenced by the Facebook photography group Cochise County and its Wonders which showcases imagery from southeastern Arizona. One of my projects has been to collect photographs of the Portal Peak and the Chiricahua Mountains from the same vantage point over time.  The eastern flank of the Chiricahua Mountains predominates the view from everywhere in the valley so I began collecting images of this familiar view, mostly from the same location out in the valley looking west toward the mountains.  So every morning starts with the camera in hand and a sunrise check of the Chiricahua Mountains and the day ends with another check of the sunset.  I quickly noticed that every time I looked at the view there was something new to see, a new rock formation or shadow I had never seen quite that way.  I have also noticed the scene changes by the hour, the day, and the season.  With the colors changing at sunrise and sunset, light and shadow patterns constantly in flux through out the day, and with storms that come during the winter rains and summer monsoons I find something new each time I look.  I have put these together into a video format as a way of showing casing the same scene that residents and visitors alike see on a daily basis.  Created for the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon the video may also be found on their Facebook page.

Addendum:  Here is another image of the same scene I made after finishing the video, I just can't help myself with the views and a camera.

A partially desaturated view of the Chiricahua Mountains taken with a tablet camera.

A Christmas Present (to myself)

Well, I broke down and finally invested in a tablet for Christmas.  I've been looking at them since last year when my notebook and desktop computers died.  I rebuilt the desktop computer but the notebook computer was a total loss.  A small tablet computer is useful for showing guests images, maps, and websites they might find useful on their visit to the area and without a small portable computer this was no longer possible.  So with a drop in prices just before Christmas I ordered a Surface 3.  It arrived and after getting software updates and my favorite programs downloaded it time to try out the camera.  While not a dedicated camera the built in Surface 3 camera in the 16:9 format does do a good job at capturing big images I would usually build out of multiple images taken with the canon point and shoot I usually use for photographs.  Below are 2 examples of single images I took using the tablet.  These are single snapshots that were then processed in the provided software.  The first is a Christmas Eve image of Portal Peak and the eastern flank of the Chiricahua mountains presented in Black and White (desaturated) with some tilt shift and vignetting added to draw the viewers attention to the mountains.  While the second image is of the Gray Mountain in the Peloncillos to the east, taken the day after Christmas after about an inch of snow fell in the valley.  This image was processed the same way as the first image.

While the colors produced by the tablet camera are good, I prefer the desaturated images of the landscape and have yet to print any of the images, but on the computer screen I'm pleased with the results.  Of course trying to shoot with a tablet can be bulky but the large viewing screen certainly helps with composition except in strong light.  I also noticed that lens flaring can be a problem in strong light but for a non-dedicated camera that is built in Microsoft did a good job.

It will be nice to have a device which I can use to quickly show guests information about the area and hopefully make their visit more enjoyable.

An image of the Chiricahua Mountains taken with a Surface 3 tablet camera.

Gray Mountain in the Peloncillo Mountains of southwestern New Mexico. Image taken with a Surface 3 tablet camera.

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

The Painted Pony Resort and I wish everyone a very merry Christmas and here is hoping that this season finds everyone happy and healthy.

A Christmas in Rodeo NM (click on image to view larger)

Christmas metates in red and green, only in Rodeo.

Santa's moon, a Chirstmas eve full moon over the Peloncillo Mountains.

Life in the Bubble and Living on Rodeo Time

I have written about a hypothesis that the Portal Rodeo area exists in a bubble moving at close to the speed of light and as a result time has slowed, see here and here for some background.  And I'm not the only one who has noticed this strange phenomena of slow time in the area, see the comments to this post.  Originally devised as a way to explain why it takes so long to get anything done down here, I continually look for evidence of a time differential that support the notion of the bubble.  Photographic evidence of the bubble has taken the form of steam trains traversing the area and duplicate images spaced 70 years apart showing little change in the landscape.  But a recent event provides another piece of evidence for the existence of the bubble.  A World Was II convoy recently made an appearance in Rodeo NM.  Described in article written by a local photographer in the December issue of Desert Exposure (page 42), the event caused quite a stir locally.  The convoy stopped in Rodeo along Highway 80 (an original east/west transcontinental driving route) for lunch at the Rodeo Tavern and was greeted by local residents decked out in period attire (or it could be just normal work attire and another indication of the bubble).  In either case, from my perspective, it is just one more piece of evidence that time has slowed in this little corner of the bootheel of New Mexico and things do happen down here, eventually.

A Busy Thanksgiving

Two weeks and 3 sets of guests, it has been busy around the Painted Pony Resort.  I've been constantly running from one cleaning job to the next.  The good news is everyone had a good time on the estate with one family celebrating Thanksgiving here at PPR.  Fortunately, I have a couple of weeks before the Christmas rentals so I can catch up on some other things that need doing around here.  The estate picked up 0.3" of rain for the month of November with some over Thanksgiving but the skies have cleared and we are back to the deep blue Arizona New Mexico skies that make living here a wonder.  Below are 2 images taken a week or so ago looking east and west at sunrise from the Painted Pony Resort showing some of the color that is a daily experience for those living and visiting the area.

Looking east through Antelope Pass in the Peloncillo mountains at sunrise.  Click the image to enlarge and note the mimetolith gazing up at the morning clouds.

Looking west at the red to yellow transitions on the Chiricahua Mountains at sunrise.

Growing the Art

The big spaces in the valley call for big art works, but with no training in the arts it is difficult at times to create artwork that does justice to what I see and experience.  But it is still up to me and the creative juices to see the possibilities then create something.  I have talked about growing artwork in the desert previously and I finally got this years yucca stems that had been trained and shaped, harvested.  This multi-year project, like the landscape restoration, takes time and patience to see any results and it is pleasing when an idea works and adds to the ambiance of this high desert valley in New Mexico.

Spanning a period of 6 months the photographs below are of a single yucca stem that was persuaded to circularize, with bailing wire, while it was growing.  After blooming a cactus wren found the shape attractive and built a nest within the circularized stem.  Now abandoned, the finished stem was harvested and placed with others as another stay in the fence line at the entrance to the Painted Pony Resort.  While other yucca stems did not turn out as well their curving stems will also be added to the fence line with the idea of creating an entrance area that is inviting to guests after their drive to reach the estate, as well as holding the fence wire in place.

Yucca stem in training.

Trained yucca stem in bloom

The same yucca stem after drying and ready for harvest.

Yucca stem fence stay.

70 Years Spans These 2 Images

Serendipity is defined as "the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way" (1).  About a week ago I came across a reference to one of my early photographs while online.  The image was of the old El Paso and Southwestern railroad line I took while flying the abandoned rail line looking for old town sites and sidings.  The reference was on the website "SHORPY "always something interesting"".  The post entitled "South by Southwest" was of an image taken in 1938 by Dorothea Lange a depression era photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the depression documenting the plight of citizens struggling with the depression and dust bowl.  Best known for her image of Florence Owens Thompson (another serendipitous coincidence?) entitled "Migrant Mother", Dorothea visited Rodeo during the summer of 1938 where she captured this image below.

Now fast forward 70 years and I'm flying about 50 feet off the ground along the old abandoned railroad north of Rodeo NM looking for old towns (specifically Apan NM) and sidings to document and I see an image so snap a photograph.  I submit it to Google Earth and it is accepted and published.  Not quite languishing in obscurity, the image has picked up over 11,000 views since being published in 2009, the image was rediscovered by someone investigating Dorothea Lange's 1938 image.  After some back and forth trying to figure out where Lange was positioned to take her image (I thought perhaps she climbed a signal pole) I found another photograph with a hint.  This additional image has a shadow in the lower left foreground indicating the photograph was taken from the old bridge over the rail line on Highway 80 just north of Rodeo NM.  After the railroad ceased, the highway was realigned and the bridge removed.  So 2 photographers, 70 years apart, looked at the same scene while perched above the landscape, saw something interesting, and captured an image.  One more clue in the search to understand "how people see".  Clearly, time is not a component in this equation.

1938 looking north along the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad from Rodeo NM towards Antelope Pass in the Peloncillo Mountains.  Note the rail bed is wide along this stretch of tacks with room for 2 sets of rails.  Image by Dorothea Lange.

2009 looking north along the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad from Rodeo NM towards Antelope Pass in the Peloncillo Mountains.  Image by BAlvarius.

1938 looking north along the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad from Rodeo NM towards Antelope Pass in the Peloncillo Mountains.  Note the shadow in the lower left indicating the location.  Image by Dorothea Lange.

1. Google search for "Serendipity".

Addendum: 
1.  Dorothea Lange's images are courtesy of the Library of Congress. 
2.  Just to show that time has slowed in the Bubble here is an image from 2011 of a steam locomotive passing Steins NM along the northern segment of the east/west rail line.

The Union Pacific steam locomotive 844 passing Steins NM in 2011.

Bicycles at the Painted Pony Resort

Bicycling is a popular past time and several posts on bicycling in and around the area were previously posted, see here and here.  In addition, several visiting bike tours have stayed at the estate while passing through the area, for example see here.

Recently a group of guests wanted to ride bicycles during their stay, but the closest bike rentals were in Silver City.  A trip to Silver City by the event coordinator (Michelle) solved the problem but something closer to home was needed.  So in response to this popular recreational activity and to accommodate guests the Painted Pony Resort now has 4 bicycles available that guests may rent during their stay if they wish to enjoy some local bike rides.  These SR SUNTOUR bikes are available in 3 sizes, a 17', 2 - 19", and a 21" bike are now on the estate.  These bicycles are designed for off road usage with 26" x 2.0" tires and front shock absorbers.  With 7 gears any grade or hill should be easily attacked and conquered including ranch roads on the estate as well as trips into the Chiricahua Mountains.  For a nominal fee the whole family can get out for some riding on and off the estate and enjoy "seeing" the area from a different vantage point. 

Bicycles are now available for guests at the Painted Pony Resort.

Ranch roads (in yellow) at the Painted Pony Resort.

Happy Halloween

October 31st, it must be Halloween.  Hope everyone has a good day and gets lots of candy.  I did not have a pumpkin so here is my San Simon Valley DIY pumpkin, the dried interior of a Coyote gourd (Cucurbita sp.) lit from the bottom by balancing it on a flashlight after dark and photographing the result.

The DIY pumpkin

Seeing Things: Cloud Shapes

Living and working or just visiting in the San Simon Valley of southern New Mexico one is confronted with a big landscape that is in constant flux.  It changes with the time of day and the time of year, since the light is always in motion.  With an increase in moisture though clouds begin to form bringing another exciting aspect to the big sky of the valley.  As I watch the cloudscapes form and shift during the day sometimes something unexpected happens.  Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a shape appears.  It registers in the brain a moment later and then the fun begins.  The first question, is the camera handy, did I bring it along while out on the estate?  If not, am I close enough to run and get the camera?  If fortunate enough to have the camera handy it is time for data collection.  Single and multiple images (for stitching) are collected then it's back to work.  Later though and once back inside the data is downloaded and it's time to start the process of making an image.  Fortunately many attempts do work out in the post production process and in the case of these recent images shown below, I was able to get enough data.  I'm fond of saying it is not the camera that makes an image it is a person and with digital cameras this is especially true.  Instead of a darkroom it's a computer where images are made. I hope you can see the same things in these images, but you never know, everyone sees the world differently.

Flying ghost over the Chiricahua Mountains, just in time for Halloween.

Portuguese man o' war jelly fish over the Peloncillo Mountains.

Flying sea turtle over Antelope Pass.