Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Unplanned Mission Trip

Today I went on a small expedition. The plan was to meet a friend of mine at his property near Torreon, NM to help him gather wood for the winter. I was armed with a well-drawn map and ready to go. I arrived at his property and he was no where to be found. Also there were no tire tracks on his property and it had been weeks since anyone had been out there. So, while I made it he did not.

I figured I had driven 50 miles from the city to a part of New Mexico I had never seen before so I might as well explore. I heard of a ruin near Punta del Agua so I went to check it out. What I found was the ruin of an old Spanish mission, the Quarai Ruin. The ruin is part mission, part Native American pueblo and both are part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The monument consists of three ruins of three missions all with pueblos around them. They are all from around the 1600s. I went to two of them today, totally didn't plan it but they are pretty close to each other.

I have to say the Quarai ruin is really a nice place, especially this time of year with the leaves changing. You first see this massive structure popping out of the landscape as you drive in to it and are left wondering how exactly you are supposed to get to it. If you just keep following the road you will get to a little ranger station and be right there. Then all you have to do is follow the paved path around the ruin and read the signs to learn about it. You are allowed to walk into the mission and all around it. Mounds of earth with rocks sticking out all around the mission indicate where more of the pueblo buildings used to be and give you an idea of how large the place once was.



This is the view from the front of the mission. The mound of earth off to the left is part of the old indian pueblo.
This is a photo from inside the main building of the mission. It's impressive. The walls are eight feet thick at least.
I was amazed at how peaceful this place was and how pretty the layout of the whole thing was. The paved trail looping around it was really pretty with the changing trees and the picnic area was very quiet and scenic under a giant cottonwood tree. The only other people there with me were the ranger and a man with his six year old son. I got to overhear the man trying to explain the Spanish Inquisition to his son, that was amusing.

The paved trail around the monument was picturesque in the fall light with the changing leaves.
Enjoy a picnic under a massive cottonwood with a 400 year-old Spanish mission in view. Yes please.
From this ruin it is something like 20 miles to Abó which is part of the same national monument. It is on the way back to Albuquerque, so I decided to check it out.

Abó is a lot more of what I am used to when it comes to Spanish missions and ruins in New Mexico. It is more dry and deserty. Quarai was amazingly green for a New Mexico ruin, so I liked it better because it was so different than what I'm used to seeing. Read the National Park information I linked to at the beginning of the post and you'll probably be surprised at how well all three elements of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument were linked in the 1600s. The indians who lived in these pueblos were trading all the time with each other and other large tribes. It's funny because hardly anyone live out where these places are now. I'm willing to be more people were living in the pueblos than live in the areas now.

This is a view of the mission ruins at Abó. The large structure is the church and the mounds of dirt contain unexcavated pueblo ruins.
While not a scenic, to me anyway, as Quarai the path around Abó still has its more traditional New Mexico scenic points.


There are some more complete buildings surrounding the Abó ruins. Some of the buildings are a little more modern, mid 1800s, and the vegas are still in tact which makes for some nice shadows.
So the trip went well. I saw some great ruins I never knew existed. Both of these missions included kivas, which makes no sense to anyone but proves the Catholic missionaries and native peoples were willing to make some compromises on both sides. I didn't even have to cut any firewood.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Battle Buddies and Art

A few months ago I traveled to Virginia to see some good friends. Turns out many of the people who are my best friends live in the Washington D.C. area. I stayed with a very good friend of mine and spent most of my time wandering the art museums and other great places around the city on my own. Many of my friends who live in the are are military and it's always great to visit with them. One day I stopped by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial just to take a look around. I remember from trips to the wall as a child that there is only one Bowersmith listed on the wall and I have no clue who George Bowersmith is, neither does anyone else in the family. Logic would tell you I'm related to him.
What I did see was this:

It inspired me, as many things do, and made me think, once again this is not rare for me. Anyway. It's not rare for people to leave items for fallen comrades in arms along the memorial wall. I suppose it is what you do for your battle buddy. I really don't know, because I'll never have one. What I do know is even though I have not been terrified to the point of paralysis next to any of my military friends in an actual combat situation they all support me and back me up as if I had. Is everyone I know who is in the military this way? No. Am I misunderstanding something? Who knows. What I do know is that a select few of my friends are this way, like good family, and most of them are military. Would I leave a boonie cover and jungle boots on a grave for them? You bet, and nearly anything else I could do for them. After all, one of my only regrets in life is that I have never severed my country. The least I can do is serve my friends who have.
As I mentioned I did spend a lot of time at art museums. I've been to DC many times and I've done all the typical stuff. I'd pretty much seen all the touristy stuff there is to see, so I wanted to get a new perspective and see art. This has a lot to do with the fact that in the last ten years I have discovered I really like art and want to explore my own ways to make it. On this trip I specifically learned I like Impressionist art. I didn't know that. Possibly because I had not seen much of it in person. One of the things that struck me is that a gallery isn't JUST a place to look at art. It is a place to be inspired, and in the case of these huge national galleries; create it too.
While in the National Gallery of Art I saw this:
This beautiful woman was copying a painting. It really struck me. I'd been wandering though the galleries wondering why nearly every one had an easel in it, this woman showed me why. She was doing a great job too. I don't remember what she was copying, but I don't really think it matters.
I only spent a day in the National Gallery of Art, but I could have spent 100. I started at the ground floor and was examining every painting and sculpture. Every Rodin, every Monet sadly the only Van Gogh. Then I realized there was no possible way for me to examine every since piece the way I wanted to, so then I commenced to speeding though the gallery so I could see it all. The National Portrait Gallery is another story.
At first the National Portrait Gallery may seem like a pretty boring place. Yippie, thousands of paintings of mostly dead dudes. That was not the case. It made history seem so much more real to me. I was able to look at paintings of Oliver Hazard Perry made when he was in his 30s and again when he was in his 60s; truly amazing. I saw paintings of General Farragut and thought, "hey, I was just at his subway station." Things like that make the past seem so much more real. The other advantage to looking at all those portraits is inspiration. With any luck my own portrait work will improve after having seen so many successful portraits. Of course I will have to keep looking at the work of others to improve my own. It's like they say, "If you want to be a better writer, be a better reader."
Of course the National Portrait Gallery doesn't just have old paintings of mostly old dudes in it. Other art is about and there was some modern art on the top floor. Particularly an exhibit called "Video Games as Art" it was very cool and I missed it the first day so I went back to check it out.
At the end of my fist day in the portrait gallery though I did see this and decided to make a quick frame. I call it Art Lovers:
While I was perusing the top floor of the portrait gallery, and quite honestly passively following a beautiful woman trying to muster up the juevos to talk to her, I kept hearing music coming from the street. So I finished up the impressive exhibit about video games, sadly there was not anything about the Moder Warfare franchise, abandoned the girl and went to the street to check out the commotion. Turns out is was a street band, they were really good and they played until another band showed up across the street and then they left; some of them joined the other band.

Of course I took more photos and did more stuff, but I close with the tail end of my time in Virginia. On my way out I intended to visit Appomotix to see where the Civil War ended. The plan was to swing by there on my way to visit a good friend in Fredericksburg. I suppose you could call her my battle buddy, we were in something you could call combat together, it's complicated but I'm sure she'll agree to being my battle buddy. When I was paralyzed once she drug me to a defilate position so I could collect myself and get back to the fight. Anyway.
Rather than see where it all ended it was faster to see where it all started. So I went to Bull Run. Of course history tells us that the first shots were fired at Ft. Sumter, but the first battle was at Bull Run. As was another battle about a year later. The ground was solemn and I did my best to be reverent. I felt in awe of the scene and was amazed at how close the opposing forces were to each other. I learned that there were dozens of different uniforms in use during the battle because the forces were newly-collected units and I can not even begin to imagine a situation so confusing, terrifying and deadly all at the same time. After spending a few hours wandering the battlefield, which I'm told is much different today because there are no crops being grown on it, I stopped at the Confederate artillery position and took this photo of the Stonewall Jackson memorial:

I want to Graceland on this trip too, since I drove, but really Graceland deserves its own post. It took me over six weeks to get this one done, so don't hold your breath for Graceland.
-30-

Sunday, October 28, 2012

The Black Canyon

This weekend I'm taking a little time to visit my aunt and uncle in Colorado. They always graciously open their home to me and the scenery is ridiculously beautiful. Today we went to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The canyon is basically a huge, narrow crack in continental upshift. You can learn more about it here.

On the way over we were talking about hunting and the current deer season as well as the problem of deer being hit by cars all over this part of Colorado. As we drove we saw two deer carcasses on the side of the road and the topic turned to how a person is able to keep the meat from a deer they hit if they perfrom the proper steps. Shortly after that we saw a few men field dressing a deer on the side of the road. Talk about coincidence, I also hadn't seen a person making any sort of effort to eat road kill since I lived in Kentucky.

We drove the scenic road around the south rim of the canyon and stopped at a few viewpoints along the way to look down into the chasm. At points the scar in the earth is up to 2700 feet deep and as narrow as 40 ft. I'm not sure if there is a section where it is both 2700 feet deep and only 40 feet wide.

My cousin likes to rock climb in the canyon and there are hundreds of routes for people to explore. We stopped at an overlook site to look at one of the walls my cousin favors.

I'm not sure if this is the wall he likes the best, but my uncle said it was. As you can see it is large and takes about a day and a half to complete. If I remember correctly my cousin tells a story about making a climb on this wall and finding a dead skunk at the bottom of the wall before starting off and then another dead skunk on a belay ledge about half way up the wall. He guessed there was most likely some sort of fatal skunk battle at the top of the cliff and the result was mutually-assured destruction in the form of a smelly plummet to the earth.

Not only did we take in the breath-taking views from the top of the canyon, but we drove to the bottom as well to take a look at the Gunnison River as it starts to enter the narrow southern section. The road to the bottom was a 16% grade for much of the way. If you've driven much on U.S. highways you've probably seen a 6% or 7% grade on more than one occaision. That is pretty steep, this was much steeper.



This doesn't really give you too much perspective of how deep the canyon really is. Trust me it's deep. This is a view at the bottom.



It was a great trip and I'd never visited the bottom before. I really enjoyed it and there was hardly anyone there because of the time of year.

 

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Change is in the wind

It has been some time since I wrote a post here. This post is a notice that things are about to change here.
When I first named this blog there were many factors I considered. Here is why I chose what I did:
20 MM makes reference to the time I spent covering the U.S. Army for the local paper in Killeen, Tx and all the great friends who sacrificed so much just to serve. They know that sometimes "Twenty Mike Mike" can solve even the most difficult problems. It's also because I was trying very hard to become an embedded journalist and the military reference was fun.
20 MM makes reference to my favorite camera lens -- a 20MM f2.8 fixed-focal length lens. I love how it makes the edges distort because it is so wide. I love how you really have to think when you use it so you don't accidentally include something in the frame you don't want, thank you Mark Holm and "watch your edges." I like how the one I have produces "gritty" images which don't look like plastic digital perfection. I love how it forces you to get close to your subjects and connect a bit, sorry Mark it's hard to not be at least a little "camera aware" when someone is shooting you with a 20mm but that is the challenge after all. I love how it flares if you even consider including a light source in the frame. It's a challenging lens to you and the rewards are worth it.
20 MM makes reference to how I always seemed to be so close to achieving something in my life, but never could quite put my finger on what exactly that something was or what I needed to to to get there.
Nearly two years ago my life exploded, like I took a twenty mike mike to the face. I stood up for what I thought was right and found out employers have more power than you would think. I also found out that "right to work" works really well for employers. It's a misnomer to be sure. They need to change the name to "right to fire" and it would be more accurate.
Then things got worse. I won't get into specifics here, but a few months after that my marriage ended -- fundamentally.
So, I did what most reasonable people would do under the circumstances and went to ground and started licking my wounds. Then I started to make a plan. Once again specifics are not important and in a few weeks you will all know what that plan is.
Please, stay tuned or subscribe or whatever because if I do this right this blog will become something people actually want to read. That is the goal. Plus it will save me a lot of time sending the same email to everyone about what I'm doing.

Friday, January 7, 2011

When your subjects have a sense of humor portraits are fun

The other day I was assigned the task of photographing a pair of swimmers for the Daily Ambush.
Because much of the sports staff is under the impression that they can think visually, they generally get a pre-conceived notion about what they want the photo to look like. The ideas the sports staff comes up with are usually really stupid. Then, for some reason the writer usually wants to be there to oversee the portrait process.
I'm not exactly sure what a sports writer, or any other writer for that matter, is going to do during a portrait photo session other than get in the way and distract the subject. Usually what ends up happening is I try to do it my way and bitch about the writer making it a hassle later.
Good portraits generally take time, something we don't usually get here at the Daily Ambush. Either the person who needs the photo to go with their story doesn't realize they need it and puts in a request pretty late or the person who sends me out to take photos doesn't give me enough notice. When someone comes to you four hours before you need to do something different and creative and says, "you have to make a portrait at this location at this time good luck," you get stuck sometimes.
Fortunately the last few days I've had flashes of creativity. Did you see what I did there? The pun? A photographer with FLASHES of creativity. I digress. Maybe my newfound creativity is due to the new Scotch I've been drinking, who knows.
So I find out I have to photograph these two swimmers and the first thought for me is, "something underwater would be neato." Since I didn't know about this before I came into work I didn't have swim trunks or my water-proof point and shoot. The point and shoot would have worked, but it was at home and probably has a dead battery. If I'd known I was going to be doing this a few days in advance I might have been able to get a fish tank to make some sort of under-water photo. It's a cool trick where you displace the water with the tank, put the camera in it and it looks like you spent a little money on a housing.
Neither option was available to me because of the ambush, so here I am again shooting my way out of it. The only way to do that is to lay down an overwhelming field of suppressive fire. I get killed in ambushes about 50% of the time. My flash of creativity for this assignment was to set up some remote strobes and photograph the guys falling backward into the water off the deck of the pool, firing the shutter as they splashed in.
Amazingly it only took about 25 takes. I really thought it was going to be a lot longer, getting two people to fall at the same rate is harder than it sounds despite what Newton says.
So here was my favorite:
 The splash is sweet and the photo is very unique. I like the fact that it tight and a little unclear at first. The expression of the guy on the right is a little off, but eh.


Because on any given day a photo editor can be your best friend or the biggest idiot in the world this is the photo which ran. I think it is anyway I don't read the paper so I can stay sane. I still like it and I don't really care one way or the other which one ends up in the paper, like I said I'll never see it. Having stuff run is mainly for contest requirements now anyway and you can cheat and throw the shit you want to enter on the internet 6 months after the fact and still qualify so who cares really?

The thing that made this shoot cool was when I explained what I wanted to do to my subjects and their coach everyone was stoked. "Yeah, that sounds awesome," was the response I got.
Anytime I get a good idea and the subject gets stoked on it I get very motivated. If everyone were as cool as these guys my job would be awesome everyday.