Working Haphazardly.

  A little break to go West just before Christmas.  Crazy time to go but it turned out to be nice weather and light.  Took the Fuji 6X9 SW and the Deardorff.  Santa Rosa for day one, Breakfast with Kirk Gittings in Albuquerque and then out to tour Acoma.  I hadn't been at Acoma this century.  They let you take iPhone cameras, (with a sticker on them), these days.  For another 25 bucks I could have taken the Fuji.

  Acoma full of stuff to photograph and paint.  I imagine a digital guy could load up.  The tour is full of reverse history and hearsay, but that's not my concern.  Let them tell it however they care to.  No photos in the deserted church or the cemetery.  I expect that will come down later.  iPhones have changed the rules.

Ravens on the visitor center.

Back of the church.

Church is about the oldest building.  Spanish plopped it down in the old plaza and made everyone bend the knee and kiss the ring.  They burned it out in the 1680 revolt.  Rebuilt it around 1700.

The tour is basically from vendor to vendor, but what the heck.  I stocked up on 10 buck Christmas gifts.

Windows and doorways and ladders.  Lots of them.

No water or electricity on top.  About 50 folks still live there.

We got to climb off using the old trail that the Spanish forced their way up back in the early 1600s or so.  After winning that battle, the Spanish cut the left foot off all the surviving men.  Left an impression.

Trail is much improved over early days.  Worth coming down through, just for the history.

Cindy walking back to visitors center.

So far I hadn't shot a thing except a cotton bale in the Texas Panhandle.  Nice viewing though, and as I mentioned, a good digital cam could get some nice images up there of details.

Break.

Maybe i need a little break from the opposite of landscape: Still life, and let someone else work the lighting and subject matter.

Mist Trail in Yosemite, at Vernal Falls.

Panum Crater, Near Mono Lake.

Big shadow from Panum Crater.

Love to have a ladder up at Lake Tenaya just to photograph tree shadows on the glacial polish.  Probably do-able.

Editing blues

Out of film for a few days, so I am reading a couple of books about Charles Sheeler and another about Mimbres Pottery.  Set up the camera and looked at next idea.  Previous ideas scattered all over the studio fading and drying out.  Maybe on the first of the year I will toss out everything on my prop table.

  Meanwhile sleeving negs and matching with proofs.  Making my list and checking it twice on who is naughty and who is nice.

 13 moons.

X2.

 Feathered Redbud.

X2.

Double Acorn caps.

X2.

Maybe.

Maybe I should shoot the next ten without film in the camera.  See who I remember.

  

Idea cascades.

The Acorn season is here.  The white spots in the caps on the acorn ends remind me of shining full Moons.  The spots start fading after an hour or so, ending up brown and nondescript.  I've always love the full moon and the idea of a celestial clock running.  We'd driven up to see the total eclipse and gone to star parties to see the planets and galaxies.  I'd been thinking a little more "celestially."  A tornado out of moons is in the show at The Grace in Abilene right now.  Floated moons on faces and in shadows of landscapes...   

I've never printed this image large, but like it.

Stacked Acorns, 2016.

This year, I was careful in my selections and sequencing.  And use the title to re-inforce my idea.

13 Moons, 2018

As soon as I shot it I had another idea.  Cost a few sheets of film.  No proofs yet.  Fairly complex exposure sequence, most of which I worked out shooting tornadoes.

Negatives for variations of 13 Moons.

Yesterday when Cindy and I were walking the dogs I spotted a neighbors late roses and had an idea, related to a previous idea of a feathered leaf.  This morning I went and, (snip), stole a rose.

Feathered Rose.

Now I'm out of film. While processing I had two more ideas involving feathers, for one and acorns for another. I built out the acorn photo.  It's sitting in front of the camera under the feathered rose. Ordered film and drew thumbnails.  Going to catch up on processing.