Balloons on the Rio Grande

October 12, 2014 Timothy Price19 Comments

There was a mass ascension on Saturday at the Balloon Fiesta, and many of the balloonists “dipped” their gondolas in the Rio Grande as the light breeze blew them northwest from the balloon field. A couple of kayaking clubs were paddling down the river and had to make their way through what at times seemed like a gauntlet of balloons all stacked up together, dipping in the river. The sky was mostly overcast to the east, with low clouds covering the Sandias, creating a dull, gray light that was occasionally broken by strips of bright sunlight when the sun found a slit in the clouds, illuminating the bosque and lighting up the balloons. One balloon few in front of the waining moon as it few over our house on its way to the river.

The Civilian Express

October 2, 2014 Timothy Price13 Comments

Living on a Prayer

September 20, 2014 Timothy Price18 Comments

A brave Mantis and early morning rain on the Rio Grande.

Creatures in the Moonlight

September 12, 2014 Timothy Price6 Comments

While walking out to the ditch to turn in the irrigation water at 2:00 am under the Harvest Moon, I saw a critter scurrying my way. Skunks don’t see very well, so it got pretty close to me before it stopped and we had a brief stand off — long enough for me to sweet talk it into letting me get a couple of photos. The skunk wasn’t sure what to think about a giant troll talking to it in the middle of the night — it stomped its front feet and stepped from side to side trying to decide whether to scurry past me, spray me or retreat. It finally decided on a compromise and ran into the tall grass on its right. Fortunately, it turned out to be an uneventful encounter, but I had a difficult time getting a clear shot of the nervous little skunk as the shutter speed was only 1/5 of a second at ƒ/1.4. On the other hand, it was easy to get a clear shot of the spider that had built its web on the irrigation gate. It held perfectly still.

Harvest

August 30, 2014 Timothy Price9 Comments

I went out and bought our sixth bag of green chile first thing this morning. As you can see on the trailer, the Wagner’s have lots and lots of bags of green chiles.

Back To Days Gone By

August 17, 2014 Timothy Price18 Comments

The last time I processed B&W prints myself was in the summer of 1982. I had done photos of the wedding party at our wedding reception. But I soon dismantled my darkroom and sold the equipment that was at my parents house after we got married. I did some photo processing at the photo studio I worked for in 1980’s until they moved their studio and didn’t reassemble the lab. From the late 1980’s up to 2003, when I went all digital, I had all my film processed and printed by commercial labs.

My darkroom is now fully functional and I have used it to process film and print photos. On my first venture back to those days gone by, I chose a few negatives that ranged from thin to dense to get back into the printing process. Printing the negatives of the “Road Closed” and cornfield with the Sandias in the background were particularly challenging because of the large ranges between light and dark — these photos were taken in heavy rain while the sun was shining (a New Mexico phenomenon).

In the last version of the “Road Closed” photo, I accidentally exposed the back side of the paper and noticed nothing was happening in the developer, so I rinsed the paper, squeegeed it off, and then exposed the emulsion side of the paper. After developing it again, there was a ghost image from the exposure on the backside of the paper that makes it look like I picked up a reflection in glass.

Green Chile

August 16, 2014 Timothy Price19 Comments

One of the high points of summer — we put up our first sack of roasted green chiles from Wagner’s Farm.

Smile

August 15, 2014 Timothy Price12 Comments

Yard & Clouds

July 31, 2014 Timothy Price20 Comments

Thunderheads built up in the eastern sky, threatening to give us another early evening thundershower.

Grapes Gone Wild

July 18, 2014 Timothy Price22 Comments

The garden got about 3/4 inch of rain over the past few days, and with a good soaking from the irrigation, the grapes have gone wild (along with most of the plants on the property), and climbed into the apple tree, where they are dangling among the apples. I’m sure most self respecting winers would not allow their grapes to mix with their apples, but when we get a little water in our dry climate, grapes (and a whole lot of other stuff) happen!