Serendipity

Somedays I head out the door with a specific plan in mind, like “let’s drive to place XYZ and go for a hike and I’ll take some photos.”  Other times I head out the door with nothing specific in mind, with nothing more than the thought of “that sounds good, let me grab my camera just in case.”  Often, when I have something specific in mind or am just out exploring or shopping or whatever, I stumble across something unanticipated.  I’m not a big believer in putting labels on things for the sake of putting labels on things, so I can easily make a point, but in this case I think that the word serendipity is appropriate.  I wouldn’t necessarily call them the “best,” but some interesting photographs are the result of having my camera with me when I normally wouldn’t have brought it along, or from turning down an unfamiliar road because simply because the thought “why not” popped into my head…

Rio Santa Barbara near Penasco – while driving the high road to Taos we decided to drive through Penasco, instead of bearing left on the road towards Taos, and were driving down a windy two lane country road when I spotted this small river...

Mirrors in Camino Real Store on Cerrillos – I brought my camera in because I knew from previous visits  there would be a lot of brightly colored kitsch, but this side room of mirrors with the light coming in through dusty windows was an unexpected treasure…

Twisting tree at The Shed – we were walking around The Plaza in downtown Santa Fe, and although The Shed (a well known restaurant, known for their red chile) was closed that afternoon, I decided to look in the same courtyard anyway just to see what there was to be seen…

Boot – driving through Taos Canyon when I spotted an old, abandoned, dilapidated house.  As I was walking around the front porch, working the scene, trying different angles and compositions, I saw the single abandoned boot sitting on the porch…

Building in El Rito – we were driving on state road 554 near Abiquiu, and although we missed the turn-off to our destination, we drove on for a while, seeing what there was (or wasn't) to be seen, until we came to the small town of El Rito.  Before turning around to head back towards Santa Fe, I took a few shots of this building…

All photos were taken with my Nikon D7000, using the Nikkor 18-55 DX (1st, 2nd,4th from top), Nikkor 35 DX (middle photo), and Nikkor 10-24 DX (bottom photo) lens

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