Am I There Yet?

Last November I went back to Kansas, the place of my birth, where I spent the first the first ten years of my life - and where my parents and sister live - for a quick visit and to help out with a "special project."  It was literally a quick trip - I drove the 718 miles to Kansas non-stop the first day - but I brought some of my camera gear along just in case I saw something that I absolutely had to stop for.

If you've ever been through Kansas (or Oklahoma, or Texas, or any other wide open stretch of road on the Great Plains) you know that there's a certain monotony to the drive, broken up by small towns and the occasional roadside attraction from a bygone era.  But, there's also a beauty to much of it, small towns and farms and old pickup trucks that harken back to a simpler time.  This post is about finding that beauty.

On November 16 I had to drive east from Newton to Ottawa, mostly along Highway 50, then west from Ottawa to Marion, then southwest back to Newton where I had decided to stay while I was there.  I left the hotel at about 6:30 AM that morning and plunged into a nasty snow storm.  It was slow going at first, but after about 45 minutes I cleared the path of the storm and was left with a cold, grey, overcast sky.  I had intentionally left a little early, leaving time to stop and take photos if something caught my eye.

7:36 AM.  About 35 miles east of Newton on Highway 50, I spotted this old schoolhouse, and I drove up the gravel road a short distance to grab a few shots.  The front of the schoolhouse had an inscription stating that it was built in 1986 for District 34... 

7:54 AM.  I pulled over and spent a few minutes photographing this abandoned trading post along Highway 50 on the outskirts of Elmdale (population 55)...

8:04 AM.  Outside of Strong City I saw this tree, and it's white trunk really stood out against the grey sky.  I did a quick U-turn and pulled over...

8:14 AM.  As I was driving through Strong City (population 485) I decided to turn down what appeared to be the main drag - it was the street with the church on it - and after driving a couple of blocks I spotted this old Dodge Ram truck...

8:15 AM.  Another shot of the Ram, which was a great subject...

While driving to Ottawa, I had seen a small sign for the Stone Arch Bridge in Clements.  Glancing over, I couldn't see anything as I went by, but I made a mental note of it.  After taking care of what needed to be taken care of in Ottawa, I headed back towards Marion, the next stop that day...  

2:32 PM.  On the drive to Marion I kept my eye out for the Stone Arch Bridge, and soon was driving on a small gravel road that went through what once was the town of Clements.  Constructed in 1887 from native limestone, the Stone Arch Bridge is now closed, but accessible to the curious... 

2:34 PM.  I took this shot looking west over the bridge as the sun tried to burn through the cloud cover...

2:38 PM.  Heading back to the highway I saw this old store (house?), and what caught my eye was the decorative tin panels nailed to the front and how they reflected the afternoon light...

5:10 PM.  As the sun faded I left Marion and headed back towards Newton, driving down Old Highway 77 which eventually turns into Sunflower Road, then intersects with Highway 50.  Not far outside of Marion I saw this old barn, bathed in the light from the setting sun...     

5:23 PM.  Near the intersection with Highway 50 the sky caught fire over the field of hay bales...  

And the next morning I was headed back home to Santa Fe.  A quick trip, and I passed up a lot of photo opportunities because I had to be somewhere by a certain time, but I still managed to get a little photo work on the way.  Next time I go home to visit I'll be sure to go at a slower pace, so I stop and explore and soak in the beauty of the Great Plains...

All photos taken with a Nikon D7000 camera body and Nikkor 16-85 DX VR lens

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White Sands National Monument

Last weekend we went to White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico for the first time.  White Sands is an endless landscape of line, form, abstraction, sweeping curves, shadows, and light playing off the sand.  Everywhere I turned something caught my eye, and the challenge wasn't finding something to photograph, but trying to find something to photograph that didn't have footprints in it.  

Home to the largest gypsum dune field in the world, White Sands has a unique look unlike anything I've seen.  Since gypsum is naturally water-soluble, it can compact and become more solid than other types of sand (Wikipedia), so unlike sand dunes on an ocean beach I found it easy to walk up and the dunes at White Sands.  We arrived about an hour before the monument closed for the day and soon set out across the dunes exploring.

It didn't take long for the late afternoon light playing off the ripples in the sand to catch my eye...

A little later, after climbing up to the top of a dune, I looked in the opposite direction of the setting sun and saw an expanse of white sand and clear, cloudless blue sky...

Looking in the other direction was the dune blanketed in ripples of sand in the foreground and the dune behind it, cloaked in shadow, a study in contrast...

Then the sun faded further on the horizon, plunging the east side of the landforms into shadow...

Dunes crisscrossing one another, intersections of light and shadow...

Long shadows as the days fades away...

The next morning we went back to catch the sunrise, a cool, clear, quiet morning, perfect for meandering around the dunes...

When processing the photos later, the insistence of line, form, and shadow in catching the eye informed the decisions made in the digital darkroom, leading to experimentation in tone to try and invoke the feeling I got when in that moment...

All photos taken with a Nikon D7000 camera body, and a Nikkor 16-85 DX VR lens

View my online portfolio here

The Year In Review

2014 was a productive year for me photographically, especially once I decided to quit my "day job" and concentrate my efforts on pursuing photography as a full time occupation.  Going down this road has certainly had its bumps along the way, but it has been rewarding and had its share of highlights as well.

Highlights From The Past Year

In February I found out that one of my photos had taken Second Place, Landscape Category, in New Mexico Magazine's 14th Annual Photo Contest. The photo was taken at the Valles Caldera in northern New Mexico shortly after a thunderstorm, and the lush green field, angry sky, and steam rising from the ground was a ready made photo opportunity.  You can view a gallery of the contest winners here.  

In April I won First Place in the 2014 Bandelier National Monument Photo Contest.  This  photo is currently featured on the 2015 Bandelier National Monument Annual Pass.

In June I volunteered at the CENTER's 14th Installment of Review Santa Fe, which is considered to be the "premier juried portfolio review event int the world." The event hosted 101 photographers from over 30 states and 13 countries.  The CENTER is a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe whose mission is to support and provide opportunities for talented photographers all of the world.  As a reward for my volunteer time, I had the opportunity for a portfolio review with Elise McHugh, Senior Acquistitions Editor with the University of New Mexico Press.  This was my first time having my work reviewed, so it was both nerve-wrecking and rewarding at the same time.

In November two of my photos were represented in the Albuquerque Photographer's Gallery's "Your Best Shot(s)" Photo Contest, taking First and Third Place.  These works hung in the gallery for the month of November, which was just the second time my work was displayed in a public venue.  The First Place photo is titled "Vessel."  

And the Third Place photo is titled "Abandoned."

Also in November, I did my first "assignment" work for a client.  In a nutshell, I was tasked with producing a work featuring the labyrinth at Georgia O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico.  This is the final product, which was turned into a 16" x 30" print on infused aluminum.

Beginning February 1st a selection of my work is being shown at "Mostly Madrid," an artist's gallery located in the Gypsy Plaza on the south end of Madrid, New Mexico, across from the Mine Shaft Tavern, which I wrote about in detail last week.  

Looking Forward

March 13-15 I will be participating in the "Rio Grande Arts & Crafts Festival Spring Show" in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The show will be held at the Expo NM Fairgrounds.  You can view details about the event here.

April 17-19 I will be showing a selection of my work at the "Lubbock Arts Festival 2015" in Lubbock, Texas. Event details can be found here - if you're in the area I hope to see you there!  I'm currently in the process of decided which work will be featured in this show.  One of those pieces will be "Echoes of the West," seen below.

Starting at the end of May, on select Saturdays throughout the summer and fall, I will have a booth at the Santa Fe Artists Market, a Juried Art Exhibition in Santa Fe's Railyard District, adjacent to the Farmers' Market.  Here's a mock set up - the selection of work will vary with each week/show - of my booth (minus the white canopy).   

Looking back, I can see that I made progress both in the quality of my photography and my ability to get my work out where it can be seen.  I'm looking forward to trying to improve in both aspects again in the coming year. 

You can view my online portfolio and order prints here

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Mostly Madrid

I'm pleased to announce that a selection of my work is being shown at "Mostly Madrid," an artist's gallery located in the Gypsy Plaza on the south end of Madrid, New Mexico, across from the Mine Shaft Tavern.  "Mostly Madrid" is open every day of the week from noon to 5 PM (sometimes opening earlier, sometimes staying open a little later).  I will be there most Sundays and would be happy to answer any questions you may have about the displayed work or my photography in general.

My work is located on the right side of the gallery as you walk into the door.

I thought I'd use this post to give a little background on some of the work I have for sale (and that I haven't written about in a previous post).

"Camión Verde," the Green Truck, was taken July 2013.  This is one of my first attempts at High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography and probably the first effective use of my wide angle lens.  "Camión Verde" is available as a 12"x18" Infused Aluminum Print, ready to hang, for $125.

"Ascension" was taken in October 2013 during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, my first trip to this event.  The cloudless blue sky made for a clean background as this balloon flew overhead.  "Ascension" is available as a 12"x18" Infused Aluminum Print, ready to hang, for $125.

"Autumn Harvest" was taken in November 2013 while walking around Los Cerrillos, New Mexico.  The pumpkins, dried ears of corn, hitching post, cactus, adobe wall and wood door, and leaves on ground all made for a nice autumn display.  "Autumn Harvest" is available as a 12"x16" stretched giclée canvas print mounted on a wood frame, ready to hang, for $65.

This shot was taken in January 2014 during a trip to "El Santuario de Chimayo," which is about a half hour drive north of Santa Fe.  El Santuario de Chimayo is a Roman Catholic church listed as a National Historic Landmark and is considered to be the most important Catholic pilgrimage center in the United States (Wikipedia).   "El Santuario de Chimayo" is available as a 18"x24" stretched giclée canvas print mounted on a wood frame, ready to hang, for $125.  Also available as a 8"x12" Infused Aluminum Print, ready to hang, for $35.

"Bienvenidos!" was taken February 2014 while wandering the back roads in Galisteo, New Mexico.  Ristras - dried strings of red chili pepper pods - are a common sight in the southwest, particularly New Mexico, and are said to bring good luck.  "Bienvenidos!" is available as a 16"x32" stretched giclée canvas print mounted on a wood frame, ready to hang, for $125.

"Enlightenment" was taken during my second visit to the Portland Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon, in May 2014.  Unlike my first visit, this time I brought my camera and was able to capture this early morning view of the garden.  "Enlightenment" is available as a 16"x24" Infused Aluminum Print, ready to hang, for $200.

"Illumination" was taken in August 2014, after climbing down into one of the kivas in Pecos National Historical Park, about 25 miles east of Santa Fe.  I turned to go back up the ladder when I noticed that these beams of early morning light could be seen in the dust that I had stirred up while walking around.  "Illumination" is available as a 18"x24" stretched giclée canvas print mounted on a wood frame, ready to hang, for $125.

This is just a sampling of the work that will be on display.  As pieces sell (fingers crossed!) and I create new work, items offered for sale will change on a regular basis.

Next time you're in Madrid stop by "Mostly Madrid" and say hi. I'd love to meet you and chat...

View my online portfolio and purchase prints here

Also, I post photos on a daily basis on Facebook and Google+, and share photography related information on Twitter (@KSchafferPhoto).

Urbex

For awhile the subject of ruins photography ("ruin porn") - the photography of the deterioration of man-made environments - has held a certain fascination for me, and I've taken numerous photos of abandoned and decaying buildings - homes, businesses, factories.  A type of photography I haven't explored until recently is urban exploration - or Urbex as it's widely known.  This type of activity goes a step further - instead of taking photos of a subject and moving on, you enter the building and explore, at your own risk and often in a manner that would be considered trespassing.  These activities go beyond the exterior "rust and dust" shots and probe deeper, often into areas not seen by man for quite some time.

Although I haven't taken that step of blatant trespassing into old factories and other structures, I have started to poke my head through windows and set foot in a few small buildings in a few ghost towns - with my head always on a swivel and my eyes wide open.

It's when you look inside, peer through a window, step foot through a door, that you get the real sense of silence, feeling of emptiness, loss, and abandoned dreams...

Sometimes it feels like you're telling a story through pictures even though you have to fill in the details in your imagination...

You come across scenes of a life abandoned...

And dreams lost, "progress" taking its toll on small town America...

Looking out towards the morning sun, this view used to frame the promise the day held... 

Sometimes I feel like a voyeur of broken dreams...

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 16-85 DX VR (first two, last two photos), Nikkor 10-24 DX (third photo)

View my online portfolio here

Black and White - When and Why

The first memories I have of looking at and admiring photography are of flipping through copies of National Geographic - which I ended up subscribing to for a number of years - or sitting in a library, looking at an oversized coffee table book of the work of Ansel Adams.  Years later, whenever I look at a black and white photo of a dramatic landscape, I still think of Adams and his magnificent work both behind the camera and in the darkroom.  

As I've spent more time getting out and taking photos, then processing them in the digital darkroom, I've started to develop a liking for giving some photos a black and white treatment, in particular those which contain a lot of "drama" in the sky.  I know that doing so can border on the cliche - "oh, who does he think he is, the next Ansel Adams?" - but when it comes to photography, I tend to go with a "I like what I like" philosophy.  What follows are several examples of when I decided that the combination of drama in the sky and a black and white look would be the most effective way to convey what I was feeling or thinking in the moment.

This photo was taken last March at the Quarai Ruins in the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in New Mexico.  We were walking the short trail that winds around the grounds when I saw this tree, its bare branches reaching towards the sky like a skeletal hand.  As I was walking around the tree the sky started to blacken and look threatening, and when I processed the photo I went with a treatment which emphasized the interplay between the stormy sky and the silhouette of the tree...

Last June a thunderstorm quickly rolled across the desert toward Santa Fe, and I grabbed my camera to take a few shots from the upstairs balcony of my house.  There was a lot of drama in the sky, a spectacular show...  

In July we were headed back to Santa Fe from visiting family in Kansas when I decided to take a small detour and visit Monument Rocks National Natural Landmark in Gove County, Kansas.  The clouds had a "wispy" quality to them, and I cropped the photo square to give equal weight to rocks in the foreground and the clouds...   

Later in July we were driving the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway in northern New Mexico when we arrived at the Peace and Brotherhood Chapel at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park near Angel Fire.  This is a favorite place of mine to photograph, it's sweeping, angular lines offering a variety of compositional opportunities.  As I was walking back towards the parking lot I saw these clouds rising up in the sky behind the chapel.  The chapel itself, having been painted white, lends itself to a black and white treatment and with the cloud bank behind it, doing so was a natural choice... 

Last November I was driving along Highway 50 near Strong City in Eastern Kansas, a grey, cloudy, dreary, winter day, nondescript in every way.  Nearly lost in the monotony of the drive, I looked over and saw this tree, its white trunk standing out against the grey of the day.  In this instance I went with a monochrome look to emphasize the look of the white tree trunk against the dull grey sky - the opposite of drama, but the feel I was going for...     

All photos: Nikon D7000, Nikkor 18-55 DX (first photo), Nikkor 16-85 DX VR (all others)

View my online portfolio here

Chasing The Light

Every hour, every minute, of every day is different than that of the day before it, or the day that will come after… 

After you spend some time immersing yourself in the world of photography you start seeing the same things repeated, over and over, like rules set in stone, not to be questioned.  One of those is that the only good landscape photographs come during the “golden hour,” that time around sunrise and sunset when the land comes alive from the first golden rays of the morning sun or is bathed in the waning light of the evening.  To a certain extent this is true, but I think there are a number of reasons to keep shooting throughout the day - the details explored, the personal moments unique to you and that place and time captured on the camera’s sensor, the look that a striking blue sky can have when set against a unique landscape...

I thought about this the other day as I looked through a set of photos, and one thought led to another, thoughts bouncing from one lobe of the brain to the other and back, until these thoughts coalesced and formed a single theme, shared below...

On the morning of October 20, 2014, I woke in Moab, Utah, early, and headed out to Arches National Park, hoping to get some shooting in.  Dawn that morning was at 7:06, with sunrise at 7:33.  I drove up and into the park and drove until I came to Skyline Arch, thinking I would walk up to it and get some shots of the arch with the soft morning sunlight coming from the right.  I arrived at 7:28, and this was the view that greeted me.

Grey.  Overcast, dull skies.  I knew the sun was rising to the right of the arch, but looking around I could see no hint of the coming sunrise.  I could stay and see what happened, or I could try and chase the light.  I jumped back in my rental car and drove back the way I came.  

After about a 15 minute drive I pulled into the parking area for the hiking trails to Broken Arch and Sand Dune Arch.  I swapped out lenses on my camera, thinking a wide angle would be a good start, and started walked towards Broken Arch.  I stopped and took a few shots of the sun rising over the ridge in the distance, including this one (taken at 7:53).

I soon arrived at Broken Arch, and enjoyed that - with a quick exception or two - I had the place to myself.  I worked the scene for awhile, climbed around, then switched out lenses to my fisheye, which allowed me to get this shot (taken at 8:15) looking up through the arch while keeping the entire arch within the field of view.  

After some time I headed back to the parking lot and decided to take the side trail up to Sand Dune Arch.  Walking into a wide section of rock with high walls, I could see that the sun hadn't risen high enough on the horizon to penetrate the area, leaving much of it cloaked in shadow.  I got to Sand Dune Arch and walked through it and up the rock wall on the other side as far as I could, then took this shot (at 8:41) using my wide angle lens because I didn't want the "warped" perspective that the fisheye lens can lend to a scene.

Next stop, after a short drive, was the area where I could check out the North Window and Double Arch (which was number one on my list of things to see while in Moab).  The parking lot was full - including several tour buses - and the area below Double Arch was crawling with people, so I decided to walk up toward the North Window first.  After checking out Turret Arch and taking my time, letting the people thin out a bit, I headed up to the North Window.  The light was starting to get a little more "harsh" as the sun rose higher in the sky, but after walking around a bit I could see that, at the right angle, the sun would peek out behind the arch.  I put my fisheye lens on, thinking that I would stop it down to f22 and try to get a nice sunburst, and slowly moved forward and back and forth until I got the composition I wanted, with the sun just peeking around the bend of the arch.  This was taken at 9:37.

After a little more exploring, I headed down, over the parking areas, and up to Double Arch.  I slowly worked my way up towards the arch, trying to get past as many people as possible, stopping to take photos now and then, going higher until I got to a spot that I liked.  Since it was a clear, almost cloudless day, I decided to use the arches as a natural frame for the sky.  Again I used the fisheye lens, this time knowing that, since the lens would be tilted up a bit, it would help emphasize the curvature of the arch.  This was taken at 10:24.

After this I headed back to Moab for lunch and drove off in a different direction...

And now that I've laid all of this out on "paper," the one thought that really seems important is the one mentioned at the beginning - shoot the personal moments unique to you and that place and time.  Capture what's important to you.

All shots taken with a Nikon D7000, and Nikkor lens (16-85 DX VR, 10-24 DX, 10.5 Fisheye)

You can view my online portfolio here