Postcard from the Rio Grande

In Jessie and I, Travel by David26 Comments

Bridge over the Rio Grande, New Mexico, 2011.

More and more I love twilight – it allows a greater focus on line and color, and – as in this case – nothing done in Lightroom except removing one dust spot with extreme prejudice. It took me 2 hours to find the frame I wanted and wait for the light, but then I just let the light do it’s thing.  Nikon D3s, 14mm, 30 seconds at f/22, ISO 200

Sitting here in Santa Fe wishing desperately I could stick around for a few days. Love this town. Spent yesterday evening at the Rio Grande and this morning we drove along the Rio Grande Canyon until it spit us out and we arrived in Santa Fe in time to check into the Hacienda at Hotel Santa Fe and take what was the first shower in a time frame I would prefer not to mention. This is my last evening traveling with Corwin and tomorrow Jessie and I take him to Albuquerque and kick him to the curb. From there we move south and east, to Dallas, then down to Houston, and along the gulf in a mad rush – I know, too fast – to Atlanta where I’ve got a tweet-up/meet-up evening planned for April 12th at 7pm at Zack Arias’s studio and y’all are welcome to come. Then I’m off to Italy for workshops in Cinque Terre, Tuscany, Venice and a week on a sailboat with 5 lucky participants in Croatia before coming back.

I’ll try to check in but my big priority over the next 10 days, aside from getting to Atlanta for my flights to Italy, is getting the next big deadline on the book finished. I’d like to shoot a little here and there, and I’ll check in on the blog and Twitter as I have reception and time, but I thought I’d let you know the lay o’ the land.

Comments

  1. Loving your updates from the road, David! Also really enjoyed your interview on the liveBooks blog – great read.

  2. David: If you can get to the DC area let me know. I would love to join in on the tweet thing and hang out. Plus there are some great places to shoot in my section of West Virginia. All the best.
    Bob

  3. Tricia – Come with low expectations! 🙂 Seriously, it’ll be Zack Arias and me hanging out and a chance for others to connect. We’ll have drinks and probably some snacks and we’ll all just hang out and see where conversation takes us. It’s casual, so come and go as you like.

  4. Hello!!! Silly question…but what can we expect next Tuesday in ATL? I am making a friend come with me and she asked what to expect and I have no idea…I just told her that I wanted to go! Also, how late do you anticipate it to last? Can’t wait to see everyone there!

  5. ATL? Dang – I’ve been there a bunch last year – relatives in Newnan (if you need a dark room and almost anything imaginable from old school 2×3, 4×5, MF and of course, a couple of M’s.., look my Bro up)

    I wonder if you are going to take a detour to the Sweetwater Brewery…they still may have some “Happy Endings” for you…but I’m sure Mr. Zak would know…and there is the “Magic Mushroom” pizza places..not bad ‘za coming from a Chicago guy…

  6. Gorgeous shot! I love Santa Fe too! I would love to meet up in Hotlanta, but regrettably won’t be able to make it. (even though I’m soooo close in SC…)

  7. Author

    Thanks Doug. Italy and Croatia will themselves be a slowing down, but yes, once I’m back from Europe I’ve got much, much more time to go at a more sane pace. 🙂

  8. Danny, let me think about it. I actually got Dallas and Houston mixed up in my mind. I’m coming through Dallas but not stopping long; it was Houston I was thinking about doing a meetup. But let’s play it by ear. Sorry, got a bit frazzled.

  9. David: Dallas has a coffee shop or 5,000! ;-> I’m not a coffee drinker, but hopefully your latest tweet will bring a number of suggestions. There is a cafe that has great food called Norma’s that is close to Willowbend Mall. You can check it out at http://normascafe.com/

  10. Author

    Danny – I’d prefer a pub or coffee shop to hang out in. The expectation of making photographs tends to either short circuit conversation or lead to conversations about gear and who has the longest lens. 🙂

  11. David: There are many parks around and of course downtown Dallas is always a hit. There is the cattle drive statues by the convention center. What do you think?

  12. Author

    Phaboman – Hadn’t noticed to be honest, but so much depends on the length of exposure that I think you’d have to do a side-by-side comparison with two cameras, similar lenses and the same length of exposure. But it’s same-same-but-different to me.

  13. David, I second that trip to White Sands. The town nearby (Las Cruces) has some gorgeous, unique mountains, too, and the food is out of this world–but I’m from there so I tend to be a wee bit biased. 🙂 It is for this reason that I’ve especially been enjoying your NM tweets and blog posts. Yeah, I’m a little homesick right now.

    Enjoy the rest of your trip!

  14. David:

    Will you have anytime to shoot and meetup in Dallas? It would be great to hang with a world famous shooter for a while. TRuly, I want to meet Jessie!

  15. I know, I know, it’s not the gear. But I actually had a conversation about this with my buddies a few days ago about twilight. For whatever reason, we’ve noticed that Nikon sensors tends to saturate twilight skies with more blue than Canon, at least straight out of the camera. Wonder if you’ve noticed this as well.

  16. Would have liked to have met you in Santa Fe but I’m out of town right now. What’s for dinner? Try Cafe Pascual’s for breakfast if you can 🙂

  17. Author

    Thanks Bob, been thinking about making a detour that way. We’ll see. This leg of the trip is tragically low on shooting time – I’m calling it a scouting trip for a longer next time. 🙂

  18. I know you’ll slow down when you can but you’ll have done half the country in just over a month. That leaves something around 6 months(?) to do the other half. Slower times in sight…

  19. David thank you so much for letting us all be a part of you and Jessie’s journey! I love Santa fe as well! I was just there last month!

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