Project: Autumn Light
       My family has always had good ties with New Mexico and I feel very fortunate to have the opporitunities that I have had to go to this beautiful state.
       I have always loved taking pictures from this area. It provides a good challenge for me to get a good picture. There are thousands of things to take a picture of in this state, but the problem is that there are thousands of people who have already taken those pictures.
       Since most of the good pictures have already been taken, it makes us photographers look for more artistic ways to take them so that they look good. In other words, if I get what I consider a good picture up here, it looks just like the thousand others that other people have already taken, so that makes me look for a way to make the pictures that I take stand out. Get it? if not, don't worry, I don't either. Whew....well, here is an outline of how the trip went:
Day 1: Day 1 didn't amount to a picture day. This day was comprised mostly of the 7 hour trip from my hometown to our destination, Red River, NM.
Day 2: Ahh Friday, I love fridays. We traveled over to Taos, a nice little city with a great southwestern feeling. It ended up to be perfect timing because unbeknown to us, there was a hot-air balloon festival just coming to an end as we got there and that gave me some good picture opporitunities.
       After the hot-air balloons landed, we headed up to the Taos Ski Valley which, suprisingly didn't yield any good pictures, but it was a fun trip and the color of the trees was amazing! We headed back into town and grabbed some chow at Oglesvies on the square. Good place, eat here!  b(Free advertisement) 
      The Fajitas were eaten, so we headed down to the shopping area under the resturant where we met a really nice local photographer named Tomas who was helping run an art gallery. Tomas gave me some great pointers and I really had a fun time talking to him! Thanks Tomas!
      Leaving the art gallery, we headed out into the square, which is mostly comprised of shops built like adobe dwellings. (e.g. the picture on the left) I got a few pictures from this area, and then we decided to head back to Red River.
       On the way back, we took some detours and saw some great scenery!! If you ever come out here, don't hesitate to explore! We got back to Red River, fished for a bit, didn't catch anything, (stupid fish) and then we called it a day.
Day 3: I got a good nights sleep last night. I like sleep...its fun. Anyways...Today we decided to explore some more. About 30 miles from Red River there used to be a really nice ski area called Rio. It had closed down since we were there last, but we decided to go see what was up there.
       The drive was so pretty on the way up, I didn't remember how great it was. The trip leads through flatlands that paralell the Rio Grande river and then there is a turn at "the gas station", as it became known, that leads up into the heart of the mountains.
       Realizing that we couldn't drive to the ski area because it had been fenced off, we turned around and took another route from the ski area that leads to a dirt road and winds up even further into the valleys.
       When I say dirt road, I mean a road that is probably only traveled by two cars a day. All civilization, as most of us know it, is non-existant. Step out of the car here, and the only sign of human life is the road that brought you here. This is truly untouched land. Good picture taking too!
       As we made our way up the mountain we kinda realized that if something went wrong, we wouldn't be able to get help. Yes, it is still possible to not have a signal on your cell phone, plus our stomachs were growling, so we turned around and headed back to the good ol' town of Red River for lunch.
       Lunch was good, had a club sandwich. We shopped a little, then decided to head to the Upper Valley, which is a valley east of Red River where my grandparents used to own a cabin. It was just as pretty as the rest of the area, but I didn't get any pictures on this excursion. We just visited the old cabin again and looked around a bit. Time was running short so we headed back to town and called it a day.
    

 
       And that actually just about wraps it up, the rest of the time was mostly spent shopping or not catching fish that were supposed to be caught. (stupid fish) I did get a couple pictures around the area that we stayed, and I think these are going to turn out to be good, so stay tuned for more updates as I get these pictures developed.
       Well, its 1:30 in the morning, and I have to drive 7 hours back home after the sun rises so I better go! I will get these pictures up in a few days.

-Patrick

 


    

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