Taken by the Night
A soft stripe of pink kissed the top of the Sandias at eight-fifteen.
A cloud floats lighted behind a tree laid bare by droughts of yore.
Magenta, yellow, cyan — eight-twenty bedtime colors.
Bats, like the Yeti, impossible to get a clear shot.
Clouds wrestle with the moon, in a chokehold at eight-fifty.
Nebulized at nine oh three.
Nine-twenty-five — an Orb Spider's weave glistens under the light of my torch.
Thirty seconds later a scurrying Solifugae is stopped, frozen, blinded by the light.
A final distraction at nine-thirty as a bullfrog poked his head above a foggy bottom, lighted from above in the murky waters below.
And The Rain Came Tumbling Down
Downpour @ Four
River in the alley
Blue skies and sunshine @ Four-Thirty
Sandias in the Mist
At ten till eight the Sandias were covered by heavy rain as we stood in light rain on the west side of the river.
Fifteen minutes later, about half mile south, we walked out onto a part of the riverbed that had been four feet under water from the beginning of May to the end of June. It was over grown and we had to bushwhack our way to the river.
Only a small portion of the riverbed is not overgrown.
We finally made it to the river, and the Sandias were still obscured by heavy rain.
A lone cattail stands its ground, trying to hold its own against the tamarisk.
By eight-thirty we were back at the same point where I took the first photo, and the outline of the Sandias was barely visible through the mist and quickly fading into the darkness.
Selfies with Sophia
Sophia, who is Tristan's Congo African Grey, came out to play this afternoon when we dropped some stuff by Tristan's house on our way to a concert.
Hammocking in Stereo
Silver and Loki were hammocking in stereo, when Marble got up on the shelf and distracted Loki. He couldn't resist playing with her tail, and Silver just sat back and enjoyed the show.
Paparazzo & Chicks
July 8th. Loppers ready to cut down a tree limb.
I had the loppers ready to slice through a large branch when my subconscious heard the silent screams “Don’t cut it! Please don’t cut it!” I looked over to see a bird’s nest near the end of the branch I was about to cut down. I moved the ladder near the nest, climbed up and looked in the nest to see two tiny, black hummingbird chicks with scraggly, hair-like feathers on their backs. Breathing a sigh of relief that I had heard their silent pleas, and saw their nest before I cut down the tree limb, I started checking their progress daily. I spent the next 19 days documenting their rapid growth and maturing from little black, scraggly blobs to full grown hummingbirds.
July 8th. Bird's nest on the branch I was about to cut down.
July 8th. Two tiny hummingbird chicks in the nest.
July 8th. Mama hummingbird sitting on the chicks after dark.
July 10th. Hungry little hummers.
July 12th. Chick grooming his wings.
July 13th. Napping.
July 16th. Developing feathers.
July 19th. Eyes open.
July 23rd. Fully feathered barely fitting.
July 25th. Ready to fly.
July 26th. One left.
July 27th. Empty Nest.
Walk Under A Sliver Moon
The Sandias, bosque and Rio Grande at dusk.
Twilight afterglow
Sliver moon peeking out from behind black clouds.
Clouds disperse leaving a fuzzy sliver moon.
The moon becomes sharper as the clouds thin out.
The sliver shines bright as darkness covers the trees.
Walking the Dog
Walking the dog at the corner of 3rd Street and Central (Old Route 66), Downtown Albuquerque.
Rain & Shine
Standing in the sun
Soaked by the rain
Rainbows double up
Arc over trees
Framing mountains
Sun falls down
Rain dries up
FEDEX glows in
pastel skies
Over fiery horizon
Repeat Offender
Some of you might recall that about a year and a half (1.5, 1 1/2)* ago, I was banned for life from the parking garage at Second (2nd) Street and Gold Ave., downtown, even though I had been going there every week for a year to photograph the construction of the Imperial Building. I laid low for a year, but in keeping with trends in Albuquerque, and New Mexico, I became a repeat offender and began walking stairs every weekday starting back in January of of this year. In 2015 I walked the stairs in the New Mexico Bank and Trust Building at Fourth (4th) Street and Gold Ave., but with my compromised immune system, and no immunizations until April and June of this year, I did not want to climb stairs in an enclosed stairwell. The parking structure works well. It takes about eight (8) minutes to walk up the six (6) floors on the west side of the structure, across the top, down the stairs on the east side, back up the stairs on the east side, back across the top, and back down the stairs on the west side. That gives me twelve (12) floors on my Fitbit and I get sixteen (16) floors when I climb the access stairs to the top of the elevator shaft.
Albuquerque is a crime ridden city according to all the stats, and Lavu, a software company downtown, threatened to move if the city didn't do something about the panhandlers and crime in the area. The city stepped up police presence in downtown, and the parking structure now has extra security people watching for missfits and recidivists who have been banned for life from the parking garage.
Bruce often goes with me to walk stairs, and today we were stopped by security, and, looking at me, they asked "Aren't you the photographer that was banned for life last year?" I, the repeat offender, parking garage criminal I am, acted totally shocked about such a question and answered "No! It was him!" and pointed at Bruce. "Don't you remember? How could you forget banning that guy?" The guards look askance at me, and then eyed Bruce for a second before they said "I remember now!" You're coming with us." They escorted Bruce out of the garage, around by the train tracks, and locked him in the clink, which is a grated kiosk above Central Ave. (Old Route 66) at the railroad tracks. I always wondered what they used that kiosk for. Now I know.
The time it takes to walk the steps on both sides of the parking garage.
The kiosk clink
Bruce locked away, sticking his paw out like a cat.
Bruce acting like a cat behind bars sympathizing with Tesla.
*Written numbers with Arabic numerals for Mia. We had a discussion about that today — A Freeze Dried Empire.