Everybody Has To Go to Work


A beautiful morning today. Very still air. Very slightly cool requiring just a T-shirt. Sky still very orange near the sun, with long thin clouds just above the horizon. Everything very soft. I did not feel inspired to go photograph (everybody has to go to work, inspired or not) but I couldn’t face sitting in a dark office on so beautiful a morning, either.

My office is dark because it is in the center of the house. In fact, at one time my office pretty much was the house. Built in 1850 (not a typo) this house is very solid with adobe walls a foot and a half thick, so as to resist attack. And I don’t mean Mormon missionaries!

There are six doors in my quite large office and one small window which I have blacked out so that I can work with UV sensitive materials. Someone started installing track lighting at one time, but didn’t get past the first strip, so the room is funeral home dark without extra lighting and even then, it is problematic. Only moved in two months ago, so eventually will get around to adding better lighting. The house has been greatly expanded over the years and is now quite large. With 12 foot ceilings and plenty of windows in all the other rooms, it feels quite open and spacious. Except for a seriously leaky roof in a couple of rooms (being worked on), this is really a wonderful old house, worthy of a movie.

Anyway…

I put my camera case (actually a fishing tackle box; those seldom get stolen) in the car so as to have an excuse to go have my coffee out in one of the pastures. My assistant Wendy jumped in and we went to work. I realized right away that I would need some establishing pictures, so readers might have an idea what the ranch looks like and what kind of landscape I have to work with. These will all be handheld snapshots intended only for this purpose and I will freely manipulate them to make them more visually pleasing for the blog. Only with photographs I intend as serious work will I post an image exactly as it came out of the camera, without improvements.

Wendy looking for best position for a tripod.
Wendy looking for best position for a tripod. These are always found in front of the camera.

The above view is from a position standing between two hills, looking SE. Most of the hills on the ranch have no names, but the one visible on the left is locally called Lizard Mountain. I don’t think it actually has any sort of recorded name. At the base of Lizard Mountain on the far right, just out of sight behind that little end that sticks up, is my house. To the left, out of the frame is Blue Mountain. That name is official and it is well known locally.

When I turn 180 degrees to look behind me, on the left is the only other hill with a name: Teepee. From one perspective it is sort of triangular.

SouthEndTeepeeLookingWest
South End of Teepee, looking West… Note the rock outcropping on the left side with a rather large hawk on top, looking for breakfast

 

 

North End of Teepee Looking West
North End of Teepee Looking West

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still standing, sort of, 180 degrees from the photograph where Wendy is helping. Turning to the opposite side, the North end of the other hill, which has no name, is below.

North End of Hill Opposite Teepee
North End of Hill Opposite Teepee

So, to further orient the reader. There are two pairs of hills, one to the South and one to the North. My route this morning was between both pairs. From Lizard Mountain, northward to Teepee.

As I made the images above, as I said, to give you an idea of the terrain, I also put the camera on a tripod two or three times to make more serious images. They failed miserably. Such is life. Sometimes when uninspired I get good things anyway. Not the case this morning.

Storm clouds starting to form. Maybe something interesting will happen.

I went back out in the afternoon, after posting all of the above. Thought I had something better. I did. It was a better class of boring.

Bland, boring
Bland, boring
Better, but still doesn't make me want to use up ink and paper
Better, but still doesn’t make me want to use up ink and paper, maybe another day

 

Some days you eat the bear. Some days the bear eats you.
Maybe a better day tomorrow.

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