The All-American 4H Club started out as one of those ways that University-based agricultural scientists could skip over the curmudgeonly attitude of the old folks at the plow and get agricultural innovation directly in the hands of those who would use it…
The intrepid Pietro della Valle reported that the ferris wheel was a large and sophisticated contraption at the Ramadan Festival in Constantinople in 1615. It was the beginning of his Pilgrimage to India. The ferris wheel Peter Mundy stumbled upon in Philippopolis was: "...like a Craine wheele att Customhowse Key…
So I’m standing in a field just north of Taos, New Mexico taking my umpteenth sunset shot and I finally get to wondering – beyond the smoke or dust in the air, what is it that causes these red sunsets?…
The kids and I made a dusk foray down to the petroglyphs in the Rio Grande Gorge for a look at some of the magnificent ancient works lining the walls of the canyon. The figures here are located in the…
Rio Grande Gorge Our big river begins way up in the wilderness peaks of Colorado, passing nearly 2,000 miles to the Gulf of Mexico where it limps, putrid and polluted to the sea. Here in Taos, the river wends through…
Dystopian Taos at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge Some might get upset at my characterization of the mass of ad hoc vendors on the west edge of the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge as "dystopian" but there is surely something…
When I posted this sunset shot to Facebook last night my friend and fellow photographer Geraint wrote "Biblical, dude!" I agree. With the light streaming down out of the clouds there was something about Heaven Beacons to the whole thing. Just…
I've been playing around with some Zeikos Macro Filter Kit lenses. These are not a true macro lens (WAY out of my price range at the moment) but rather a very affordable alternative to play with - an obviously get…
Scary Picture Monsoons again and again. I know. Sorry but it is the best time of year in Northern New Mexico as far as I am concerned. Here is a shot from just over the border in Southern Colorado's San…
Photograph of Rainbow I covered the monsoons currently taking place in the southwestern United States in detail last week. Still, they never fail to impress. Last Saturday afternoon there was a fairly brief but intense downpour. I was on…
The monsoon dresses New Mexico by mid-July every year. Here, the mission church at San Ildefonso Pueblo catches the waning late-morning sunshine of a monsoon afternoon. It didn't take long for the dark, wet clouds behind the structure to move…
I shot this balloon eclipse from the cliff overhanging the John Dunn Bridge and the Rio Grande, 700 feet below. It is an iphone shot and while I love this image I'm not terribly happy with the quality. I…