New Mexico, Arizona, 2012

Having recently coming back home from a wonderful and memorable Ring Cycle in NYC, I had to get off the plane and get right back to work. Still, with a wonderful vacation and wonderful company, I still felt tired and needed something more. But I was in the middle of such a wonderul trip; with Wagner and the glories of the Ring resouding in my ears, my sister getting her PhD, a vacation became filled with reminders of things that were and things that will be. And admist all of that I remembered my uncle's awe at Chaco Canyon and decided that was where I should go.

All that I heard was truly understated; here is literally Rome, Mecca, clearly the crossroads of ancient cultures and beliefs from distances that in Europe would span the realms of multiple kings. A landscape dominated by structures rising out of the ground acres large and yet yielding to the contours and grandeur of the land. Early in the morning I woke up toget out of the tent and had these majestic ruins all to myself. Amazing how beautiful and still. How sad that for as vibrant and alive as these places were we can only guess about their beliefs, the grandeur of their festivals, the intracicies of their religion, their tight-knit community spreading and thriving with individual cultures and nations all around.

Driving onwards through the duststorms covering in hours what must have taken days I could experience in the blink of an eye the great capitals of this ancient landscape of empires, seeing how trade, religion, and adopted opportunity are one and the same but yet mix amongst us and make us all richer. Between the great center at Chaco with the re-occupation of the Aztec ruins and the mixture of kivas and ballcourts at the crossroads of Wutpak, my years of visually experiencing so many different cultures finally made sense seeing construction and beliefs blend, Meccas of the ancient world.

The Photographs

Kodachrome was the canvas I'd learned for so long and in its absense it has been time to learn new tools. Unfortunately digital will not go away and it is time to think of it as another film and experiment, learn, and figure out how to apply old knowledge to a new toolchest.

I still am thinking in terms of film; exposure and apeture drive my eye not histograms or color responses. I'll learn how to master this tool at some point. I still am lazy and just wish I still had that film I knew so well. Perhaps there's something in what I see through a viewfinder that captures landscapes in interesting ways that can continue through adjusting to new tools and learning how to capture light and shadow all over again.

Sony a900, 24-70 zoom, 70 - 300 zoom.

Click "Next" in the upper right to begin.

I also had the opportunity to take along a treasured gift, my Lytro camera! Some of the most fun shots from my trip may be experienced by clicking here.