Monochrome Photos – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Santa Fe Impressions – Part 1

Santa Fe, New Mexico has a picturesque downtown area with its Southwestern Adobe architecture, but it is a busy, tourist filled city, which negates some of its charm. Walking down almost any downtown street one is sure to be accosted numerous times by business hawkers trying to give “free” samples with a spiel designed to lure a passerby into their shops.

The crowds make it difficult to photograph the city. I thought about getting out in the very early morning hours, even before daylight, to try to capture the city streets with no people in them, but I never did that. I still think that would be a good way to capture the essence of the city’s architecture and charm without the distraction of the crowds.

In any case, I wanted to try to photograph Santa Fe in a way that showcased its charm without the people. So one afternoon I went for a walk around the city and managed to capture a few images with my iPhone camera, while avoiding the crowds and mostly keeping people out of my images. While I’m not opposed to street photography with people in the images, some folks don’t like to be photographed and I don’t want to be involved in any altercations with those objecting to being photographed. So while I might photograph some street people and crowd scenes, I usually keep that to a minimum and exercise caution in posting such images.

In the Plaza, where there were often crowds, especially when there was entertainment, I spotted this “camouflaged” man standing against a tree. He would suddenly emerge to frighten those unobservant enough not to have noticed him, scaring little kids and adults. I’m not sure this is a good idea as some older folks with heart conditions might suffer from such a shock. Or some might even react negatively to being so startled.

There are plenty of flowers decorating the public areas and private businesses in Santa Fe, which adds much to the beauty of the downtown area.

It was not uncommon for an afternoon thunderstorm to pop up in the general area, but only light rain fell in the downtown area during this visit.

Clouds over Santa Fe Museum of Fine Arts

To be continued,

Ken

Alabama Hills Scouting Photos Part 7

More iPhone scouting photos from Alabama Hills, California, March 2024.

Until next time,

Ken

March 2024 iPhone Photos – Part 5

And even more iPhone scouting photos in Alabama Hills, California.

This monochrome version of an iPhone photo was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page July 25, 2024. The bright white clouds behind the arch draws the eye to the arch. Against a clear, bland sky, a photo of this arch would be much less interesting, maybe even boring.

I called this natural rock feature “The Head”, because it looks like a head on a neck looking across the broad valley into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, maybe thinking it would be cooler to be in those mountains, under a blanket of snow, rather than stuck down here forever.

The arch on top of the weathered, massive rock outcrop is called The Eye of Alabama Hills.

From this view point, The Eye feature reminds me of a big eyed puppy draped over its owner’s body, peering into its master’s eyes.

Thanks for following my posts,

Ken

Alabama Hills, March 21, 2024 – More Wandering

After our early morning sunrise shoot, my son and I went on another short scouting expedition.

Of course, I made a few shots during our little hike, scouting the area for possible sunrise or sunset shoots, but the two in this post are the only ones that I deemed presentable.

Until next time,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 27 – Final Sunset Shoot (continued)

This is the second part of our final sunset shoot in March 2023 in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada.

I’m always amazed at the rock sculpture nature provides for us to enjoy.

There is definitely a wary looking face in this rock that appears to be watching me as I make this image. Maybe this rock has had bad experiences with humans in the past.

While the image may not be a greatly attractive scene, I found it interesting enough to take time to capture it. There is much texture, interesting rock shapes and lines running through the rock. The image name is for the narrow wash in the center that has an accumulation of sand at the bottom center.

I moved to the right from the last composition to make this image, which shows off some of the more interesting features in the rock. The rock at the top, with its concave erosional form reminds me of a baseball catcher’s mitt. With the Texas Rangers clinching a berth in the 2023 World Series, maybe this is an appropriate time to post this image.

A close up, color version, of the “Catcher’s Mitt”.

Erosion has created holes in these rocks that I can imagine animals or ancient people using as shelters. Modern day man might even take temporary shelter in one of these in an emergency.

To be continued,

Ken

Valley of Fire State Park and Nearby, Nevada – March 2023 – Part 6 – Monochrome Desert

This is a continuation of hiking and exploration in Valley of Fire State Park and nearby areas, Nevada. All of the photos in this post were shot with an iPhone 14 and converted to monochrome.

This “Dark Shelter” is not in Valley of fire. This is along a 4 wheel drive road outside the park.

Indiana Fall 2022 – A Short Walk and A Short Drive

One morning before going out for the day, I walked just less than a mile down the country roadway that went past our cabin. I knew there was an old barn in the neighborhood that I had passed by many times and never taken time to photograph.

After conversion to black and white, I use selective colorization to bring out a little of the fall color in the nearby trees and a little color on the barn.

We had friends with us for the first week of this fall visit to Indiana. I wanted to show them at least one covered bridge, since they had never seen one. They did not want to spend hours in a vehicle to get to an area with lots of covered bridges, but there was one small covered bridge just a few minutes away, one that I had seen on a previous visit to this area.

This bridge is located along a narrow country roadway, where there is limited space to pull over and turn around. Our friends were driving today. I routed them to the bridge along the best part of the access roadway, but turning around to get back out was a challenge for their minivan. Continuing without turning around would have presented other problems, if another vehicle came along going in the opposite direction.

More Indiana Fall later,

Ken

Indiana Fall 2022 – Old Stuff – Part 1

Visits to Indiana with my wife always require visits to local, and sometimes not so local, antique stores. To occupy my time I look for interesting photo subjects for my camera phone.

I used such equipment as this waveform generator in a physics lab.

To be continued,

Ken

Indiana Fall 2022 – Nashville

Nashville, Indiana is the nearest town to the cabin we stay in while visiting Indiana in the fall. It is a quaint tourist town with all that such towns offer – lots of tourist, crowds, expensive stores selling all kinds of goods, expensive restaurants, limited parking.

I am not a fan of such places, but it is always mandatory to take in some of this tourist town on each visit. I usually end up pacing the sidewalk, while my wife shops.

Sometimes I shoot a few photographs of the local scene with my iPhone camera.

Decorative grass and flowers are common along the streets of downtown Nashville. The sunlight highlighting the plumes on this one inspired me to shoot it, cropping in close to exclude the street scene.

Nashville is most popular in the fall with the nearby Brown County State Park a draw for leaf peepers. Artwork and crafts related to fall are common place.