Stormchasing in New Mexico 2023

In the spring every year, large photo-worthy storm cells develop in the Great Plains from Texas to North Dakota -- usually too far away from New Mexico for stormchasing.  Due to New Mexico's geography and dry climate, supercells rarely arise in our state.

Near the end of May, however, one of those large storms developed on the plains about 80 miles southeast of Albuquerque, so my friend, Alan, and I hopped in the car and raced to catch up and get ahead of the storm which was moving northeast.

As we drove, Alan monitored the storm on near-real-time radar with an app on his tablet, so we could see where the storm was heading and our position relative to it.  There were actually two cells:  a smaller one north of us that intensified for a few minutes, then seemed to fizzle out as it moved away from us . . .

. . . and a larger one to the west that seemed to be growing fast.

Soon it began to rotate . . .

. . . and a few minutes later, a spindly funnel cloud dropped down.  It lasted about 30 seconds, barely reaching the ground before it dissipated.

There were dozens of other stormchasers out there with us - here are just a few:

The storm cell kept moving, but was becoming disorganized, so we headed west back to Albuquerque.  Here's what the back side of the cell looked like:

If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Northern Berkshire County Cemeteries

Hillside Cemetery, North Adams, MA

Cemeteries are one of my favorite photographic subjects.  On a visit with our older son's family in Williamstown, Massachusetts, last May, I had some time to photograph five cemeteries in northern Berkshire County.

Three of them were new to me:  Burnett Cemetery, a small family cemetery deep in the woods a few miles outside of Florida, MA; the Florida Baptist Church Cemetery; and the Williams College Cemetery on the campus in Williamstown.

Two were cemeteries I had photographed on a previous visit:  Hillside Cemetery in North Adams, MA, and Westview Cemetery in Williamstown.  You can read about my earlier visit to these cemeteries by clicking here.

Here are some images from each.

BURNETT CEMETERY

FLORIDA BAPTIST CHURCH CEMETERY

The church cemetery had one unique grave marker:

The flag inside the meter says "Time Expired."  Clearly someone had a great sense of humor.

WILLIAMS COLLEGE CEMETERY

This cemetery is located on the north edge of the Williams College campus, and hosts graves of many college professors.

Here, too, are a few unexpected items:

Busts of Shakespeare and Ho Chi Minh
and a (campaign?) button for Marchetti

Greeting on the back side of a grave stone

Hillside Cemetery, in North Adams, and Westview Cemetery in Williamstown, were the largest and, to me, the most visually interesting ones.

HILLSIDE CEMETERY

This one always reminds me of my brother, Rand, who died in 2021.  It's not his grave, but the name is the same.

WESTVIEW CEMETERY

Cemeteries are full of "teacups" -- stationary subjects that can be photographed from many different points of view.  Here is a group of tombstones I worked as a "teacup."

BLACK & WHITE

In three of the cemeteries, I found subjects that worked well in black and white.

Burnett Cemetery

Hillside Cemetery

Westview Cemetery

Westview Cemetery

If you would like to see these images (and more) in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Iron Feathers

 

On a smooth patch of ground cleared from scruffy land along a major north-south road on the west side of Albuquerque, there's a strangely beautiful public art installation.

It's called "Flyway," commissioned by the City of Albuquerque Public Art Program and created by local artist Robert Wilson.  The installation was conceived as a tribute to the annual migration of sandhill cranes that fly from Alaska and Canada to winter in the wetlands of the Rio Grande River in central New Mexico.

"Flyway" is constructed from ninety-six 16-foot long steel angle iron beams recycled from jetty jacks -- tripodal structures installed along the Rio Grande in the 1940s and 50s to stabilize the river banks and reduce erosion.  They're called jetty jacks because they resemble the children's toy/game from yesteryear.

(A jetty, in case you didn't know, is a structure extended into a sea, lake, or river to influence the current or tide or to protect a harbor or shoreline.)

Over the years, as dams and other water control measures were constructed upstream, the jetty jacks became obsolete and generally too expensive to remove.  Many of them remain on the banks of the river, rusting and overgrown with vines.

"Flyway" consists of six rows of sixteen "jetty jack" beams that have been reclaimed from the river banks.  The beams of each row are set at different angles to make a shape that, from the side, evokes the silhouette of the Sandia Mountains to the east, or the shape of an airfoil or wing.

The top end of each beam, rather than being a flat right angle of rusty iron, has been shaped to resemble the shape of a feather and painted to evoke the blue sky of New Mexico.

If you are interested in seeing how "Flyway" was conceived and built (as told by the artist, Robert Wilson), you can watch a 21-minute video about it by clicking here.

Regular readers of this blog know that for photographing static subjects I am a firm believer in the practice of "walking around the teacup."  (For those who are unfamiliar with the term, click here for a longer description of the process.)  "Flyway" is a classic "teacup" opportunity, which I took on two visits last April.  For your enjoyment, here are some of my many views of the endlessly fascinating "Flyway."

If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!