Traveling to the White Sands today
What a long day. I spent the day driving from El Paso to White Sands National Monument. What an unusual place in the middle of New Mexico – brilliant white sands in the middle of the desert. The white sand is created by gypsum deposits from nearby mountains which has formed over many thousands of years.
People come here to take photographs or to take sleds down the huge dunes of white sand that cover 250,000 acres. It sure is easy to get lost in the desert with all that sand around you. Spring is the windy season so when you go walking your footprints are erased almost immediately. You really have to keep your sense of direction to avoid getting lost. I was fortunate but they have to rescue people all the time here.
Happy Easter Everybunny
It was a great down at El Rancho Patricio and Monica. It turns out the Ranch is becoming quite the place to hang out and enjoy life – I find myself heading down there quite a bit for events and parties these days. Patrick and Monica threw a smashing Easter Party at their house and the highlight of the event was the Easter Egg hunt where they hid over 188 eggs filled with candy and money for the kiddy kiddies. The weather was perfect, the food was awesome and everyone had a very good time. Look at this little cutie baby and how much fun she had – at one point she was eating pop rocks and making the funniest faces. Nice Easter all around.
Eoin Blue works the ranch
It’s been a long day on the ranch; I mean one long day. After baling a barnful of hay, corralling the cows and repairing a few hundred yards of broken down fence Eoin Blue decides to call it a day and get some chow. He gets in his faithful blue truck – the same one that he has had for 15 years – and slowly looks over the good work that he has accomplished. It feels good to have a nice productive day on the ranch and while the work was hard it was something that was sorely needed to keep his families ranch in tip top shape. Eoin Blue starts up the truck with a roar and smiles to himself as he slowly backs up – its been a great day. And I’ll probably wake up and do it all over again.
Soon to be published photographer
Sometimes having a brother that is an accomplished pilot and that owns a helicopter can come in very handy for someone practicing photography. In this case it is me that is the lucky one that has been able to grab shots that few photographers could ever dream of. My brother called me a couple of years ago to take some aerial shots of his friends boat that had just been renovated at a cost of $15 million and the Yacht was at a very beautiful state. We took a short 45 minute helicopter ride out the Catalina and shot his boat churning through the water at unbelievable speeds. I captured some great photographs that were deemed good enough to be pictured in Yachting Magazine which is the magazine that features some of the most incredible boats, ships and Yachts on the ocean today. I am really grateful to finally be published in a magazine. That is one of things that I really wanted to do as an amateur photographer.
Geno in the Cardboard Ship
Geno is in the South Pacific. He is alone in a Cardboard ship drifting amidst the wreckage of submarines and battleships. In his Cardboard naval ship his gun turrets made out of penny whistles and cardboard are set to launch missles at the enemy. The enemy could be anywhere. Geno begins barking orders in the heat of battle to his squadron. Fight, he tells them. Fight on. We will destroy our enemy.
Bridget’s Window
Bridget has a very nice window in her front room. There is a nice antique couch with a side table and some nice flowers on it. Sun pours through the windows which are covered with white sheer and some cream colored drapes. The setting is quite nice and has a very warm charm to it. I got a chance to take a picture of Bridget in front of her nice window today. We were finishing off a big photography project for her and it turned out quite nice.
Girl in Vietnam
I keep going back to my pictures from Vietnam because I often find them to be the most interesting pictures that I took in the last year. I have learned that to take good pictures you need to put yourself in the right setting where you are sometimes a stranger. I like my pictures from Vietnam not only because they bring back good memories of visiting this country but also because the pictures were very different than the life that I live here. In this picture, I was walking in a small village in the hills and this girl and her mother came down from their hillside home to get some candy that we were passing out. What was sad is that she didn’t have much but just wanted a small piece of candy. It makes you wish you could do more for them when you see somebody so innocent that can be helped with so little.
Writing Songs With Kevin
I had a pretty amazing day with my enormously talented nephew – Kevin Nash. Kevin is one of the most amazing and talented musicians that I have met in my life and to think the bonus is that he is my nephew. Kevin’s core talent is his ability to play just about any musical genre at the drop of a hat. I think that his ability to improvise is second to none. I can begin playing a funky jam and he will come up with the most amazing lick to play along with it. It is amazing to watch.
Kevin is at a bit of a cross roads in his life; having just graduated from College, quitting his job and breaking up with his girlfriend of many years he is more free than he has ever been in his life. But with that freedom comes some apprehension and fear. Kevin wants to begin starting his music career and if there is anyone that can do it, it his him. I hope he can because the music that he composes is some of the most beautiful that I have ever heard and I want to hear as many songs from his as I can in my life.
