A Doorway

I had lunch with two new friends from the astronomy club.  The husband is an architect and has an office in Oyster Bay.  We had a nice lunch together with great conversations about architecture, astronomy, night sky photography, and life.  On the way back to the office, we passed some older homes in the village that have been beautifully restored. When I saw this doorway with the black door and the white wreath I stopped in mhy tracks.  Photography time!  I just thought that this was so beautiful.

 

GAS

I still have a couple of posts from the Big Bend trip but they require a lot of editing.  So here is something I shot tonight on the way to my astronomy meeting.  I have been waiting to photograph this sign for several months now.  I needed the sun to bew higher in the sky to illuminate the scene.  I thought that tonight the sun might be on the sign, but it was not.  But I think this light is fine for this subject.  This is a type of subject matter that Stan and I call "American Vernacular" which is usually used to describe a particularly American type of architecture.  Home grown, particularly American and likely to be designed and built by one person with no formal training.  So you get the idea.  This sign has been here as long as I have been on Long Island, and clearly long before that.  It is next to a farm stand, and there are actually three gas pumps near where I am standing but I have never seen anyone buy gas here.  No matter, it is a wonderful, classic gasoline station sign, don't you think?

 

An Art Piece

In Marfa there is a seemingly empty lot where it looks as if a bunch of plants have been stored.  And coming up out of all that is the giant stalk of a Sotol plant in amongst the buildings.  It is such an unusual scene to see this giant plant in this place.  We found out later on that it was an art installation, and part of the Chinati Foundation.

 

Intermission - The Sun

I have another post or two from the Chinati Foundation, but the sun had a magnificent complex grouping of sunspots today and so I set up my telescope and photographed the sun.

The main thing of interest to me is these three large spots in a row.  If you click on this image it will be larger and you can see how many smaller spots there are in this grouping, and then even tinier ones. Far too many to count.  A really exciting thing to see.  The sun goes through 11 year cycles that begin with no spots on the sun at all, to a sun that looks like this, and then at the end of the cycle it goes back to having no spots at all.  Just another fascinating part of this universe we live in

15 Untitled Works in Concrete

So this is another astounding artwork!  It is called "15 untitled works in concrete" but that title is misleading because one of these works may consist of from 2 boxes up to 6 boxes or more.  I counted from a satellite photograph about 60 concrete boxes in groups.  They are installed out in a line and the length of the exhibit is about half a mile.  All the boxes are the same size, 2.5 x 2.5 x 5 meters and the concrete is about 10" thick.  Please click on each photo to see much more detail.  Thanks.

What is fascinating is the arrangement.  Some boxes are open on the sides, some only on the ends, and some are only open on one side.  I am showing you some overall shots so you get a sense of the exhibit.  But the fun for Stan and I was to examine, one by one, each group of boxes and then try to find interesting compositions in each group.  It was so much fun because it was really intense just looking and looking for the best arrangement.  More on that tomorrow, when I will show you some of the close ups of the arrangements.

Here is Stan in the center, and a guy we met who was viewing the exhibit.  He was from Texas and had just retired from work the day before and was enjoying the exhibit as much as we were, without taking photographs.  Tomorrow's photographs will be really interesting, I promise!

 

100 Untitled Works

Two days ago I showed you some large buildings with quonset-like roofs.  These buildings were called "artillery sheds" where the big guns were stored and maintained.  They are now both filled with aluminum boxes created by the artist Donald Judd, who bought the old military base and turned it into a contemporary art museum.  In the foreground of this photo is one of the 100 aluminum boxes that the artist designed.  All of the boxes have the same exterior size, but some are open on top or on the sides or on the ends.  Many have other pieces of aluminum inside them, some at an angle.  The aluminum is 1/2" thick and comes from the factory with a shiny "mill finish."  You cannot touch the pieces because they would then have finger prints etched on them from the acid in the perspiration from our fingers.   You can't photograph them during the tour, for two reasons, I am guessing.  One is that it would be a distraction to have everyone photographing, instead of looking and experiencing the works.  The second reason is probably because when photographing, people might be bumping into the boxes.

What is astounding about this exhibit for me is the unimaginable variations between each box.  No two are alike and I was stunned at how many things could be different in each box, and yet there are 100 of them.  It is a mind boggling exhibit, and it is impossible to imagine the feeling of wandering through the two buildings and carefully looking at each individual box.  It is so much more interesting than a description would make it sound,  Oh, I took the photographs long after the inside tour was done.  I came up to the doors at the end, and wiped the dust off the window and photographed through the glass.  Same thing for photographing through the large windows on the side,  The photos are fairly clear, but I wished I had a bottle of Windex and some paper towels!

 

Yankee Craftsmanship - The Telescope Case

So the mystery is solved!  But this is funny - I gave away what this box was for, without realizing it.  So this was what I posted, asking you to guess what the finished project was.  Yankee Craftsmanship. Anyhow, this is a photograph of my finished project, a telescope carrying case for my "new-old telescope." A former ASLI member offered three of his old telescopes to club members and I ended up with a 5" f/5 refractor which he built using a lens and materials from Jaegers, back in the 1970's.  Please click on this to see a much larger version.

But I had forgotten that I made another post called: Cat Coffin, which showed the other part of the telescope case with cats playing in it!  Duh!

Well, anyhow, now the finished project can be revealed.  I promised I would show you the finished project three days after I posted "Yankee Craftsmanship" but I ran into a serious problem.  I had bought a brand new quart of marine varnish and there was something wrong with it.  It would not dry to a hard finish and I had to return it and wait for a new can to arrive which really set me back a couple of weeks.

But here it is, all finished, and with the telescope inside the box!  With three coats of varnish on top of birch plywood, it actually is a stunning thing to see in person.  It is simply beautiful!  Sorry to make you wait so long for the results.

 

The Chinati Foundation

The Chinati Foundation is a contemporary art museum located in Marfa, Texas, and based upon the ideas of its founder, artist Donald Judd.  We visited here after spending four days at Big Bend National park.  The specific intention of Chinati is to preserve and present to the public permanent large-scale installations by a limited number of artists. The emphasis is on works in which art and the surrounding landscape are inextricably linked.  More on that later. This facility is on 340 acres and was was, for many years, a U.S Army base that was active from 1911 to 1946. At one time it was an artillery unit and this is one of two large buildings where the big guns were stored and maintained.   They have since been rebuilt with new roofs and large glass windows and there is an art installation by Donald Judd inside.

This is a view inside and through the large building in the photo above.  More on the inside later on.

This gives you a sense from this architecture that it was a military facility.

These buildings in a U-shape still look like the barracks they once were.

In some photographs on the Chinati website the ground is covered with beautiful light colored grasses that appear to be about a foot tall.  But now, probably because of drought all you see as far as you look is sand and dirt.

This is an art installation inside one of the old barracks.  Interestingly, there are no windows in the buildings - the wind and the sand blow right through this building.  I was in this building when I heard the wind start to howl, really, and realy strong winds blew right through the building and they were full of sand!  I tucked the camera into my waist and bent over to shield the camera from the blowing dust as best as I could. It was a dust devil!  Within a minute the dust devil had passed on and the winds disappeared.

This is what that barracks building with the art installation inside looks like from the outside.  More tomorrow on the installations in some of the buildings, and outside!

 

A Mystery Photo

OK so here is a mystery photo and I am not going to tell you where it is.  Yet.  After Stan and I left Big Bend, we went to Marfa, Texas for two days on our way back to El Paso.  There is a is contemporary art museum there that we wanted to visit.  I will tell you more about it.  The good news is that my photographs will not be about the landscape of Big Bend, but about this museum.  This is Stan, of course, standing between two concrete structures.  Cool photograph, right?  Stay tuned!

 

Peregrine Falcon

There is a visitor's center in the Chisos Basin where the lodge we stayed in is located.  This sculpture is installed near the entrance and it is a stunning.  Turns out it is a Peregrine Falcon.  It is life-sized, and bronze and donated by the Friends of Big Bend National Park.  The sculpture commemorates the success of efforts to protect peregrine falcons, once an endangered species in Big Bend National Park. The sculpture was created by Bob Coffee, renowned Texas artist and member of Big Bend Friends’ Board of Directors. The Friends of Big Bend National Park have assisted in the funding of years of research and monitoring of the peregrine within the park.

 

Boquillas Canyon and the Rio Grande

I spoke of going to Boquillas Canyon which you get to by parking the car in a lot, then climbing up about 100 feet and then hiking back down to river level where there was a trail.  There were trees all around, so I was mainly hiking in the shade - a good thing because the trail is about 1.5 miles long to the end, where I could see the canyon in the rocks.  The temperature was over one hundred degrees, so I walked slowly and it was not a problem. This panorama gives an overall view of the scenery from a distance and was taken from the top of the 100 foot rise above the parking lot.  You can see the Rio Grande river at the lower right.  The canyon itself starts at the high rock wall straight ahead in the distance.  This is a large file, so please click on it to see more detail.

The Subtlety of the Desert

I suppose by now you are getting bored with my landscapes of Big Bend.  The landscape is so subtle out here.  This photograph, except for the blue sky, s monochromatic brown.  There is a green cactus on the right but everything  else is the same color.  And yet, to me, this is really beautiful. So different from where the rest of us all live.  I think that is why is is such a refreshing thing to spend time out here for a week photographing.  It is such a different experience.

 

Casa Grande

When a group of us camped here in Big Bend about 8 years ago, and when Stan and I stayed in the lodge here, this mountain, Casa Grande, towered over us.  It is the foreground silhouette for some of my Milky Way images.  This view is taken 30 feet from our front door this year, at the lodge.  This feature is not unlike Shiprock in that it is a "volcanic plug" made up of lava that hardened in the "conduit" of the volcano which is the open tube from the magma resevoir underground and the vent at the top. Casa Grande is Spanish for "Big House" and it is 2000 feet higher than where we are.  It is 7,325 feet above sea level.  An impressive sight!

 

Approaching Big Bend

I haven't yet sat down and did a careful edit of all my camera cards from this trip!  So I started going back over each card and looking for some interesting photographs.  I found this one, when we were driving into Big Bend National Park and I like it a lot.  It is subtle but I like the simplicity of it and the subtle colors.  I am sorry I haven't had time to research this mesa or mountain, but I will, eventually...   :-(.  I was thinking of the subtle colors and I began to wonder if this photograph would be good in black & white.  So here is that version, below.  Please be sure to click on each one because they are more interesting seen larger.

So there may be something to this even more subtle version.  I think I will need to think about it, so I am presenting both of these to see what you all think.  Color or Black & White?

 

Prada Marfa

This is a crazy wonderful thing!  In the middle of nowhere suddenly you pass this small store that says "Prada Marfa" on it.  When you stop and look inside, you see shelves of shoes, and in the foreground, six very expensive handbags.  The bottoms of the handbags are cut out, and there is only one shoe of a pair on the shelves, so don't bother to break in!

Both the shoes and the handbags were selected from the 2005 Prada collection.  The front door doesn't work, so you can't go inside.

This building is explained this way:  "Prada Marfa is a permanent sculptural art installation by artists Elmgreen & Dragset, located along U.S. Route 90 in Texas, about 26 miles northwest of Marfa. The installation, in the form of a freestanding building—specifically a Prada storefront—was inaugurated on October 1, 2005. The artists described the work as a "pop architectural land art project."  So this is really astounding to see, especially because there is nothing else within miles of this building.  And as you can imagine, it is a huge tourist attraction.  After we stopped there were several people photographing the building - I think I waited ten minutes for all the other photographers to leave so I could get a shot of the building all by itself, but then when editing the photographs, I thought it was more informational to have a person in the photograph to give a sense of scale to the size of the building.  

 

Dust Devil

We were driving from Marfa, Texas up route 90 to catch Interstate 10 which would take us back to El Paso.  All along the route on one side or another we would see Dust Devils!  They were amazing to see!  Some were way off in the distance, and then some were much closer. Since Stan was driving I could use both hands to hold my camera and to try and shoot these as we were driving along at 65 MPH.  Aren't you glad I wasn't driving?   :-). This was the best shot I could get.  Some of these we could see were well over a hundred feet tall. They are like a tornado, but not as severe.  Dust devils form as a swirling updraft under sunny conditions during fair weather, rarely coming close to the intensity of a tornado.  It was really cool to see them all over the landscape!

 

A Railroad Landscape

This is the single track railroad line that runs right through the center of Marfa, Texas.  Train horns have blared in Texas for more than 160 years, and the history of the state’s railroads begins with an infant republic. The railroad represented a path to economic development and settlement; wherever it went, commerce bloomed. Marfa’s existence, like lots of places, was initially due to the railroad. This spot was merely a railway water stop and freight station in 1883, when it was named. By 1887 a stately courthouse had been built a few hundred yards from the tracks, and the town grew up around it. So Marfa became the county seat because the railroad line ran through the town.  It is impressive to be walking on a street near the railroad tracks when a train comes through!  The freight trains are up to a mile and one-quarter long pulled by four engines.  Depending on the speed of the train, if you are stopped at a rail crossing it can take two or three minutes for all the cars to pass.

The Presidio County Courthouse

This is the Presidio County Courthouse in Marfa, Texas.  It is really a stunning building, finished in 1887.  It is a three-story Second Empire design and features Italianate detailing. The tower is covered in ornamental shingles and a Goddess of Justice is mounted on top. But - and you you are going to love this - she is missing her scales and her sword believed to have been shot off by a citizen unhappy with Presidio County Governance!  The courthouse underwent modifications in 1915 and 1929.  The exterior originally composed of red brick was later covered in stucco, but in 1929 was returned to its 1929 brick appearance.  It is too bad the trees are in leaf because they obscure many of the details of the building.

 

Palace Theater

This is the Palace Theater, in Marfa, Texas.  It was formerly the Marfa Opera House!  It was built in 1905 and then in the 1930's was updated in the art deco style.  It became a movie theater, and then it closed in 1970.  It has been used as an artist's studio for a while.  I walked around in front of it for a while trying different views, but this view stopped me in my tracks, because of the silver water tank in the background to the left!

 

The Sam Nail Ranch

There was a sign by the side of the road that mentioned the Sam Nail ranch.  Out in this dry, desert country?  I couldn't imagine.  A day or two later we decided to investigate and what a story!  This is the original windmill at a ranch.  This spot within Big Bend National Park is 90 miles from the nearest town on the U.S. Side on modern roads.  I can't imagine what that trip took back when this ranch was active.

The sign mentioned that there were ruins of a two room adobe home that the rancher and his wife and children lived in.  In the distance you can see a more modern windmill which pumps a bit of water up from underground and just pours it on the ground where small animals can feed and some plants can grow.

When the farm was active, this was a creek full of water most of the time., but not any more

And you walk through these thin trees on the trail that leads to the windmills and the ruins of the home.  It is astounding that you can find shade here.

When you click on this image, it is larger than normal and you can read a bit of history about the family who lived here.  If you are as curious as I was, you may want to read this this article with a more detailed history.  The fact that families lived here and had to deal with drought and isolation and loneliness just boggles my mind.  I think you will enjoy the read.  And look at these photographs as well and the story even becomes more real.

Yankee Craftsmanship

Consider this as an intermission...   :-)  I still have more photographs from Texas, but I wanted to show you something that I just made that I am proud of.  Kathy says that when she gets stressed with all the cruelty and terrible behavior now going on in this country, she takes time out to bake.  Sourdough bread or cookies or pies.  While she is doing that, she leaves the world behind and feels good about her accomplishments.  When she asked why I was working in my shop building some things from wood, I say "I am baking..."  So this handle is something I made, cut from 3/4" plywood, for a project I am working on.  I started by drilling 1 1/4 holes that make up the inner curve of the handle, and rounded the outer corners with a sanding disk on my bench saw.  Then, when the outline was perfect, I used a router with a 1/4" "Rounding Over" bit to take the sharp corners off.  I sanded it smooth and then applied three coats of marine varnish and sanded between each coat.  When it was done, and I picked up the handle I could not believe how silky smooth it is! It is a joy to hold!

This is a second shot but I don't think you can guess from this, what I am building.  It will be a few more days before it is done, and then I will post more pictures.  OK, back to Texas!

 

Something Green in the Desert

On one of our trips I saw a mesa well off the road so we stopped and I ran into the desert to get a better view of it with a nice foreground.  On the way back to the car I saw this small tree with green foliage, which stood out from all the brown around it - the brown plants and the brown desert soil.  And then when I was composing this image, did I notice the mountains in the distance that made this photograph perfect, because I have a foreground, a middle ground and, with the mountains, a background.  Perfect.

 

Mountains Beyond Mountains Beyond Mountains.

This is a very subtle photograph and I love what it shows.  Be sure to click on it to see it larger.  We are looking west toward Mexico.  There is a mountain in the foreground, and behind that another mountain range and another very faint range beyond that.  I love the subtle differences in each range as they recede into the distance.  In the second range behind the dark range in the foreground, do you see a little "notch?"  That is 14 miles away, and is called Santa Elena Canyon, and the Rio Grande river flows through that notch!  I also love the clouds in this photograph because in a way they seem to mirror the shape of the mountains.  I may make a large photograph print for my wall, of this image.

 

Double Lenticular

I am switching my subjects around so you won't get bored.  So back to clouds, if I may.  I thought this was a lenticular cloud, but to be sure I asked my friend George who was a meteorologist earlier in his life, and who is involved in "The Cloud Appreciation Society."  He gave me the gift of membership in the group.  I get an email each day with a different photograph of a cloud.  People send in photographs of clouds from all over the world.  So he mentioned that this is actually a double lenticular.  I love the three different mountain ranges in the lower left of the photograph.  What amazing scenery in Big Bend.

I Stole This Photograph

OK, I confess...   I stole this photograph!  Yeah, I did.  Stan and I were in the visitor center and I saw him take this photograph on his cellphone and I asked to look at it.  It grabbed me immediately, and I said that I was going to shoot it as well.  Stealing a close friend's photographs is allowed, I think.  I hope it's OK.  I was trying ti figure out why I was so attracted to this and I think I figured it out.  Big Bend National Park is huge with an area of 1,250 square miles!  It is all about wide open spaces and seeing from horizon to horizon.  So it seems so strange with distant horizons in every direction, that I would limit myself to just this narrow view through this window.  I guess that's what attracted me to this scene.

 

Texas Building, Texas Truck, Texas Sky

Back to Marfa, for this one.  Remember I talked about the early morning light on the way to breakfast?  This building is only about 100 feet from the restaurant where we had breakfast.  I may have noticed the building as we passed it on the way to where we were eating, but it was only after breakfast that I started looking at it, and then the white pickup truck pulled up and parked!  Perfect!

 

Ocotillo Blossom

This photograph of a blossom on an Ocotillo was taken maybe 30 feet from the photo of the plant I did yesterday.  Is this astounding or what!  Look at all the stuff that is going on in this blossom.  I went back and looked at yesterday's photo more carefully and I think I can see some yellowish things on the tips of some of those branches.  Notice in this photograph, behind the bright red parts are yellow parts.  I found this blossom on a smaller plant and it is only about4 feet off the ground.

This gives a good sense of where the blossom is located

And here is the smaller plant but the blossom is not showing.  I looked at the original photograph which is much larger, and there seem to be yellowish blossoms on the ends of most of these branches.  What amazing things I discovered when I looked at an individual plant instead of the whole landscape and then when I examine just one branch! I also discovered that Ocotillos reach their maturity in 60 to 100 years!  Wow they outlast us!