20mm ƒ/14 at 1/320 ISO 400

The Chisos is always a transdental experience. Even when there is so much haze from the southeast brushing in across the Rio Grande valley that you can barely see.

This backpacking excursion put me a little closer to the south rim than my last trip. The mornings were quiet and the range was void of any human presence. Just me and my buddies on the phantom range.

My last blog posts from Big Bend:
Phantoms
When the Light is Right

If you haven’t been to Big Bend Nat’l Park – please do. Your depriving yourself.

20mm ƒ/4 at 1/400 ISO 200

The meeting of the north and south rims at sunrise

50mm ƒ/2 at 1/3200 sec ISO 800

Before I broke in my new 20mm the other morning, I brushed up on my sun flares in the fields out by Martindale. Holly was great enough to wake up at ~530 to shoot with me. Thanks Holly!

After the flares, the 20mm came out. It was hard to get into the mindset of a 20mm. Especially since my experience with wide angles were always zoom lenses.

The Nikon 20mm 2.8d lens is the newest part of my arsenal.

20mm ƒ/2.8 at 1/4000 sec ISO 800

20mm ƒ/5 at 1/400 sec ISO 200

35mm ƒ/3.5 at 1/8000 ISO 1000

Nevada Wier likes to say “there is no such thing as boring subjects, just boring ways to look at it,” or something of the like.

I was at the park yesterday feeding some non-attentive stuck-up ducks with my godson Samuel. I can be a pretty arrogant shooter. Oh that’s not worth it or that’s a pretty boring water facet. But really, even if it’s boring I can still try to render something interesting out of it. Because in most cases the subject is interesting, I just don’t investigate it enough – I don’t appreciate it enough to even give the subject a chance.

So ducks and a water facet were my ‘boring’ subjects for the day. Something I needed to look at closer. Pretty typical subjects, but I needed to embrace it none the less.

If you get in the same rut, try making your shutter faster or slower. Try using other apertures that you aren’t used to. Get down on the ground – up in the air. Just don’t do what you usually do.

Because there are no boring subjects, just boring photographers.

35mm ƒ/3.5 at 1/640 ISO 500

24mm ƒ/6.3 at 1/160 sec ISO 200

Meet Joe. Joe is a day laborer. He works in Santa Fe, New Mexico and I don’t know where he lives.

The assignment was to take pictures on Canyon Road with two motivations. 1.) Find reflections that work and 2.) capture environmental portraits.

I found Joe working on an adobe wall off Canyon Road (tired of walking the beaten path). I was trying to take a photo of a wall or something silly when Joe chimed in from across the street, advising me that another wall was more attractive.

Joe and I sat together against an adobe wall in the shade, eluding summer heat. This was his job, doing handy man work for financially wealthy individuals – those who can afford to live on or adjacent to the pricey Canyon Road. Joe didn’t live there, he didn’t have have much but what he did have was leathery skin from years of sun exposure.

I thought he was simple at first. Judged him straight up. But he was a little more complex than I thought.  Joe has this way about him. A eye for remembering the finest details of the tiniest things. Door frames and wood work. The precise hue of a mailbox. And the way he spoke about such nuance was riddled with words of simple passion.

Joe knows.

Joe understands something that I overlook. He knows that it’s nuance that makes life engaging. The kinds of nuance that make every solitary breath a unique experience. Something that’s more valuable than anything in the garages of those high priced homes.

So now that I recount this memory I realized that I took a reflection picture and I captured an environmental portrait. A reflection of a simple man that understands the simple complexities. An environmental portrait of Joe in his environment not solely because of the image but because of his story that breathes alongside of the image.  Environmental portraits are more than just a physical image.

I don’t know where Joe is now. Maybe he is trimming a hedge or rebuilding a garage wall. I walked away knowing that I probably wouldn’t see him again. And I probably won’t. But I have ths pictutre of him.

And I have this memory that puts nuance into my life.