Blue Swallow Motel, Tucumcari, New Mexico. I’ve been busy and negligent with my posts. Now we are about to head off on a trip in our little motorhome to explore more of Route 66, as well as some of our favorite places. We will do a bit of Oklahoma, then Texas panhandle, then into New Mexico. We will be passing by this favorite: the Blue Swallow Motel.

This was taken in 2015 when we were traveling by car and planned a stay at this lovely motel.

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“What the Camera Doesn’t See” The photography of Judith Nicholls As Judy approaches her subject, she is constantly seeking what is interesting  – both the beautiful and the not-beautiful. She is less interested in representing actual reality – in simply documenting a scene or object – as showing her personal view of it. Then after capturing an image, she continues to work with it until it fully reveals what was in her mind’s eye back at that shutter click moment. And although she sees this as a personal act of self-expression, she is kind enough to also share it with us all. Keep reading to hear Judy tell you more about a few of her favorites.   “Driftwood Store II” Driftwood, TX, photo on aluminum, 16 x 20 inches, $170 “I love old things, old buildings, old objects, old cars, almost anything old. . .  I also love brick and stone buildings. This photograph was taken in January 2008 near dusk.  It is the only photograph that I am aware of with the front door open, showing the antiques that were arranged in there at that time.  Also unique that day was the flags and chair and table outside. Sadly, some years later the right side was painted, obliterating the historic words “Driftwood Country Store.” After a few years of my selling this as it was originally photographed (except for removing the many power lines), I modified it by replacing the late evening boring sky with blue and some clouds and a fringe of tree branches. You can see it like this by photographing it from across the street, and it is from such a photo that I took the fringe of oak branches.”   “The Big Tree,” photo on aluminum, 16 x 20 inches, $170 “The Big Tree is located in Goose Island State Park near Rockport, TX. I had taken many photographs of The Big Tree but was never satisfied enough with any of them to offer them for sale.  One day I decided to try to shoot it with my infrared camera. An infrared photograph shows living green leaves as white.  In this case, it provides a good contrast between the dark trunk and branches and the white leaves. The new fence (installed to protect the famous tree) also “frames” the photo from below, and the tree on the right “frames” it from the right and top.”   When you visit us here at Bent Tree Gallery, you will always find one of the artists to talk to. We all work together to support each other and celebrate the art. When you come visit the art, you are meeting an artist. If you are lucky, you will come in and meet Judy yourself and she will tell you more about her art process (or you can contact her right now at judy_nicholls@verizon.net).  B e n t  T r e e  G a l l e r y  105 Henson Road, Wimberley TX 78676   512.847.9438 More work from Bent Tree artists can be viewed online by going to the Bent Tree Gallery website (click here), and then clicking on the link to the individual artist.

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Witch’s Dance is a composite photograph I made a few years ago. My goal was to make something of the wonderful marionettes that I purchased in the Czech Republic many years ago. They represent a witch and, well, a cloven-hoof devil with horns. These are both ancient characters in myth and stories. The god Pan has horns and a cloven hoof. From Wikipedia:

“Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, he is also recognized as the god of fields, groves, wooded glens and often affiliated with sex; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring. The word panic ultimately derives from the god’s name.”

It turns out I have another image of this “god”. A few months ago I was doing still lifes and decided to try to make something out of some of my mask collection. I noticed that one of my masks, probably purchased in Mexico, had horns. I found that this “being” is called Krampus. This mask is shown in the still life below…

But back to this composite photo. The background is our yard. Yes, we do have a cauldron on a tripod and a leafy background. The witch and pan are photos of my marionettes. To that arrangement I added fire and smoke and a cobweb, and overlaid it all with a reddish texture to help bring out the mood. Can you tell I love to read about ancient stories and myths…

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We arrived in the Big Bend National Park area on September 25 and found the area beautifully green with lots of blooming plants. One can only assume from good recent rains. The photo above shows Texas Sage and very green Ocotillo in front of beautiful mountains. The down side was parts of the park were closed, which meant we could not go to a couple of our favorite places.

We like to stay either in the park or, if we can’t do that, in the Terlingua/Study Butte area because it’s quick to get into the park from the west. In this case the park was not entirely open and staying there was not possible, so we stayed in an RV park in Study Butte, then on our way out, another night at a park in Marathon, north of the Big Bend, before heading toward home.

This is part 5, and the last part, of my First Pandemic Trip series of posts. We left Wimberley, TX, in our small motorhome in September 2020 heading for Colorado. Our first real destination was Palo Duro Canyon State Park, then the scenic route to Great Sand Dunes National Park, then Mesa Verde National Park, a quick drive through New Mexico where Texans were not welcome due to covid, then Monahans Sandhills State Park, and finally Big Bend National Park. I wanted to finish this blog post this week because this week is National Park Week!

A comment about the photographs. The air was hazy our entire trip, apparently from fires in California. That made it difficult to get clear pictures of things far away, and they sometimes get a bit of an unusual look…

The first day we took Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to the Rio Grande and Santa Elena Canyon. Old Maverick Road has been closed the last two times I’ve been to Big Bend National Park. If it is open and you are willing to brave a dirt road in your vehicle, it makes a nice loop with Old Maverick Road, which is paved. Another reason you may not be able to do this loop is if it has rained you may not be willing to brave the low water crossings near the Rio Grande.

As I wrote in the introduction, Big Bend was very green… The bushes with purple or blue flowers seem to be mostly Texas Sage, and they made a big impact.

At Santa Elena Canyon there are several vantage points from which you can simply view the river and the canyon, or cross Terlingua Creek and hike into the canyon. Rafting the canyon from a put-in at Lajitas is very popular.

The Rio Grande River forms the boundary between the United States and Mexico. You may find little items that have been (illegally) brought across the river for sale on rocks near the river. You are asked to leave a little money for them. I have a beloved little scorpion made of wire that I purchased that way. But I think you are officially told not to encourage them…

There are many things to see on Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, all marked on the official map which you should not fail to pick up when you enter the park. People interested in geology will have a lot of fun on this road!

Mule Ears is one of the interesting formations…

Two rows of volcanic dikes are marching across the landscape in the photograph above. The things that look like rock walls are the dikes, one yellowish and the other, behind it, darker. These are igneous dikes, where magna pushed up through cracks and then cooled and crystallized.

If you go into Chisos Basin, in the Chisos Mountains, you will want to take the Window Trail and view the terrain down below. The photograph below is what the “window” looks like from the west, looking up toward the Chisos Mountains and the Basin.

Below is a photograph from the window trail in Chisos Basin looking toward where the photo above was taken from. This photo was taken in 2018.

We returned to Study Butte for the night and the next day entered the park again to drive through the park again and down to Rio Grande Village. This is the beast we traveled in…

The photo below was taken through the front windshield into the haze from the road going down to Rio Grande Village… The blue mountains in the background are in Mexico. The Rio Grande River is on this side of them.

This area was a disappointment… Since the campground was closed, we could not go to one of our favorite places to look at the Rio Grande River because that trail starts in the campground and all roads into that area were blocked. Below is a picture of the Rio Grande and the wetlands from the Rio Grande Village Nature Trail in 2018. Mexico is in the upper left on the other side of the river.

Another hike we didn’t do on this trip is to the entrance to Boquillas Canyon. Here’s a photo from 2006.

The drive out of the park to the north is not as interesting as most of the drives in the park. This view is before you get to Panther Junction… of the Chisos Mountains from the east side. And, oh, look, some more dikes!

I like to photograph plants who have made the best of what they have available…

We drove out toward Marathon where we spent the night in an RV park. Alas, cooking our own food as we had this entire pandemic trip… If it had been normal times, we would have had dinner at the Gage Hotel.

We made a leisurely trip home to Wimberley by overnighting at the always enjoyable South Llano River State Park.

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It’s bluebonnet season in the Texas Hill Country, and the hunt is on! I’m in luck for photos to show because I’ve been hunting bluebonnets for years… For the first one, what is more iconic of this genre than bluebonnets and a windmill.

Texans like to decorate their property. Fancy gates are very popular. But some people also decorate their fence posts. I think it probably started with tin cans to keep the rain from rotting the top of the post, but old boots are nicer…

It’s especially nice when your truck matches your bluebonnets…

This one takes some work to find, and it’s better if you get there before people trample the wildflowers… Sometimes you have to walk around and find a better location to shoot from… There were lots of bluebonnets on the way to the bridge because people didn’t walk on this part…

My best selling bluebonnet photograph is the simplest one.

One of my personal favorite wildflower photographs has the bluebonnets only playing a “background” role…

Bluebonnets come in other colors too. They come in other colors besides blue, lighter blue, and white, but the other colors don’t work for me. After all, the name is bluebonnet. An albino one is OK to me…

Actually, I did photograph a bluebonnet this year. One of the few that had the courage to grow in our yard (“our” deer love to munch on bluebonneet blossoms).

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This is one of my favorite photos New Orleans photos. This one was taken in 2007. Every time we return to New Orleans I look at this building again and of course photograph it, and this is the “best” it has looked… First it ran down even more, then they started repairing it, then it got renovated. It is fun to go back to places you have shot before to see what has happened to them.

I recently got a request for a largish canvas print of this and decided to reprocess it with new tools, and this is the result. Very similar, but better for printing large… Especially when you can’t get out to shoot very much, reconsidering your old photos is something that can be worthwhile to do. Including those you never took a second look at!

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Two prints of one of my photograph of Dick & Charlie’s Tea Room sold on the same day this week. Since I love the building and the area, that pleased me…

What is Dick & Charley’s Tea Room? Click here…

We like to stay at the Caddo Lake State Park, either in their cute little cabins or in the campground.

You can see this building from Johnson Ranch, and also from there you can take boat rides into the swamp, daytime or sunset… We were there just before Halloween 2020, and Johnson Ranch was all decked out for Halloween…

Unfortunately, our fall trip to Caddo Lake didn’t result in a lot of good photos because many of the bald cypress were dropping their needles due to some insect infestation… I like this infrared photo taken in 2018. I think it emphasizes the lovely spanish moss that decorates the cypress trees…

I also enjoy the lotus blossoms that float on the water…

You can purchase my photographs at Bent Tree Gallery and Art on 12 in Wimberley or form my website: http://nichollsphoto.com/

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Juror Maxine Price’s comments on this piece:
“Third Place: “THE DRESSING TABLE”, 12”x12”.
This is a small photograph that makes a strong impression of time and place. Shades of Grandmothers everywhere! The intricate trifold mirror and the reflections on it, the antique oil lamp, the delicate ornate clock and the beautifully decorated hand mirror exude such overall warmth and richness of detail that I would like to jump into that time and place and sit awhile.”

You can purchase my still life pieces including this one on my website:
https://nichollsphoto.com/album/New/index.html

You can view the show here:
https://www.wimberleyvalleyartleague.org/juried-show-about

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A selection of my Still Life photographs are now available for purchase on my website and at Art on 12 gallery in Wimberley.

Online:
https://nichollsphoto.com/album/New/index.html

http://nichollsphoto.com/

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This post is Our First Pandemic Trip, Part 4, September 2021. We left Mesa Verde with our next major stop Big Bend National Park. That is easiest done by driving through New Mexico. However, New Mexico at that time required people from states like Texas with high covid rates to quarantine for 14 days. It was not clear what we could and could not do, but normal tourism was not allowed. So I have a few pictures I took from the motorhome or very nearby, including some very interesting murals. We did overnight once in New Mexico, at Valley of Fires Recreation Area near Carrizozo, which has self-registration. And then to Texas where we overnighted at Monahans Sandhills State Park.

The so-called Four Corners region may not be familiar to you. This is where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. It is part of the Colorado Plateau which is rural, rugged, and dry. Here is a view from the road, near Towaoc, Colorado. According to Wikipedia: Most of the Four Corners region belongs to semi-autonomous Native American nations, the largest of which is the Navajo Nation, followed by Hopi, Ute, and Zuni tribal reserves and nations.

One of the first towns you come to on 491 from Colorado is Shiprock. Shiprock is famous for the rock formation named Shiprock. The most interesting thing about Shiprock the town from my point of view was the murals on abandoned buildings.

There are lots of interesting rock formations in the area, but Shiprock is the most famous. To the Navajo it looks like a rock with wings and it is sacred to them.

Because of the restrictions on visitors to New Mexico, that’s basically our trip in New Mexico. We got on the fast roads and went quickly to Valley of Fires Recreation Area near Carrizozo, and got the last site, a non-electric one with no view… But it was a place to sleep. I don’t know if I mentioned, but campgrounds are rather hard to secure because by September, and certainly by now, people have figured out it is pretty safe to travel by RV. And RV sales are through the roof!

Our next overnight was Monahans Sandhills State Park, with Big Bend National Park our next goal, and our next episode of this little story…

“A camera is a tool for recording what was visually there. But human experiences are more than just what we see. Two people seeing the same thing will have different experiences due to other senses such as touch, smell, and hearing as well as things like personality, emotion, perception, interest, imagination, attitude, and past experience. All of this comes into play when a photographer chooses when and how to frame an image and also how to later develop the image. … Particularly powerful images can engage the imagination of the viewer causing them to create their own story in their mind.”
Sean Bagshaw, Photographer

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