Lovely Landscapes

Monday 22 March, 2010

My black and white landscape class with Carlan Tapp started today. He is amazing. He has such a gentle approach to photography- slow down, appreciate your surroundings, block out the white noise, listen to nature. It is refreshing to not have to put up with the whole male ego thing this week. It is a perfect way to finish my time here by getting in touch with the varied landscapes.

We went up to the Santa Fe Ski Fields to the Aspen Grove. There were a few feet of snow in some places and we all kept falling into to the snow pockets where it was not firmly packed. Each time I wanted to lie down in the snow for a shot, I would firmly pack the snow down with my feet and then lie on my jacket. It was warm enough to just be wearing a thermal top and jeans even though we were in a snowy woodland.

The sun was strong but the shadows it cast were beautiful. I really enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the silence of the forest. Everyone worked quietly and spread out to find their own space.

We came back to class and did some basic work on converting the raw images into black and white usng Lightroom software. It was magical to see the changes from colour.

In the evening the class all met at Santacafe. It was quite a pricy restaurant and one of the guys was clearly unhappy about the expense. He ordered the cheapest thing on the menu and said he would have been happy with McDonalds. I kind of felt sorry for him because the choice of restaurant clearly took him by surprise and he just wasn't coping. I also counted at one time that 5 of the guys had their I-phones out at the table and were researching various topics. One of the laides pointed out that the menu even had a note asking patrons not to use their cellphones. One of the guys said it was his computer, not his phone.

I miss everyone back home. I am getting a bit tired of having to make such an effort to meet new people in each class and find things to talk about. I just have to mention why we moved to NZ (ie Geoff's film work) and people are fascinated. I know it's not me that's fascinating but hey, gotta do what I can.

I went back to my room and edited my shots dwn to 20 from today's shoot, converting them to B and W- some of them were okay.

Tuesday 23 March, 2010

This morning we went over the class images from yesterday. Carlan had us each choose our favourite image form yesterday's shoot. I chose the image of a single aspen tree silhouetted against the sun. I like it because of its minimalism and simplicity. Carlan said he liked it because you could see the forest for the trees- he said it was as if it was the original aspen that started that whole forest. I think that was why I liked it too. Because otherwise I was photographing the whole forest and trying to take in too much at once.

We drove out to Zia reservation, near the Jemez Mountains, North West of Bernalillo for today's shoot. It took about 75 minutes to get there. Carl Shortt II was kind enough to drive us. The Landscape was rocky and sandy and mountainous. The colours varied from orange to white to green to pink to red. You can see that this clay is used for pottery by the local Zia Pueblo artists. The rock walls crumbled away under your feet as you walked up and although they looked like rock, they were actually sand. Sometimes it was easier to slide down the hills on your backside than lose your footing. I adventured far away from base camp but mostly stayed on tracks. I walked for about 2 and a half hours on my own and found my way to the very peak of the area at over 6000 feet. It was amazing. I could see for miles in 360 degrees. I was completely alone in the world with no sign of other humans anywhere. It was the first time in a long time that all I could hear was the wind and my breath. I felt such a sense of quiet gratitude for this life.

Carlan had given us the parameter for the assignment of using one lens only, preferably fixed focal length. I chose my 50mm lens because I would normally choose my wide angle zoom lens. He wants us to go out of our comfort zone and try new stuff.

As I type, it has just started to snow outside again. The snow has just melted from Saturday night so I guess it was time for another delivery.

We are heading off to Tent Rocks tomorrow and it is expected to be really cold- maybe we will get snowy tent rocks. I went to Tent Rocks in my first week here but it was to shoot models more than walk around finding landscape subjects. It will be interesting to explore the area better this time around.

I miss my girls and my Geoff very much. Unfortunately, the internet connection is very unreliable out here. Skype won't work well and email is sporadic too. Today I can't even get my cellphone to work. I have been trying to get through to my darlings but to no avail.
Much love, Mummy.