Salinas Pueblo Mission National Monument - Gran Quivira

Salinas Pueblo Mission National Monument – Gran Quivira (click to enlarge)

After stopping at the Salinas Pueblo Mission National Monument in Mountainair NM, you drive to the three pueblo sites.  Because of time and where I was headed (Santa Fe) I only had time to visit two of the three sites.  This is a detail image from the Gran Quivira site.

This image shows a series of stone walls taken from the east side of what the park brochure calls the later church. I composed this image from a low angle so that the five walls overlapped each other to form what, at first glance, looks to be a single wall.

On this day I had the usual clear blue skies common throughout my New Mexico road trip.  As a result, I did not bother shooting above the horizon.  Being grayish, the color of the stones did not really add to the composition.  I used  Silver Efex Pro from the Google Nik Collection (free!) to convert the image to black and white.  Converting the image to black and white places the emphasis on the repeating patterns formed by the rocks and the walls.

Salinas Pueblo Mission National Monument – Gran Quivira: N34 15 34.27 W106 05 31.75

Tomahawk Service Station

On September 23, 2017, in New Mexico, by admin
Tomahawk Service Station

Tomahawk Service Station (click to enlarge)

Here is the Tomahawk Service Station located in Mountainair, NM.  The building is located two blocks from the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monuments visitor center.  When I first saw this building, it reminded me of the Pixar Disney movie Cars.  In my mind I could imagine Mater, Luigi, and Ramone hanging out in front waiting for Lighting McQueen to come in for a tire change.

The actual building is more of an adobe color.  To make my image different from everyone else’s, I converted the building to black and white and left the sky its natural blue.  I don’t know if I really like the image it this way, but it is different.

Tomahawk Service Station: N34 31 10.16 W106 14 27.61

New Mexico Photography Road Trip

On August 2, 2017, in New Mexico, by admin

New Mexico Road Trip Locations (click to enlarge)

Here is a map of the photography locations I visited during a recent business trip to New Mexico.  This is a screen capture from the Map Module in Adobe Lightroom.  The Map Module makes it easy to visualize where you have been and select images from a certain location.

Using the numbers in the boxes as references, here are the locations I visited.  Future posts will cover each of these locations in some detail.  Starting in Albuquerque and proceeding clockwise:

37 – On this trip I focused on the old motel signs along Route 66 in Albuquerque.

75 – Old Town Sante Fe

22 – Pecos National Historic Park

67 – Fort Union National Monument

34 – Cadillac Ranch

6 – Cannon Air Force Base

11 – Taiban

3 and 3 – Billy the Kid Grave Site and Museum

46 – Carlsbad Caverns (not shown)

26 – Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument – Gran Quivira

5 – A random ranch on the way to Gran Quivira

7 – Mountainair

21 – Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument – Quarai

I visited these locations over two weekends, and lots of miles on my rental car!

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