The Land of Enchantment

I have been in Albuquerque, New Mexico since Wednesday night because I have been doing freelance work at a local advertising agency. I have been free to explore around a little since 5:30 tonight so I went back to Old Town Albuquerque where I went last night, and also a year ago with my brother. It's the only place in town that I'm familiar with so I wanted to make sure I got all the photos I wanted from there so I could go on and shoot elsewhere until I fly back home on Sunday night. Last year I didnt know you could go inside the San Felipe de Neri Church so i didn't. Yesterday I followed some other people in and it reminded me of the California Mission churches on the inside. There's cool dehydrated red chiles in front of all the stores here too. Red and green chile sauce is a major part of New Mexican food from what I've been told. McDonalds here even serves a green chile burger from what I've heard.

I messed up a few shots because I have had to handhold a lot of my shots lately. My tripod is damaged from salt water / beach sand wear and tear. So one of the legs doesn't extend fully. Very frustrating. Someday when I actually have money, I need to replace it. Taxes and car insurance bill comes in next month... ughhh. Birth, taxes, bills, taxes, bills, taxes, bills, death, estate tax. America in a nutshell. Anyways, I am in the Land of Enchantment and it's great.

Tomorrow I will be going to Santa Fe. Everyone I have talked to here has raved about that city's art and historic architecture scene so I will be there for sure. It's about an hour to the north. If I ever have an opportunity to come back here, I want to check out the Indian Pueblos in the area.

After I shot my photos at Old Town I went driving around trying to find the way into nearby Petroglyph National Monument to find a sunrise shoot location but I didn't know where to get inside the park so i skipped it and made it to the Rio Grande River in time for sunset. Well sort of. I saw wild alpenglow on the Sandia Mountains and clouds but couldn't find a high enough vantage point to catch that light. I still haven't found a decent location for sunrise so I will probably skip it and just save my energy for Santa Fe. My original plan was to go visit Bosque del Apache somewhere to the south but I think it's a little late in the season to find the types of birds that I want to photograph. Namely sandhill cranes. Too much to do, too little time.