Trinidad, Colorado and a 100 year old house

An older brother of mine and his wife recently bought a 1908 vintage house in the small southern Colorado town of Trinidad. My brother is one of those retired guys with just a little too much time on his hands and a great appreciation for old quarter-sawn oak woodwork. Unlike most homes of this vintage, almost none of the original woodwork has been modified or painted. Amazing. However, since the house was vacant for the last 20 years, almost everything else does need repair or updating! These are the "before" pictures. The exterior view of the house shows Fisher's Peak (9,626 feet) in the background.

The dogs in the photos are Flash, a yellow Labrador Retriever and Xena "Warrior Princess", the Yorkshire Terrier.

Located at the northern end of Raton Pass, Trinidad is a frontier town founded in 1861 on the Santa Fe Trail and with the arrival of the railway in 1878, grew into a commercial, agricultural and coal mining center. The town also hosts a picturesque Victorian Downtown located in it's Corazon de Trinidad National Historic District.

New Mexico and Texas photo trip

A photo road trip to New Mexico and Texas in early May yielded some pretty interesting results. When passing through Roswell, NM it really struck me funny just how prevalent the "Alien" theme is there. Yes, even WalMart... Just a few minutes in town yielded some pretty interesting images. Remember, "Trust No One. 

With my assignment in west Texas completed and a free weekend, I headed for the Big Bend area of Texas where I was greeted by a pleasant sunrise and a couple windmills shrouded by fog. Didn't expect to see that in the desert!

The Changing Landscape of Communication

It was sheer coincidence that I ended up at the Denver Press Club on the eve of the final issue of The Rocky Mountain News, one of Colorado's two daily newspapers. Since most of the people I work with are professional communicators, I feel it's important to share my views on the rapidly changing ways we all communicate with our business partners, friends and family.

Last night, I attended Rosh Sillars "New Media" presentation hosted by the Colorado chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers at the Press Club. While I hate to admit it, before last night, terms like RSS, podcast, twitter, and blog often left me feeling a little dizzy. Rosh delivered a dose of Dramamine last night and today the seasickness is gone. Well, sort of.

Change is inevitable. And while I have mastered many of the intricacies of digital photography and MacIntosh computers, the communications landscape seems to change daily. Like it or not, vehicles of mass communication are being replaced by more personal, community-based relationships served by the new media mentioned above. While you and I cannot control the economy, we can improve our communication by using the new technology available to us.

I promise to share what I learn with you and encourage you to share your success with me. For instant notification of the latest posts to this blog, please register this site with your preferred RSS Reader. Something like Google Reader would work. Being a closet technophobe, I'm still not sure about Twitter....

A Tourist's View of Washington, DC

With all the recent excitement over the Presidential Inauguration, I thought it might be refreshing to visit the non-political side of our nation's Capitol. During our airliner's final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the rain clouds parted long enough to treat my wife and me to a breathtaking view of the National Mall including the World War II Memorial, Washington Monument, and the United States Capitol.
We stayed in the Foggy Bottom area near George Washington University, Watergate, and the Kennedy Center where we enjoyed a great concert by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. As we were also located near the Metro and Circulator stops, we used public transportation, and were pleasantly surprised by the friendly welcome we received everywhere we went.
Like most places we all visit, one could literally spend months taking in all the sights, so it was a little bit like being the proverbial "kid in a candy shop". During our trip, we managed to visit the Air and Space Museum, National Archives, Sculpture Garden (relaxing place for lunch with good food), New and Old (best view of Pennsylvania Avenue and the US Capitol) Post Offices, The Hirsshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Arlington Cemetery, Museum of Science and Nature, Botanic Gardens, National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress (voted the best surprise of the trip), National Museum of The American Indian, the Smithsonian Castle, The Spy Museum, most of the National Monuments and Memorials, The C&O Canal with its mule drawn barges, The Torpedo Factory Arts Colony, Gerogetown, Mount Vernon, and Monticello. Whew!
We also had a chance to have dinner with several local friends from Jim's college year in Vienna. Special thanks to Anya for the guided tour of the monuments at night in the rain and her husband Jack for navigating!  

Scenes from North Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado

Hello, my June oil and gas photography road trip encountered great weather and I photographed some wonderful scenery that just wouldn't fit into the "top 40 oil and gas photos". While the scenery is here on the blog, you'll need to e-mail me your contact information and request for a password, jim@oilandgasphotographers.com in order to view the Top 40 oil and gas images. June Top 40. During the 12-day driving trip of 4,100 miles, I was in the field for most sunrises and sunsets, capturing some of the most compelling images of the trip.