Desert Tango

I’m going to use this post as an opportunity to catch up on posting a few images that I have yet to post. I admit that I’ve fallen off the wagon recently when it comes to keeping up with my blog and Sportsshooter.com pages, but it is the summer, and much of my free time of late has been spent mountain biking and enjoying the great outdoor opportunities available in New Mexico.

From way back in May, I covered University of New Mexico-Gallup  graduation ceremonies at Red Rock State Park. There’s always great images to be made at graduations.

Sports are a huge part of our coverage here at The Gallup Independent, and when it comes to kids and sports sometimes it’s hard not to make a decent image.

I loved this image of students of the Foundations of Freedom Dance Studio warming up for their break dancing performance.

Several weeks back as I was just getting ready to call it a week, a page came across the scanner for a structure fire near downtown Gallup, New Mexico. I arrived along with police fire officials and had great access to the scene, but I was downwind from the fire, which made it a challenge to make images once the smoke really started to dissipate. Eventually, I had to leave the scene to pick up a reporter, who’s vehicle was broken down at the moment, but I left Adron Gardner, our summer photo intern, at the scene to continue coverage. Although I was disappointed that I had to leave and miss the action, it was for the better good of complete coverage. This turned out to be an important story; three kids were rescued from the blaze by a couple of local businessmen before it spread. Where were the parents, you ask? The mother was allegedly at the casino gambling, and left four kids, all under 10, home alone. Dad, who is pictured below watching his home burn to the ground, was at work.

So I only came back with two compelling images, but I helped break and cover a very important story. Not a bad day!

As a journalist, sometimes you see things that just floor you. Last Wednesday I was called to the McKinley County Humane Society to photograph a dog who was found with an arrow stuck in it’s head. The dog, which did not have a name, was found in the middle of the night by the person who’s house it was living under. Apparently the animal was shot intentionally, according to the animal control officers, and left to die. But he did not die. He simply kept on going with this arrow sticking out of his head. The vet who removed the arrow said the dog seemed to be fine, and there was very little blood coming from the wound.

The other strange thing about this story is that this is not the first time this has happened in the Gallup, New Mexico area. This story from 2005 documents a similar situation (not sure if you can still access the story as my newspaper has gone to a paid content system). They caught the guy that did that, let’s hope they find the person that did this.

Anyway, this is certainly not the best photo I’ve shot for my newspaper, but I think the content is important enough to warrant sharing with the rest of the world. Also, this poor creature is looking for a home if anyone is interested.

A recent trip to the Ramah Navajo Reservation found me photographing students in a summer youth employment program butchering a sheep as part of them learning traditional skills. The Navajo have a saying; “Sheep is Life”. In the traditional setting, sheep is one of their primary sources of food.

This is not the first time I’ve photographed this, in fact was my fourth, but this time it was interesting because for some of the kids, it was their first time actually killing and cleaning a live animal. No one seemed to have any qualms about this, and I admit that slitting the throat of that sheep takes a little more courage than what I have at the moment (although I’ve killed many an animal in my rabbit breeding days, mostly so they could die humanely).

It was one of those magnificent trips that makes you realize how truly grand it is to live in the state of New Mexico as well as to be a photojournalist in this place. The drive getting there via Highway 53, is beautiful. Lots of stuff to see here; El Morro National Monument, El Malpais (The Badlands), and Cibola National Forest are just a few.

And of course the people. They are the reason I do this. Wonderful, kind and generous, the people are what makes New Mexico what it really is.

For those that are wondering, the Ramah Navajo Reservation is an offshoot of the main Navajo Reservation, which encompasses a very large portion of Arizona and New Mexico. Located southeast-ish of the main reservation, the land is part of some open and desolate country.

I’ll be heading back that way next week for the annual Ramah Navajo Fair. I made some great photos when I was there two years ago, hopefully the luck and light will be with me again!

It’s Friday and I don’t have a lot of time, BUT I wanted to post up a few photos from today’s Navajo Code Talker Day in Window Rock, Arizona. This years event seemed a little smaller than last year, but I had a great time photographing these fantastic men! This is a quick edit, hopefully in the next week or two I’ll add a few more.

New Mexico Magazine recently hired me to do a series of portraits of Navajo Code Talkers. For those not familiar with the Code Talkers, they did the United States a great service during World War II by using their native language to transmit codes that the Japanese were unable to break. This was huge, and it was not until 1968 that their great deeds were declassified by the U.S. government. A movie was made about their achievements in 2002 called Windtalkers.

Needless to say, the remaining Navajo Code Talkers are considered hero’s here on the Navajo Nation. I recently attended a ceremony of sorts where they will be building a museum to honor their achievements, but that’s a different post.

My assignment was to photograph three surviving Code Talkers; Willfred Billy who live in Farmington, NM; Frank Chee Willetto who lives in Crownpoint, NM; and Chester Nez who lives in Albuquerque, NM. It was a truly great assignment in that I was given as much time as I needed with them, which I feel resulted in some  compelling photos.

I’ve been off the map for the past month or so.  By off the map I mean enjoying some of the more distant places that New Mexico has to offer. This past weekend a few friends and I went down to Ramah Lake in Ramah, New Mexico to test a new boat that I recently acquired; a rather large 18ft canoe, a lovely beast perfect for hauling three people and gear.

I hope to plan a trip with this thing soon, meanwhile we headed to the beautiful Ramah Valley for test run. Ramah Lake is a  man-made lake, and a shallow one too, so an algae bloom made the water a little funky. Nevertheless the setting for this lake, which drains water from the Zuni Mountains,  offers some spectacular red rock scenery.

After a while the water became a bit too much, so headed to Nutria Canyon, which is on the Zuni Reservation.  Nutria Canyon is an oasis in the desert and there are some wonderful photo opportunities here, but we arrived a bit too late to catch light streaming into the canyon. Fall would most likely be the best time with the yellow cottonwoods and red Virgina creeper. I was still able to make a few images that I liked here.