Back and Forth

High Plains north of Show Low, Arizona.

We’ve just returned from a road trip to Del Mar, California to visit our friend of forty years, Glenn Goodstein, whom I met while opening a restaurant in Brentwood in 1984. Glenn was a senior at UCLA and was, as I told him then, “You’re the best host I’ve ever worked with.” That was true and I knew he was destined for big things. Prescient as I am, he has been the great success I predicted and is living the California Dream with a sweeping ocean view from his Del Mar condo, a short amble to the beach and with a Porsche Macan SUV and a spanking new Jeep in the garage. The Porsche roadster is in storage. I asked Glenn how we became unlikely friends, a college kid and a restaurant executive. He told me that my praise and encouragement had meant a lot him. I may have been a father figure to him though I felt like a boy of 43 at the time. We attended his sumptuous Beverly Hills wedding, And he visited us in Massachusetts with a redheaded Brazilian bombshell in tow. We have a natural camaraderie. We delight in each other. It's a continuing feast of friendship and food. And speaking of food, we ate non-stop during our visit. Glenn is a man with prodigious appetites and zest for life. I haven't hung with a wealthy bachelor in a long time as in never. It was a revelation.

Nearing El Malpais. Those are the sandstone bluffs on the horizon.

The bluffs that formed in the Jurassic period.

The bluffs in falling sun.

La Ventana a natural arch is on the right center.

As much as I could continue the story of his ascent and heady California lifestyle, this post is about the roadscapes we encountered on the northern route from SoCal through the bare knuckle copper mining towns of central Arizona and high plains of Arizona and New Mexico. The capper of seven days on the road was the marvel of El Malpais National Monument with lava fields and sandstone bluffs stretching from Quemado, New Mexico to Grants and I-40. We instantly agreed to return soon, stay in Grants and appreciate El Malpais at all times of day. It is glorious. Sadly, the visitor center is closed thanks to the chain saw DOGE took to the Park Service.

Please click below to go to the post. Thanks.

www.immelphoto.com

Skies Three

Billowing Clouds. Taos Mountain.

Continuing the darkly rendered, big sky theme of the last two posts I’m issuing a third edition. There may be a fourth depending on what the California coast and desert west provide over the next few days. These are dark, have a dominant sky and just enough earth to tell the story.

Cow Springs Sundown. Navajo Nation, Arizona.

Layers of Meaning. Navajo Nation. Arizona.

Entrada. San Luis Valley, Colorado.

Ranchitos Sundown. Taos, New Mexico.

Hang in there with my hyperlink adventure. Please click on the link below to go to the wonderfulness of the actual blog. I appreciate it.

www.immelphoto.com

Dark Sky Laws

The San Luis Valley from west to east with Ute Mountain bottom right.

Shafts of Light off 1-40 between Kingman and Needles.

The Sinclair in Sinclair Oil.

Continuing the darkly rendered, big sky theme of last week’s post which may include a third edition next time are four more offerings. They are dark, they have a dominant sky and just enough earth to tell the story.

Looking west from Blueberry Hill.

Mesa Blanca.

They could all be from New Mexico which is the standard bearer of monumental skies or hail from anywhere in the West.

Hang in there with my hyperlink adventure. At the bottom of the page will be the same hyperlink as yesterday and one shorter one created as I wrote the post. Yesterday’s was functional but ugly as sin. Big thanks to all of you tried the link in my short but sweet post yesterday. The link worked for most of you which suggests I'm on the right path for a short term solution to get you to the blog.

www.immelphoto.com

This is a test

Three weeks ago the link that took you to the actual blog post stopped working and is apparently unfixable. In the old days you could click on the post title in the Monday email and you'd be taken to the blog itself. Those days are no longer and I may have to create a new blog with a new host. That could take awhile. 

In the meantime I trying a workaround that I hope will get you from the email to the blog. The link below is that workaround. You'd do me a big favor if you'd click on the link to see if it works for you. And you'd be a real saint if you'd leave a comment using the link at the bottom of the post saying that it worked for you. Many thanks.

Steve

http://www.immelphoto.com

The Sky Above

Occluded Sun.

High Plains Drifter.

The revelation began with images from the California coast. One was Occluded Sun, so named by dear friend Jamie Hindman. There were at least four worthies just that morning between Petaluma and the coast and a couple more from the Point Reyes Peninsula’s North Beach. From the moment of Occluded Sun a theme has emerged. It’s of brooding images that I’ve rendered even darker than they were in real life. It’s clearly about a sky that dwarfs the earth or the sea below. The developing series honors the immensity of the sky and that reveals that our earth is a minor player in the grand scheme. Joining Occluded Sun is High Range Drifter which was taken on my beloved NM Highway 104 east of Las Vegas. The great expanse of rangeland and the monumental sky dwarf an abandoned homestead with a farmhouse, a windmill and a corral. A photographer friend called the image “the essence of New Mexico” when I posted it to Instagram a couple of weeks back. So, now I’m photographing to the theme of brooding skies while examining past efforts for images that show a slice of terra firma dwarfed by the sky above. I couldn’t live in a better place to build this portfolio. New Mexico skies thrill me every day.

Walking Rain.

Canyon Country.

High Plains Motif.

I have many too many photographs for a single post of dominant skies. Here are several.

Demasiado Mucho Demasiado Tarde.

El Cachalote, Malaga. Home of the best fish I've ever eaten.

The aforementioned best fish. Lubina, a Mediterranean sea bass and whole sardines.

The two adventures in Spain in a major travel year were eclectic as in varied locales and themes. This third entry in the grouping may be part of an upcoming article about the last stops in a fall trip to Spain. One location, Gaucin, is an old friend and the other two, Malaga and Girona, will be new to Shadow and Light.

Placa Domenic, Girona Ciutat Velle.

Riu Anyar, Girona, Catalunya.

It's all a blur. Running through the Girona's Ciutat Velle.

Una Pueblo Blanco, Gaucin, Andalucía. 

As I have been in front of my computer ten hours straight today there will be precious few words and this handful of images for your perusal. The article was due on March 1 and I’ll be lucky if I submit it on the third. There were too many places, too many photographs, too little time and I’m still flummoxed.

Más España

Plaza Catalunya, Barcelona.

Trying to recapture the magic of our Spanish spring not to mention the lost photographs I travelled differently, more simply and cheaper. I’ve already established that I ride the train when possible but I also look for accommodations a couple of notches below the three plus stars Peggy and I favor. And while that is partly driven by frugality it also comports with my belief that the more stars your hotel boasts the more you’re removed from the heartbeat of the community. And engaging with real folks is the wonder of memorable travel. So, when alone I choose unstarred hotels, ones that are a world apart from the whole star system. And despite that the modest establishments can wonderful. 

Along the strand, Barceloneta.

In Madrid I stayed in the two-star Hotel Mediodia at the perfect location for the Prado, La Reina Sofia and the Parque Retiro where I ran each day. I found a local bar and a place for a 5-euro lunch including a small beer. From Madrid I took the high-speed train, second class, to Barcelona where I stayed in student housing near the beach in Barceloneta. It was simply furnished, came with a simple breakfast brought to my room and with a laundry downstairs. Sure, it was spare, but it was four blocks from the playa, three from an amazing mercado and surrounded by tasty local eateries with no tourists.

Centro, Cordoba.

I

Roman Ruins, Cordoba.

Royal Alcazar, Sevilla.

Catedral de Sevilla.

In Cordoba I stayed at the El Convento Antiguo, also un-starred, where I sat on the front steps talking with the Ernesto the front desk manager who commuted to work from the countryside. Yes, it was once a convent.  In Sevilla it was the well-named Hotel Sevilla, another no-star just a block from great tapas, ice cream and flamenco. The Sevilla offered a prepared to order breakfast, an ideal location and was 79 euros with the breakfast. I couldn’t ask for more. It was personal and welcoming compared to a faceless chain hotel. And it was across a small plaza from a bar that filled with lawyers, teachers and workers enjoying a traditional prix fixe lunch of an appetizer, an entrée, a dessert and a small beer or wine for the munificent sum of 8 euros.

It doesn’t take big money to enjoy a city. Quite the opposite I’d say. And you can stay longer at at less than 100 euros a night. I struggle to rationalize 300-euro hotels, and $6,000 a week guided tours when for that price I can a stay for a month and really get to know the place. To me it's a gimme.