Wilmslow Web Site - New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a great place for photography. Clear skies and good weather. The landscape is not as dramatic as in Arizona so a little more effort is required, but it's worth it.

Note for non-Americans: New Mexico is in the USA! A suprising number of people seem to think it's in Mexico.

Let's start in Santa Fe...
	It was too late for the bright autumn (aka fall) colours of the Aspens. But the shadows of the leafless branches made patterns on nearby walls. I think this picture may work better rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise. What do you think?
More early morning shadows on an adobe-style building in central Santa Fe.
	Parking garage, central Santa Fe. Much more stylish than your average car park.
Traffic signals, central Santa Fe. Unlike many American towns Santa Fe has a "walking" town centre; it can in fact be quite difficult to negotiate the streets in a car, especially when sightseers amble about in the middle of the street. But I only stood in the middle of the road when the lights were red - unlike some others.

The VLA - Very Large Array - radio telescope near Socorro. Taken just before sunset. The sky darkened dramatically but I don't know why. No storm clouds, no bad weather, it just went dark - which was very nice pictorially.

	Close up of one of the many dishes. There are 21 dishes in a Y-shaped array. They have been featured in several films. The dishes run on railway tracks so that the spacing can be altered. This enables the astronomers to go for a wide field of view (dishes close together) or high resolution and a narrow field of view (dishes far apart).
Kelly mine at Magdalena, between Socorro and the VLA
	Skate boarding in Las Vegas NM
	Freight train outside Albuquerque. It was stationary in a queue of several trains stretching for miles and so I had plenty of time to set up the picture.
Church in Taos
	The church is a genuine adobe building. You can see the texture of the mud and straw, which is what adobe is. And you thought it was just a software company...
The best view of the church - from the rear. These walls and buttresses are massive. Taken in the late afternoon. Once the Sun sinks any lower than this the shadow of various power lines reaches the walls and makes life difficult for photographers.
	Roadside shrine
Tent Rocks at sunset; south of Santa Fe. These conical rocks are natural and the result of erosion.
	Indian cave dwellings at Bandolier National Park near Los Alamos