Just a quick trip to explore a site for my Architecture Design sutdio, but after hearing a professor, Andrew Hart, give a presentation as part of his application process for a tenure position for visualization at my university I went with a personal mission. During his presentation he talked about some of his photography work and when traveling in India he described learning to stop taking snapshots and learning to understand ones surroundings. With limited time in school to me it has been, for some time, essential that I take only images that have potential to be something. While in NYC this proved to be successful, armed with my fifty prime I focused on some long exposure set ups and interesting perspectives. Also grabbed another for my series of tunnel long exposures from the Lincoln Tunnel.
Even though my ride on the afternoon before this shoot got canceled because of a storm and I had to wake up at 4am to hike up to Crater Lake this shoot was a total success. I limited myself to using only a super wide lens and a telephoto, I took only a 17-40mm and a 100-400mm with me. I wanted to leave out the middle range because spar pole climbing had been shot a least three other times by the other photographers on the ranch and by not allowing myself to shoot at a normal range I hoped to get some more original images. I also decided to shoot from the top of the spar pole for most of the time. I geared up, climbed to the top of the pole, and hoisted up my camera gear with some para cord and from the top the views of Tooth Ridge were unbelievable in the early morning light. This assignment was specifically to shoot a STEM crew (Science Technology Engineering and Math), these special treks are designed to teach the participants while on trek, so as the crew moves through Philmont on their 12 day trek the uses the land as an outdoor classroom. In one of the photos you can see a participant taking a sample from a large pine tree. *note in this post I have included the captions that I wrote for each photo. Captions are part of my job here and for me the hardest part, but I'm getting much better at it.
Lennard Droege climbs the spar pole at Crater Lake while the rest of his STEM trek crew watches from below. The crew almost got rained out the night before but was able to climb early in the morning on July 16, 2016.
William Howard didn't seem to struggle much at all while climbing the spar poles at Crater Lake. While on his STEM trek spar pole climbing was part of their treks program but almost got rained out due to a lasting wave of rain that cleared just in time.
Margo Lawless was afraid of heights when she got to Philmont, but its safe to say that she has at least partially conquered that fear. Lawless struggled only the slightest bit on her way to the top and when she got there she kissed the carabiner and stood confidently while taking in the view of Tooth Ridge.
Miles Reid turns a tree sample bore into a pine tree near the Crater Lake campfire bowl on July 26, 2016. This tool will drill a small hole into the center of the tree while keeping a small core in tack. Later the small intact core can be removed from the center on a tray that reveals the interior layers of the tree. "This sample is like opening a history book of that particular tree" Says STEM leader Luke Wajrowski.
I have successfully taken my first timelapse of the night sky. Below is a quick video that believe it or not is about three and a half hours of the sky's movements. The Tooth of Time beyond the trees illuminates in the sky as the stars pass over it.
Yesterday I decided last minute to take a trip out to Hunting Lodge for the night. Being board here in base wasn't fun and I hadn't really taken many photos. So I quickly packed a bag, filed a backcountry permit, and had a friend drop me off at the closest turnaround. Then hiked the 2 miles uphill to Hunting Lodge where the staff treated me to French Toast for dinner and allowed me to sleep in their cabin for the night. Hunting Lodge was once one of Waite Phillips' many cabins on the ranch where himself and other wealthy guests would stay while hunting and fishing that portion of the ranch. Many of the original animal mounts are still hung on the walls, in fact I slept beneath a mountain lion hung in the central room of the cabin. It is a courtesy when visiting backcountry camps to do the dishes for the staff so after dinner myself and another visitor cleaned the dishes and then joined the staff for their evening program where they build a campfire in the living room and invite campers and their advisors in for a few hours of music and trail stories. The camp director at Hunting Lodge plays both guitar and banjo and it was incredible ti see one camper, Joey, and an advisor, Matt, pick up the directors guitar and join in. Playing every song they could think of that they both knew. This morning I woke up well before sunrise and hike the half mile down to the reservoir by Cathedral Rock and went fishing before heading back to the turnaround that was thankfully downhill this time. I had arranged for the backcountry warehouse to come pick me up so that I could be back to work by 8 a.m. Hopefully I will be able to overnight most of the backcountry camps by the end of the summer because this trip was a success.
Myself and fellow Phil Photographer Skyler Ballard, along with Suzannah one of the Phil Writers were assigned to Ranger Rendezvous a final gathering and training for all of the Philmont Rangers. The rangers all hiked in from various locations around the ranch after their 5 day training treks led by the ranger trainers. The rangers are responsible for leading and teaching all of the crews on their first 3 days of their treks. This rendezvous included a round robin of events designed for fun and purposeful training. You can read more about the event in the PhilNews, because Suzannah wrote a whole article about the event.
A huge part of Philmont's program in the Back Country is living history camps that actively portray the roles and Identities of historic characters. Living History Day is an annual training and gathering day for all of the living history camps to come together and practice their characters and their music acts. The event was held at Rayado one of the ranch's camps to the south of basecamp. Photographing the event was a interesting because I was able to see their musical performances and theatrical skits come together throughout the day. Later that night they preformed for the entire staff and their performances were flawless. It is amazing how talented all these people are, singers, actors, and every musical instrument you could think of.
It is a tradition at Philmont before each meal at Basecamp as the campers gather at the dining hall the rangers form into four lines at the dinner bell and one of the four rangers that stands on the bell tells a random story about, well really anything, and then the story will always take the same turn at the end and ends with "AND ALL I COULD THINK WAS I WANT TO GO BACK TO PHILMONT", which cues all four rangers standing on the bell to trust fall back into the arms of their fellow rangers. Pictured in this trust fall is our Unit 2 here, the director of Program Mark Anderson who is quite possibly the most friendly individual here and truly makes an effort to get to know each and every one of his 1000+ staff members.
On June 1st I tagged along on a short trip down to the ranch where they train the backcountry staffs how to care for the animals that will be living with them in the backcountry. They were taught how to care for larger animals like goats and burros (similar to a donkey) but were also introduced to the baby chickens. The animal trainer was Rod Taylor who we found out is kind of famous as a cowboy and singer. He was in a country band called the Rifters and their music is really good. His son is also a rising country star and preformed at the western night for the Phil staff. Mr. Taylor had quite the sense of humor and when one staff member asked what kind of chickens they had he responded "the kind with 2 legs and feathers", clearly Mr. Taylor was more interested in the larger animals.
Today was all staff training. All 1,120 staff members, seasonal and full time, gathered on the lawn of the Villa Philmonte dressed in our matching green uniforms to be part of one entirely too crowded photo, this event has rightfully adopted the nickname "The Philmont Squeeze". After the Philmont Squeeze all staffers are addressed by the ranches managers and recognized by the manager of their respective department. This photo is of Cassidy, the assistant director of News and Photo Services, my boss, on her way to the stage to recognize our department. Cassidy has been working at Philmont for something like 6 years now and she runs NPS with so much enthusiasm and love for this place.
Today was my first assignment, I tagged along and captured images of the staff from Hunting Lodge as they learned basic fly fishing skills. The assignment couldn't have fit my interests any better, in fact my fly fishing equipment was still damp from my last minute fishing back home. Ray Cook is the fly fishing trainer for the ranch when he isn't running the Infirmary. Ray has been teaching fly fishing to the back-country fishing camps at the ranch for 8 years now and has been fishing the ranch and its surrounding waters for many, many more. I was also able to try my luck fishing on the reservoir for a while. I look forward to fishing with Ray in the future as he is an accomplished angler and knows the NM waters that I am unfamiliar with.
The train life is interesting to say the least. People are friendly, sometimes too friendly, but the gentle rhythm of the cars rocking along the track and the quiet conversations of people intermingling has a peace to it. Sometimes a stranger will enter the lounge car that is fitted with comfy booths, outward facing lounge chairs, & unobstructed view of the land speeding by only to find that the car is quite full. I find it interesting that somehow in the station people avoid sitting next to people unknown to them but once on the train the entire dynamic changes and people from stops all across the Midwest are suddenly sitting next to strangers. Some sit silently entertaining themselves on their respective side of the booth and others I over hear connecting. One man and his daughter traveling to Albuquerque sit in the cluster adjacent to me and another man in his 20s sit next to them, they discuss some history about the Kansas farms that pass by and entertain themselves by Google-ing each small town that passes by. One of which was in famous movie. Others couldn't even be found online. This evening I made dinner reservations for the dining car where oddly you sit at a booth for 4 with whoever the server assigns you. It's almost like making new friends at the school lunch tables. I was seated with a man traveling to Taos that knew all about Philmont Scout Ranch, as it seems everyone within a hundred miles from the ranch does. He suggested that I try to make it to a place called Angle Fire to the southwest of the ranch. The other two seats were filled by a couple traveling to see their daughter further along the trains route. The dinner menu was actually similar to many restaurants, I ordered steak cooked medium rare and served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. I didn't expect restaurant quality food though but to my surprise found myself enjoying a perfectly cooked steak while the train traveled down the banks of the Mississippi River.
