Bob Eckert Photography
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    • 2022 New Mexico Treasures Calendar
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    • Abiquiu Livestock Sale
    • Adjective Challenge
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    • Aircraft - BW Portraits
    • Albuquerque Aquarium
    • Albuquerque Sunport Lowrider Show
    • Alt Fashion
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    • Angel in Albuquerque
    • Astro Zombies Murals
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    • Cabezon Peak
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    • Children Portraits
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    • Computers
    • Concorso Santa Fe
    • Descansos
    • Design photographs in the style of Charles Sheeler
    • Detroit Street Photos
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    • Explora Albuquerque
    • Fisheye Lens Photos
    • Lowriders
    • Gay Pride Parade
    • Ghost Ranch
    • Goggles Sunglasses and Masks
    • Goofing Around with mime Mark Wenzel
    • Horizont Camera Panoramic Images
    • Humor
    • Industry
    • Infrared Photos
    • Insects
    • International Center of Photography
    • Isolated Trees
    • Isolation Photos
    • Juxtaposed
    • Lady of Guadalupe
    • Landscape Photos
    • Lowrider Summer
    • Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
    • Matachines de Alcalde
    • Mirror Images
    • Moon Photos
    • Moving Arts Espanola
    • Moving Landscapes
    • Murals in Espanola, New Mexico
    • New Mexico Press Association 2022 Award Winner
    • New Orleans Street Photography
    • NM Treasures 2023 Calendar Image
    • Northern New Mexico
    • Norteno Artist Portraits
    • Panoramic Photos
    • Photographers
    • Pic of the Day
    • Plants and Flowers
    • Portraits
    • Port of Portland
    • Portraits of Strangers
    • Published Favorites
    • Repetition in Photos
    • Road to Pedernal
    • San Francisco Chinatown
    • Shadows
    • Snow Photos
    • Still Life Photos
    • San Francisco Street Photos
    • Service People Portraits
    • Shadows
    • Stand Alone Photos
    • Storm and Rain Photos
    • Street Photography
    • Surplus Love
    • The Yin/Yang of Families
    • Trailer Landscapes
    • Trees
    • Urban Landscapes
    • Vintage Ford and Cadillac Manufacturing
    • Vintage - Pre -digital photos
    • Water
    • Widelux Panoramic Photos
    • Working
  • Selected Writing/Published
    • Behind the Scenes at the Circus
    • ​​Book Review: "Orale! Lowrider: Custom Made in New Mexico"
    • Carlton, Oregon
    • Comic Con New Mexico
    • Crosswalk Painting
    • Cumbres Toltec
    • Day of the Dead, Albuquerque's Marigold Parade
    • Fog Smoke Haze in Photos
    • Gordon Tooley, Apple Guru
    • Indian Market Native Costumes
    • In Praise of Kit Lenses
    • In Praise of Manual Lenses
    • Instagram
    • Jeff Brock and Bombshell Betty
    • John Lea's Painted Truck
    • Kaleidoscope Photos
    • Light Quality
    • Luck in Photography
    • Luck in Photography vers 2.0
    • National Museum of Nuclear Science and History
    • Natural Dyeing with Glenna Dean
    • Pet Store Animal Photos
    • Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County
    • Rocket Heads Jewelry
    • Scale in Photography
    • Shooting Into The Sun
    • Spanapalooza
    • Tibetan Monk Sand Painting
    • Timing in Photography
    • United Farm Workers
    • Variations on a Theme
    • Why I Take Photographs
    • WWII Reenactment
  • Archive

Variations on a Theme

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I always enjoy finding a subject I can revisit and achieve different outcomes depending upon when I photograph it.


A change in the time of day it is photographed or having a storm move in or the addition of interesting cloud formations or a jet contrail. All of these can lead to a vastly different look of a subject I’ve previously photographed.


Some of the subjects that fall into this category are on my website: Cerro Pedernal, Abiquiu Dam and Cabezon Peak to name three.


Recently I visited Ghost Ranch in Northern New Mexico. I hadn’t been there since the beginning of the pandemic and wanted to catch up. Shortly after passing through the main gate I crested a hill a saw the old cabin that has been used in a lot of movies. In the same area, perhaps 200 yards from the cabin, was a garish looking gate covered with antlers and behind the gate was a small, wooden, Western-looking church that was also used in a movie, but I don’t know the name unfortunately.


The first time I saw the church it was the middle of the day and not an ideal time, at least in my mind, for photographs. The sun was pretty much directly overhead and shadows were intense. But I took a few shots that I felt were sort of OK. One had a large sunburst directly behind the cross on the steeple of the church with a deep shadow of the cross being cast on the ground. The second pic was one of the church and Cerro Pedernal.


About two weeks later, when a storm was blowing in from the north, I was driving home and noticed the storm clouds approaching Ghost Ranch. I thought it might add some atmosphere to a scene that needed something that was lacking in my first attempt with the church.


I mentioned the garish looking gate with antlers. On my first visit I tried to omit the gate since I thought it detracted from the scene. What I was looking for the first time, and again on the second visit, was a small western church situated in the middle of nowhere.


When I crested the hill on my second visit there were two Ghost Ranch maintenance workers removing the antlers from the gate. There were antlers spewed on the ground creating a very interesting looking scene.


It was one of those fortuitous times when I arrived when the storm was just hitting Ghost Ranch adding a nice atmospheric ambiance, which combined with the rather bizarre collection of antlers in the foreground made for a very intriguing scene.


I say the time was fortuitous since right when I showed up, the Ghost Ranch workers were taking a break for lunch.


They had left their ladders leaning against the gate, which detracted from the scene, so I moved the ladders out of the composition and took a few shots.


Since the lighting was appealing to me in a moody way, and the whole scene was more to my isolated church in the middle of nowhere idea, I took a number of photos including some panoramas.


I was pleased with my short adventure that day and I’m looking forward to adding a few more Ghost Ranch church photos to this series.
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  • Home
  • About
  • Clients
  • Projects
    • 2022 New Mexico Treasures Calendar
    • 2022 Pic of the Day
    • Abiquiu Dam
    • Abiquiu Livestock Sale
    • Adjective Challenge
    • Aerial Photos
    • Aircraft - BW Portraits
    • Albuquerque Aquarium
    • Albuquerque Sunport Lowrider Show
    • Alt Fashion
    • Amish, Kalona, Iowa
    • Angel in Albuquerque
    • Astro Zombies Murals
    • Birds
    • Black Mesa, San Ildefonso Pueblo
    • Cabezon Peak
    • Car Portraits
    • Cell Phones
    • Cerro Pedernal
    • Chicano Park Murals
    • Children Portraits
    • Churches
    • Circus Behind the Scenes
    • Cloud Photos
    • Colors
    • Computers
    • Concorso Santa Fe
    • Descansos
    • Design photographs in the style of Charles Sheeler
    • Detroit Street Photos
    • Dogs
    • Explora Albuquerque
    • Fisheye Lens Photos
    • Lowriders
    • Gay Pride Parade
    • Ghost Ranch
    • Goggles Sunglasses and Masks
    • Goofing Around with mime Mark Wenzel
    • Horizont Camera Panoramic Images
    • Humor
    • Industry
    • Infrared Photos
    • Insects
    • International Center of Photography
    • Isolated Trees
    • Isolation Photos
    • Juxtaposed
    • Lady of Guadalupe
    • Landscape Photos
    • Lowrider Summer
    • Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
    • Matachines de Alcalde
    • Mirror Images
    • Moon Photos
    • Moving Arts Espanola
    • Moving Landscapes
    • Murals in Espanola, New Mexico
    • New Mexico Press Association 2022 Award Winner
    • New Orleans Street Photography
    • NM Treasures 2023 Calendar Image
    • Northern New Mexico
    • Norteno Artist Portraits
    • Panoramic Photos
    • Photographers
    • Pic of the Day
    • Plants and Flowers
    • Portraits
    • Port of Portland
    • Portraits of Strangers
    • Published Favorites
    • Repetition in Photos
    • Road to Pedernal
    • San Francisco Chinatown
    • Shadows
    • Snow Photos
    • Still Life Photos
    • San Francisco Street Photos
    • Service People Portraits
    • Shadows
    • Stand Alone Photos
    • Storm and Rain Photos
    • Street Photography
    • Surplus Love
    • The Yin/Yang of Families
    • Trailer Landscapes
    • Trees
    • Urban Landscapes
    • Vintage Ford and Cadillac Manufacturing
    • Vintage - Pre -digital photos
    • Water
    • Widelux Panoramic Photos
    • Working
  • Selected Writing/Published
    • Behind the Scenes at the Circus
    • ​​Book Review: "Orale! Lowrider: Custom Made in New Mexico"
    • Carlton, Oregon
    • Comic Con New Mexico
    • Crosswalk Painting
    • Cumbres Toltec
    • Day of the Dead, Albuquerque's Marigold Parade
    • Fog Smoke Haze in Photos
    • Gordon Tooley, Apple Guru
    • Indian Market Native Costumes
    • In Praise of Kit Lenses
    • In Praise of Manual Lenses
    • Instagram
    • Jeff Brock and Bombshell Betty
    • John Lea's Painted Truck
    • Kaleidoscope Photos
    • Light Quality
    • Luck in Photography
    • Luck in Photography vers 2.0
    • National Museum of Nuclear Science and History
    • Natural Dyeing with Glenna Dean
    • Pet Store Animal Photos
    • Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County
    • Rocket Heads Jewelry
    • Scale in Photography
    • Shooting Into The Sun
    • Spanapalooza
    • Tibetan Monk Sand Painting
    • Timing in Photography
    • United Farm Workers
    • Variations on a Theme
    • Why I Take Photographs
    • WWII Reenactment
  • Archive