The last 2 weeks have been crazy - in a good way! I have been traveling and shooting (and shooting some more).

The family and I went over to New Mexico for Spring Break back on March 13, returning on March 20. I then frantically washed clothes, charged batteries and then repacked, leaving March 22 to Copenhagen, Denmark. I just got back from there on Sunday afternoon this last weekend. So needless to say, I have been taking a LOT of photos over the last two weeks - in fact, I took over 5000 photos total on these two trips. Fun!

Oh yeah, and a bunch of iPhone shots too, in case you want a preview. You can find them all on Flickr here. I've been sharing a lot of them there. Go have a look. I put everything on Flickr now - and I mean everything. Even stuff that I don't put on the blog here. Flickr has become my "holding spot" for lack of a better word (because "dumping ground" doesn't sound good, and gives the wrong connotation). It's a great way to get my work on the web, quickly, easily, and in a well-organized fashion. You can follow me on Flickr here.

And in case it isn't obvious - taking that many photos in two weeks times is quite AWESOME, and it inspires me to do even more. I love this stuff. It's so much fun.

I have so many photos to process and share from these two trips (not to mention the incredible backlog of stuff in the library), and so many individual parts of each trip to write about, that these two things will likely keep me busy for a while. And part of the fun is that they are just SO different. New Mexico was about hiking and hanging out enjoying the landscapes and exploring, while Copenhagen was about castles and palaces and all that wonderful European culture and beautiful sights. Cool stuff. I can't wait to share all these pics.

However, I have more travels arriving soon so it will be a while before I can sit down and really process a lot. Sorry for the tease. :-) But I do promise to share some wonderful stuff here from these trips. And in the meantime, I do have some great photo posts planned, so you won't be totally bored. :-)

In fact, I have barely even reviewed my shots from Copenhagen, but I know for sure there are some real winners there. I mean, I can feel it, because I stood in some great places and pointed the camera at some amazing things. Assuming I didn't totally screw up the settings, we should be all set! :-) Anyways, more on that later. This post is about the first night we spent in New Mexico on that recent family trip. So, onto that!

We rented a wonderful house out in Abiquiu, which is about an hour drive northwest of Santa Fe. It's best known as the little town where Georgia O'Keeffe, the great American artist, lived and worked for many years. In fact, you can take a tour of her home and studio. It's pretty awesome and quite interesting as well.

Mostly what we did that week was hang out around the house, perched high on a hill overlooking the lake, and hike (and well, I took some photos - and processed quite a few as well). It was wonderful, and relaxing, and the area is very beautiful to my eyes. I had a great time. I caught sunset and sunrise every day. That just never happens at home - there isn't time for it. That's the beauty of a holiday I guess. You get to change your routines and aim them at your goals. It's refreshing.

Out here it's a rugged sort of beauty, with wonderful colors in the earth and mountains visible in the distance. I love it there. Being a resident of Austin, I don't get to see this "Southwest" sort of stuff very often, so it was quite fun to shoot there. Some folks that haven't been to Austin may think of us as "Southwest" but we aren't even close to that look or feel here. It's vastly different.

It was probably around 5pm when we arrived on that first day, and after we unpacked and got settled, I could see the light starting to fade, which is code for GET THE CAMERA JIM. The great thing about this place was that I literally just walked out the door and could point the camera in ANY direction, and find something I wanted to shoot.

So these pics show you the view, the house, and some of the "decorations" that dotted the yard (that would be the animal bones I am referring to, which I found really interesting - and again, something I never get to see or shoot). I will be back as soon as I can with more - and believe me, you will want to see more of this area!

We also headed out to a few very cool spots nearby - and I caught an AMAZING sunrise the first morning - so I will be back with many more photos and things to share from this trip. Be on the lookout!

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon for more!