REDS, YELLOWS & BLUES: THE NORTHERN NEW MEXICO LANDSCAPE BY RAIL

Riding the Amtrak Southwest Chief, Train #4, from Albuquerque, February 1, 2012, Noon Departure:  Photo Essay

My beloved Sandia Mountains...

with crop circles... GRiN!

Train No. 4 Santa Fe Rail Series: Corral

Photographing from a moving train through two layers of window glass added unique challenges... a special charm and context... and more curves and angles to match the corral, the clouds...

...the railroad tracks.  The  midday light is not my favorite for taking photos, but seems to lend an air of nostalgia to these pics...

CLICK on this photo to enlarge it... can you spy the RED?   As I gleaned images for this little photo documentary, I noted the primary color theme...  RED, YELLOW, and BLUE... the colors essential to making any other, the colors essential to making a landscape... and a life...

My window seat had a swath of scratches and dirt so I played with it and used it to advantage.  I didn't pay much attention to where on the map I might be... but for the conductor making stop announcements and the occasional sign.  I enjoyed the mystery of it, the lack of preconceived notions...

...the innocence and wide-eyed wonder... where it can take ones imagination.  Loved this old boarded up church with the fresh BLUE door...  there's a story...

... and near it, the graffitied RED railcars... "derailed'.

And back to the land, the subtle, earthy REDS, YELLOWS...

...and a BLUE teepee?  all the more outrageously hilarious as teepees are not 'native' here!

...just as straight lines are not 'native'...

...but for the top of a mesa or butte.

Butte what do we have here?  GRiN!  I note how the big shed, the airstream trailer, even the old car shapes mimic the buttes...

...how the angle of the clouds want to converge with the angles of the fence, the rail...

...and how RED wants to play in the sky with YELLOW and BLUE as they chase the setting sun!