Catch Up….Trip to Santa Fe, Awards and Cimarron Sky Dog

In the world of Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere I know this post is SOOOO 3 months ago but at  I want to share this trip.  In November of last year I was lucky enough to win a first prize for “Vaquero” and a second prize for “Wild Heart”   in the second annual Cimarron Sky Dog Photo Contest.   “Wild Heart” was a product of my journey to Mustang Monument mentioned in my first post several months ago.   I was honored to be judged a winner in the CSD contest by Tony Stomberg, Lynne Pomeranz and Greg Albracht.      Cimarron Sky Dog is a horse sanctuary located in two locations in Northern New Mexico,  Cerrillos and Watrous.   It is run by a woman, Jackie Fleming,  who I feel should be in the running for sainthood.   Jackie devotes her life to saving and bringing freedom to as many mustangs as she can fit on her land at the Watrous sanctuary.  The sanctuary survives due to private donations and Jackie’s tireless quest getting sponsors for the horses.   Visit Jackie’s blog for more info and all the facts I can’t tell you in detail.   http://cimarronskydog.blogspot.com/    She educates the public about the wild horse/BLM situation and writes about all the cool functions she organizes.   Which brings me BACK to the photo contest and  the winners reception she organized and held in Santa Fe on Nov. 11th.  The reception was a good excuse for me to go and  see my work hanging in Santa Fe, meet Jackie, the judges and some of the other winning photographers.     On the day of the winners reception Jackie allowed me to come to the small Cerrillos property to meet and photograph a few of the mustangs there.   The Cerrillos property is Jackie’s private residence and a “holding facility” for horses in need of special attention or those waiting to run free in Watrous.    The mustangs are in pens at Cerrillos so they are not  “running free” but I think you will agree the beauty of the mustang comes through.  Jackie’s little dog Holly was a kick too, she ruled the ranch!

Jackie looking into the soul of Dune

Jackie plays with her sweet little dog Holly

Lakota running with his buddies.  A handsome soulful kinda guy.

Shoshone stops to take a look at me. What a show stopper he is!

Socorro in black and white, Shoshone behind. Munching on some mushy goodness.

Willow, a mustang mare has a story to tell.

Willow, a mustang mare,  was left tied up and abandoned in horse trailer on a hot day, she was starving and showed signs of abuse.  Luck had it Carolina Equine Rescue came to Willow’s rescu .   Long story short Jackie was contacted and even though her place was pretty much full she made room for Willow at the sanctuary.  Willow looks great now as you can see thanks to every one who came to her defense.  She was lucky to have found Jackie and Cimarron Sky Dog.

Willow in black and white. A big sweet heart.

Mudji's face. A Bay in Black and White

Alma wonders if I am ever going to get enough photo's of her.

The other side of Alma

Alma’s story is special too.  Hope I get the fact straigh here…….Jackie had gone to the BLM to pick up ONLY two more mustangs.   After Jackie made her two picks and finalized them she saw this cute little mare.    After much soul searching and self psychoanalysis Jackie went home with Alma too.  She was just to hard to resist with her sassy little spirit and long blonde hair!   Alma now runs free forever at the Watrous property of Cimarron Sky Dog.

Shoshone and Pie "Nose to Nose"

Shoshone and Pie "Nose over Nose"

Lunch on the Run. Shoshone and Pie

Took a little sight seeing trip outside of Santa Fe, the “Land of Enchantment”  or what a photographer would call  “The Land of Beautiful Sunrises and Sunsets.”  Tried to take some “non horse” shots.  Very hard for me to do.

Shortly before sunrise about 20 miles north of Santa Fe

The top of a "Kiva" built by the Pueblo Indians in Pecos

Inside of a Kiva, where the Indians would hold ceremonies and important sacred happenings. This is a really cool place to be!

Hopefully this year I can visit the  Watrous property of Cimarron Sky Dog to photograph these awesome mustangs running free in their beautiful high desert home.  Thank you Jackie Fleming for all you do to save these beautiful creatures.

Visit the Cimarron Sky Dog Bog to get more info or donate to CSD          http://cimarronskydog.org

Until next post Adios Amigos…

Hello Everybody! Welcome to my new blog. First Post is Wild Paiute Photo Shoot at Mustang Monument near Wells, Nevada

                                                                                                                                   “Wild Heart”  from my first wild horse shoot.

READ ON to learn more and get to know me

Hello everybody,

Please bear with me this my first blog and I’m sure I’m gonna have some screw ups.

One reason I felt I had to start this blog is to connect with friends and customers to keep you informed of where I have been and what I am up to.  I want to hear what others think about me too.  I accept all kinds of feed back and ideas!  Please feel free to suggest things you want to hear from me if you are not hearing them!

Where do I begin my blog?    The perfect place for me start is to tell about my recent trip to Mustang Monument near Wells Nevada.  It was my first adventure in shooting wild horses.  Not literally shooting but you know, photographing.  It is easier to say shoot.  So how did I end up at Mustang Monument?  Well…..it was my husband Roy and my 20th anniversary and we wanted to go on a road trip.  Roy suggested we go on a wild horse photo trip.   So I started researching on the net where to find wild horses.  I learned that there are more wild horses in Nevada than anywhere in the west, lucky for us since we live in California.  There are lots of wild horses that roam freely all over Nevada and right out side of major towns like Reno and Carson City but I wanted to go somewhere beautiful and desolate.   In all my net searches I kept coming upon information about Madeline Pickens.   I found out about her new Wild Horse eco preserve “Mustang Monument” near Wells, Nevada.  It is Madeline’s dream to take thousands of wild horses out of BLM holding pens and set them loose in the preserve to live life in freedom.     The monument received it’s first wild horses, 600 of them, in January.  They are  ironically named “Paiutes”  as they came from the Paiute Indian reservation in Idaho.    I thought, what a great place to go and see a BIG heard of wild horses in a desolate wild place.   Also I thought through my work I may be able to bring attention to to help the cause.  I contacted Madeline through her assistant Stacie Daigle, who was wonderfully open to my idea.   I  received permission to camp on the monument for the weekend of Sept. 11th and photograph the horses.

So after a fabulous anniversary night at the Peppermill’s Tuscan Tower in Reno, Sept 8th 2011,  Roy and I drove off into the desert on route to Wells, Nevada.    Wells is not far from the Utah border and at Wells we headed 25 miles south on Hwy 93 to Mustang Monument.  Clay “the cowboy” and the ranch manager was very hospitable, making us feel welcome and showing us around.  He gave us some maps and pointed to the area way out in the middle of the land before where the mountains started and said “there are a whole bunch of them out there and they are very wild, it is hard to get close to them”.  I did not think much of his comment until the next day.

So at sunrise on Sept 10th we awoke and did not have to go far to find the horses.  Great I thought!  A mare and her baby were grazing about 30 yards from our tent.   I got out my camera and started what was going to be a long day of “shooting horses”.  The few horses we saw right away ended up running away so we set off on foot afar and soon learned getting close the herd or “bands” of horses was not easy.  I started to panic a bit thinking my lenses (I rented a 400mm) was not going to be big enough to get good shots.  What a fool I was to think I could just prance out here and “shoot” the wild horses.  Maybe I should have paid a bunch of money to some of those experienced wild horse photographers who take you out on workshops and know were the horses are.  But luckily I fell back on all my natural horsemanship and used the principals of approach and retreat to get close to the horses.  It took 2 to 3 hours to get close enough to get some good shots but boy was it worth it!  I hope you enjoy my images  Be sure to go to my proofing site on my website to see the whole gallery