Monday, January 16, 2006

Sandia Mountains

This is a picture I took of the Sandia Mountains October 2005.


Sandia Mountain is a small mountain range that runs along the east side of the city. In spanish, Sandia means watermelon. Its called the Sandias (Watermelon mountain) because when the sun sets in the west it puts this fabulous light on the sheer granite face of the mountain. It causes the mountain to look purple or pink in color. Just south of the Sandia Mountains, there is another small mountain range, they're called the Manzano Mountains. In spanish, Manzano means apple.

When we first moved here, we immediately fell in love with the mountain. Driving around one day in the winter time when we first moved here, the sun started to set. We witnessed for the first time the mountain turning purple. We actually pulled over to watch the entire event, it was amazing. "S" had commented another day after that in passing how he would love to have a panoramic picture of the mountains at sunset.

One day in October of 2004 I went for a drive with my camera. I drove up onto the volcano cliffs that line the west side of town. I walked out into a field, set up my tripod and camera, and waited. I waited for the sun to start to set. When the mountain had reached the peak of color I let the camera fly. I took an entire roll of pictures, one after another to get that perfect set of panoramic shots. I really hoped it worked.

I got the film developed and was really excited with what I saw. Groups of threes and fours and fives of pictures, dividing and combining the mountain. I found the set I liked the best and got each of the four enlarged, matted and framed.

Christmas 2005, "S" opened four identically wrapped, and shaped gifts. When all four were opened and lined up he was surprised to see what it was. He hung all four lined up on the east wall of our house in the dining room. The owners of our house before we bought it had framed in a window on that wall. We were okay with that because it looked out at a cinder block wall. We hung the pictures on that wall, as to pretend that was a window looking out east towards the sandia mountains.

Here is a picture I took of the four pictures making up the Sandia Mountains. Each picture is an 8x12. The Frames are 16x20.

Posted by ABQ Mom :: 1/16/2006 08:42:00 AM :: 4 Comments:

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