In late August, I made a trip back to the Taos, New Mexico area for a photography workshop with my friend and mentor Geraint Smith .   We were blessed with beautiful blue skies and dramatic clouds over the high New Mexico desert.   We covered several areas each day, but the most dramatic photos of the trip came from an afternoon visit to the Abiqui area, one of the most scenic areas in the entire Southwest.   

Other highlights included some local street photography in the town of Taos,  capturing a herd of elk crossing the Rio Chama, and dramatic views of Ute Mountain in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, with and without thunderstorms. On the way back home to Houston,   I drove on US64 through Angel Fire and caught some nice clouds over Eagle Nest Lake at sunrise.  

I stopped overnight at Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Texas, hoping to try out a new lens for astrophotgraphy.  The moon and clouds were not all that cooperative, and since I had a 10 hour drive the next day, I couldn't stay up all night hoping the conditions would improve.  However,  I was able to get a nice moonlit nightscape of the canyon about an hour after sunset as the stars were starting to emerge.

Although I've now been to the Taos area several times over the last few years, there is always something new to photograph or to try a different perspective on a familiar scene.  Conditions on this trip were among the best of any of my trips.

Thanks for stopping by to read this blog post and take a look at these photos. Follow me on Instagram or Vero, where  I post a new photo most weekdays featuring my current photographic activities. 

Taos Aug 2026

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