First Year in Santa Fe

Santa Fe was quite the change from Los Angeles. The capital of New Mexico rests at 7,200 feet above sea level. We look down at Denver at only 5,280 feet. Newcomers often experience altitude sickness, and the body begins producing extra red blood cells to compensate for lower oxygen levels at altitudes above 6,000–8,000 feet. So northern New Mexicans have an extra pint of blood.

On the first day of being a New Mexican, the newspaper’s top headline was about a drive by shooting. Having just moved from LA, I expected it to be a person or people. Nope. It was a goat that was the victim. Santa Fe is such a small city that I eventually met the owner of the goat. People would complain about the main railroad crossing on Cerrillos Road being backed by a train — about five cars. That was “traffic” in Santa Fe.

New Mexico is one of the driest states in the US, with an annual average of 14.5 inches of precipitation. We have four seasons including snow, shocking most people. Coming home from a shoot, an idiot threw a cigarette out of his car window on the highway. Myself and two other cars surrounded him, threatening him about the danger of wildfires. I experienced two larger wildfires while living in Santa Fe.

Plantlife was completely different living in the High Desert. Northern New Mexico is the start of the Rockies. Wildlife included rattlesnakes (which I encountered three in my years of living there) and coyotes (too many to count). I had to keep a close eye on Maui.

Santa Fe and the surrounding area are chock full of history and ancient ruins. San Miguel Chapel is a Spanish colonial mission church built ~1610. It’s the oldest church in the continental U.S.

While exploring northern New Mexico, I came across… swastikas?! But they were reversed. You can find these symbols scattered around New Mexico. This was shot in Raton.

Before the Nazis hijacked this ancient symbol, Navajo, Apache, and other Indigenous cultures created it, and was known as the "whirling log" or "rotating log”. Which represented the four directions, the sun, the moon, and life.

In February 1940, the Navajo, Hopi, Apache, and Tohono O'odham nations in the Southwest formally renounced and banned the use of their traditional "whirling log” symbol in art and jewelry.

Sunsets in Santa Fe are some of the most spectacular. You don’t need to add a filter or adjust the coloring. You can simply pull off the highway and snap a gorgeous, vivid photo from your car.

Where am I now? You can find me on Blue Sky.