First Presbyterian Church of Taiban, New Mexico

I have been accepted by the Getty Images as a contributing editorial and creative photographer! Getty is one of the most prestigious photo agencies in the business and I am excited by the opportunity. I am also pleased to have another outlet for the photography I make on my adventures and honored that they find my images worthy of being placed alongside some of the industry’s best.

One of the challenges of being a part of Getty Images is going through my portfolio and picking what I see as some of the best. I am my own worst critic and it has definitely been a wakeup call. Although I know I haven’t even come close to making my best photo yet (that will ALWAYS be in the future), I do know that there is definitely a correlation between the number of photos I have made and the quality of the images I make today. It is funny how studying, practicing technique and taking tens of thousands of images will help you improve your body of work.

See also:

• Photo: View of San Cristobal de las Casas
• Searching for Rat Soup in Chiapas, Mexico
• Visit to Panajachel and Lake Atitlan Guatemala

This is an image I made while on a road trip on the eastern plains of New Mexico, in the winter of 2010, before I retired, of the First Presbyterian Church of Taiban. In 1906 Tabian, New Mexico was laid out and it quickly became a thriving community of about 400 people. Then after a series of droughts, a bank failure in 1929 and being bypassed by the railroad in 1933, Tabian went into a steep decline. In 1936 the last official service was given at the church and now it sits, with broken windows and cracked floorboards, as a reminder of better times. Currently, the population of Tabian is about eight.

I always liked this image and think it holds up quite well. Very little work has been done on it; the landscape really is that bleak. I made this image on a tripod with my old Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens. It was the camera that inspired me to get back into photography. I now shoot mostly with a Canon EOS 6D 20.2 MP DSLR with theEF24-105mm IS Lens Kit but as with most photography; it is the vision that makes the shot.

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