Here’s a very nice thing to remember: The Polaroid I made at Cathedral Rock was featured on the Flickr Explore page and I got really sweet comments from people. : )

I remember my grandfather always said ‘making’ or ‘made’ instead of ‘taking’ or ‘took’ when talking about photos. This could be why:

I met a photographer when I visited Taos Pueblo who told me that her grandmother knew Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe when they were spending time there. She had nothing nice to say about either, telling me they’d been asked by residents to leave. To not use their cameras and paintbrushes to capture what wasn’t theirs.

Ultimately, her paintings and writings make clear that she saw the region much as countless others had before: as both deeply informed by the presence and history of its Native peoples and as open, empty, and ripe for claiming.

There’s making a photo, and then there’s taking one.

I’m pointing this finger at myself as well. I took a LOT of photos when I toured Taos Pueblo and once I thought I was going to get arrested in Spain for taking photos in a cemetery. The guard made me delete my entire memory card and show him it was blank. We learn as we go. Hopefully.