As alot of you know, I haven’t done much shooting in the past year due to health reasons. However this changed in February when my wife, Teresa and my daughter, Nikki, headed down to New Mexico to burn up some film for a new book called “Sacred Seasons”, all about the southwest. From that trip, Il have images from White Sands, the Gila Cliff Dwellings, The Petroglyph National Monument and more. I returned ten days later with my friend, Mark, to photograph a wonderful little church at the Picuris Pueblo. Here I was able to produce four images in four minutes that I was happy with, just before sunset. Then I found an old negative, 35mm, of the Taos Pueblo church, from the same day I shot “The Sacred Season”, the pueblo in the snow. I now have enough material for a show to be held at our new gallery in ol’ Litttleton, April 28, 29, 30 and May 1st, one not to miss. It’s been almost a year and 1/3 since I’ve shown new images. It feels good. Wait til you see the light in this collection.

Also we are holding a VOTE to see what your favorite image of mine is. We are going back to the beginning (1986), to the years of the buffalo and other wildlife images. You get a #1 and #2 vote. We’ll run it through the first part of June. Someone who votes will receive a $200 gift certificate.You can cast your vote at the gallery in person, you can call us, or you can go to FACEBOOK in the comment section. This is going to be fun. Going back over the years. Maybe you want to wait and see the new images. I would. Thanks.

I am writing on behalf of Andy and Teresa to provide some updates concerning Andy and the gallery. They have a lot going on right now and asked me to provide these updates on their website.

Today, I am going to update you on Andy and his situation. Later this week I will address the gallery’s changes.

In April, Andy had emergency stomach surgery. Following the surgery he was stable, but remained in ICU for a while. It turned out that Andy had to have two additional surgeries. All three surgeries were within the span of ten days. Having to deal with the three surgeries and the additional medical care, Andy’s body was weak and he ended up getting ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). The ARDS began shutting down his lung and kidney functions. Because of this, the doctors put Andy in a medically-induced coma and placed him on a vent for six weeks. Gradually, he became more awake and began moving better.

Following the improvements, Andy was moved to a nursing care rehab facility. Eventually, his dependence on the vent diminished slightly and he began breathing without it a little more. While Andy still remained on the respirator, he was showing signs of increasing health.

In mid-June, Andy’s health continued to improve to the point where he was released from the respirator. The doctors also removed the trach tube. He still remained in bed, but began to eat some regular food and was starting to talk about doing some occupational therapy/physical therapy.

Andy started working on walking up and down the halls of his rehab facility with a walker. The staff also been helped him him walk up and down stairs so he could be well prepared when he comes home.

A few days ago, Andy had to return to the hospital.

Andy’s return to the hospital appears to be a temporary setback and the doctors do not believe any surgery is necessary, they are keeping him in the hospital for observation.

I hope that updates you on Andy’s condition. As I get more updates from Teresa and Andy I will post them here and on their Facebook page.

Being a international photographer and someone who has seen much of the world’s beauty, I feel much sorrow about what has happened in Haiti, so I feel like I would like to do something to help. Recently I contacted the American Red Cross here in Denver and on Thursday, Feb. 11th we will have a special event here at our gallery. I have hundreds of photographs that have been in the files, some for years, that are not part of our regular inventory. So I decided to mark the prices down drastically and give about half of the money taken in to help those affected by the devastating earthquake. We’ve lined up Strings, Opus and Quijote’s Restaurants here in town and we’re getting some food provided by the Colorado Sports Association for the event on Thursday. So please join us, and you may find some hidden treasures in this photographic collection.

I get more and more excited as we approach this year’s Holiday Open House. With a tough economy hanging over us, I feel that we have been able to offer a wide range of gift items like never before.

My new image, “The Magic of Yellow”, will be shown at the gallery for the first time. I believe this is one of my better Colorado shots, taken on Kebler Pass, near Crested Butte. I had spent the previous evening in Ridgway, attempting another fall image of Mt. Sneffels, but to my disappointment there
was no light, shining through the existing clouds. Neither was the next morning’s sunrise worth a shot. The plan was to spend the next evening shooting a Mt.Crested Butte sunset. So I drove north through Paonia and headed across Kebler Pass. That’s when I came across this view. The aspens were perfect, and the 2 P.M. light was as good as sunset. What grabbed me the most was the spectacular clouds. We’ll have this shot on canvas and on board available for Holiday gifts.

We’re also giving away free Bubble Lady books for you to give to a child, or a poster. FYI, it rained the entire time I was in Crested Butte, later that afternoon. If you purchase from us at this open house your name will be entered into a drawing to win a $200 gift certificate to be used in January. We have five of our books available “Last Signs of the Frontier”, “Early Signs of Enchantment (New Mexico), the Blue Bubble Lady, “Colorado: A Breath Away From Heaven” and the beautiful new coffee table book “Dreams That Last Forever”. And then we have the $20 gift, plaques with quotes from the Breath Away book. We still have holiday cards,” The Three Wisemen” and “Roxborough Winter”. And on top of all of this my friend Noel Cunningham is serving h’ordeurves from his incredible restaurant “Strings”. Happy holidays to all, please join us ! Andy