ANDY JONES’S FIRST LOVE WAS THE OUTDOORS. Formerly a teacher in St. Louis, he’d take weeks-long road trips during the summer to Alaska and Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, and other national parks and forests throughout the West. One year, his father tagged along and brought a camera. “He let me borrow it a few times,” Jones recalls. “I realized that if I was really going to enjoy the outdoors, I might as well bring a camera and document it.”
That was roughly a decade ago. Now an Albuquerque stay-at-home dad of two young kids, Jones has discovered a fascination with the night sky and astrophotography, which also fit with his wife Bethany’s daytime schedule as a health-care worker. “Being under dark skies was my first call to actually shoot something interesting,” says Jones, who enjoys the technical aspects of photography.
Still, the outdoors and his photography are so inextricably linked that he often struggles to untangle them. Sometimes that means a camping trip where he packs a camera “just in case,” he says. Other times it means a deliberate trip to be in nature, capturing what he sees. “I have to make peace with whichever I choose to pursue,” says Jones, whose stunning images earned the grand prize and a first place in our 24th annual New Mexico Magazine Photography Awards.
For Surprise, Jones had been hearing about the experience of seeing the aurora borealis from a friend for years, but it hardly registered to him here in New Mexico. Then late last March, while his family was commuting between Albuquerque and Artesia for Bethany’s job, scientists were predicting a geomagnetic storm that could produce significant northern lights. His wife was on call that night, but he drove 45 minutes with spotty cell coverage to the darkest spot he knew. It was wondrous. “Everything my friend ever said about auroras came back to me,” he recalls. “It all registered.”
Jones started researching space weather data and scouting spots that might make for an interesting composition the next time an aurora came around. While storm chasing with some photographer friends, he’d driven a road near Las Vegas where he noticed a solitary red barn facing north. He pinned it on Google Maps as a potential site. When the space data looked promising again on August 11, Jones headed out there, not knowing what to expect. “When I arrived around 11:30 p.m., I could not believe my eyes,” he says. “Surprise! The aurora was out in full glow.”
"Don't Get Comfortable" by Andy Jones won 1st place in the Landscapes category of the 24th Annual Photo Awards.
Summer monsoons had also nurtured six-foot sunflowers along the roadside, so tall he had to find smaller ones just to fit into the frame. Around 1:15 a.m., when the aurora peaked again, he captured the grassy path leading to the barn with an orange-pink glow over the horizon. “What a night,” he says. “I will never forget the hootin’ and hollering that happened all alone in the dark whenever the sky lit up, or when coyotes howled in the distance.”
Similarly captivating moments can be found throughout this year’s photo awards winners: A cold morning fog wrapping Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in mystery, a mother horse tenderly caring for her foal near Elida, Zozobra engulfed in flames for the 100th time in Santa Fe.
This year’s contest attracted more than 1,400 submissions from 250-plus amateur photographers (those who earn no more than 50 percent of their income through photography). Six judges blind-selected 20 top photos each in the six categories. Over a full day, those were narrowed to a group of finalists, which were then ranked by each judge. The top overall scores determined the winners, with individual photographers allowed to place only once per category.
The 35 honorees, including in the first-ever New Mexico’s Route 66 category, will be featured at the Tularosa Basin Gallery of Photography, in Carrizozo. Thanks to our sponsors, the winners also receive some fantastic prizes.
As for Jones, he returned to the red barn for a second go-round when an early November snowstorm and the aurora paired up for another spectacular evening. The pink lights over a snowy barn looked incredible through the lens, but Jones hasn’t gone back to look at those shots yet—and he probably won’t for a while. “The most important thing for me is to just shoot, be out in nature, and enjoy,” he says. “I love it here.”
Read more: Explore New Mexico through the lens of the 24th Annual Photo Awards winners.
SEE FOR YOURSELF
For the ninth consecutive year, Tularosa Basin Gallery of Photography, in Carrizozo, will host an exhibition featuring the winners. The opening weekend, January 25–26, includes artist appearances and refreshments. As the largest photo gallery in the state, Tularosa Basin Gallery features the work of more than 40 New Mexico photographers. The gallery is open Friday through Sunday and by appointment.