ALBUQUERQUE – Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the final publication of the Albuquerque Tribune. Alumni gathered to mark the occasion and catch-up on the many changes a single year can hold. For those who couldn’t be with us, here are a few photos. I hope to see you all in the coming year. The paper and the people who put it together everyday are my hero’s and have shaped me into who I am today.

The plan was simple.

My brother Mike was to lure his girlfriend Alisa into a pre-selected spot in the foothills where he’d ask her to marry him. I’d be waiting with a 300mm lens just at the edge of the sight line to capture the moment. They’d leave work after she finished tennis practice, giving me a great New Mexico sunset for light.

Simple plans aren’t always simple.

They got away late, showed just after the sunset, only a hint of the days final glory still in the sky. As a result I had to crank up the film speed all the way. A few years ago, with my first digital cameras, this wouldn’t have been possible. The result is a grainy, some not-so-much in focus set of pictures. You try manually focusing a hand held 300mm at 1/30 of a second after you’ve been standing in the cold for a while.

The pictures are technically flawed, yes, yet I love seeing them. They feel like a grainy contact sheet I might have made back in college. But more importantly, it’s the love in both of their eyes.

Safe to say that I and the rest of my family could not be happier about having Alisa join ours, and I am so happy to be documenting this part of their lives.

I made these images in Tulum Mexico on my way back from Guatemala. I decided to leave them more or less as they came out of my camera, grainy and a little red. I’m going to let the photos speak for themselves, and I trust people can make their own judgments as the if this is cruel and disgusting or just a harmless tradition.