Greetings!

The monsoon rains have tapered down and the Sonoita hillsides are turning from bright green to a more muted shade as the grass goes to seed. Late summer composites have turned some fields into sheets of yellow.

Our show at the Open Shutter Gallery in Durango was highly successful, testimony to the hard work and aesthetic vision of Margy and Brian.

A portfolio of Steve's Earth Forms images, and some addtional images from his Illusions of Intimacy series, is included in the photographic journal, Lenswork Extended # 89, a DVD version of the bi-monthly magazine. The portfolio of 50 images is complemented by a long interview with the magazine's editor, Brooks Jensen.

Steve served as the juror for the upcoming show, Abstraction in Photography to be held at PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont. The images he selected for that exhibition can be seen on the gallery website.

Steve provided 8 images for Gregory McNamee's article describing "what makes a desert" which will appear in the next issue of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments which is due out on their website on Oct. 4.

One of Karen's images, Breakfast, John's Island, has been selected for inclusion in TPS 19: The International Competition, sponsored by the Texas Photographic Society. The show will be at the A Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas, opening on Oct. 23.

Steve and Karen both have 2 images selected for inclusion in the Beyond the Lens show at the Tubac Center for the Arts. This show will open on October 15 with a reception and award ceremony from 5 - 7 pm.

Steve's website has been updated with a new portfolio, Living Stone. Karen has added new images, made since her return home, including one of the house in which Karen grew up, and 2 from their trip to China. These can be found in the Illusions of Reality and Architectronics portfolios.

We are looking forward to our first extended back country trip since Karen's surgery. Later in this month we will travel to Flagstaff where Steve will give a colloquium at Lowell Observatory (What kind of planets form in what kind of disks?). Then we will head to Page where we will meet two friends from San Diego. A back country outfitting company will take us to the South Coyote Buttes area where we will camp and photograph. We hope to catch a "window" between the monsoon rains and the beginning of winter! After three days at Coyote Buttes we will move on to the Boulder Mountain Inn, our headquarters for exploring Hole in the Rock road and the Capital Reef area once more. Lastly we will go back to Bluff to visit some of our favorite areas: John's Canyon, Valley of the Gods, Muley Point and the Comb Ridge.

Just an early heads up for southern Arizona readers, Steve and Doug Isbell will present material from their new book, Observatories of the Southwest, at the Thanksgiving Fiesta at Singing Wind Bookshop in Benson. We have also created a new website for the book, detailing the contents.