Community calendar features snapshots by local residents

Dennis J. Carroll | For The New Mexican

1/4/2009 - 1/5/09

Dan Drobnis of Eldorado remembers seeing the two pronghorn antelope peering around some bushes, but to his dismay he didn't have his camera.

The next day, the same antelope were crossing Avenida Casa del Oro, and, armed with his digital camera, Drobnis trotted up the greenbelt path and "there they were, just standing there posing for me. (The male) was as curious about me as I was about him. I got to within about 100 feet and they just ambled away."

Drobnis snapped several pictures of the antelope, one of which ended up as the May photo in the 2009 calendar published by the Eldorado Community Improvement Association.

A retired computer expert from San Diego, Drobnis has been shooting photos as a hobby since his high-school days.

Another Drobnis photo, of the Fourth of July parade, is the calendar's July photo. "Ours is the only parade I know of that has more participants than it does people watching it," he said.

Drobnis is among nine amateur photographers whose pictures of nature and life in Eldorado are featured in the calendar.

"We got a lot of pictures of the sky," said calendar editor Carol Leyba. She put a notice in a fall issue of Vistas, the ECIA's newsletter, seeking pictures for the calendar.

She said more than 40 photos were submitted and were posted on the ECIA Web site, www.eldoradocommunity.org, where all of them can still be viewed.

Another photo in the calendar is of a coiling rattlesnake threatening to strike.

"He was intimidating, but he didn't strike," said photographer Don Messerschmitt, who was walking his dog Rex when they came upon the snake.

"I would have never found it if the dog hadn't been acting kind of weird," Messerschmitt said. He was about 10 feet from the snake when he took the picture with a 200mm lens.

Leyba said a committee narrowed the photos down to those representing the various months and seasons, and settled on 14 for the calendar — including one for the cover and another for December 2008. The selectors were not given the names of the photographers.

The calendar, in its third year, is paid for by local business advertising and notes important Eldorado events such as Santa Claus' arrival in town, observances for the holidays and the various school holidays and breaks.

Leyba said the 2009 edition each month also notes a tourist site near Santa Fe or somewhere else in Northern New Mexico.

She said 3,000 calendars were printed and mailed to community residents and businesses.