Keith Cuddeback Photography

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Keith Cuddeback Photography

Landscape photography of the American West.

04/18/2026

This is what “drill, baby, drill” looks like in practice—and it is devastating. 💔

I arrived in Northern New Mexico yesterday, camera in hand, ready to document the raw beauty of the Lybrook Badlands. Instead, I found a landscape under siege.

The Trump regime has been fast-tracking leases to fossil fuel corporations, handing over our Public Lands to the highest bidder. But “extracting” this fossil juice comes at a steep price that isn’t measured in dollars:

• Fragmented Ecosystems: A sprawling network of wide industrial roads now crisscrosses the badlands like scars.
• Destroyed Crusts: Decades of growth in fragile cryptobiotic soils—the literal foundation of this desert ecosystem—have been crushed under heavy machinery.
• Industrial Blight: Where there should be silence and vast horizons, there are now pumps, pipes, and holding tanks.

Our Public Lands belong to all Americans, not to the balance sheets of oil executives. Once this wilderness is industrialized, it can never be truly “restored.”

My heart hurts for this land. We cannot let these sacred spaces be sacrificed for short-term profit. We must stand together to protect what remains.
Will you join me in telling Washington that our Public Lands are worth more than the oil beneath them? SaveTheBadlands

03/05/2026

The New Mexico landscape has such a timeless, almost alien quality to it. On my recent road trip I spent two days camping at Ghost Ranch, the 40 year home of Georgia O’Keefe.

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.” — Georgia O’Keeffe 🎨

The Georgia O’Keeffe Hoodoo Trail (often simply called the Hoodoo Trail near Ghost Ranch) is essentially a geological art gallery.

While many of the larger formations at Ghost Ranch have formal names—like the nearby Chimney Rock or Kitchen Mesa—the smaller, individual hoodoos along this specific trail are often referred to collectively as the “Silent People” or simply as O’Keeffe’s subjects. Walking the Hoodoo Trail at Ghost Ranch feels like stepping directly into one of her canvases. These “silent people” have stood guard over the New Mexico desert for millennia, sculpted by the wind and waiting for the light to hit them just right. There’s a certain mesmerizing magic in the balance of a caprock that refuses to fall.

LandOfEnchantment

02/08/2026

Six months ago I had no clue that such cool things are out there in our galaxy floating around! Then I bought a smart telescope and have been delighted with what I’ve been seeing.

As mentioned before, it’s so much fun imaging these objects that are so appropriately named for what they resemble that we’re familiar with.

Last night was cloudy so didn’t set up the telescope so I used the time to process this bit of interesting interstellar dust captured recently; Thor’s Helmet

02/03/2026

I was supposed to be on a road trip this week, but that got scuttled when we had the big ice storm last week and instead, I went to Padre Island on the Gulf Coast of Texas to stay warm and keep the delicate parts of my van from freezing.

The road trip is still in the works and I hope to be heading out sometime next week to either southern Utah, Arizona or possibly even as far west is Death Valley. Living the Van life, as I have for the past six years, I’ve learned to be flexible and just watch the weather and go where it feels like the right place to be in the moment.

Meanwhile, I’m setting up my telescopes, gathering data every clear night I can get. I haven’t done much in the way of processing that data but this is one that I’m finished with for the moment until I can gather some more data to add to it. This is the Pleiades, sometimes called the seven sisters. So far I’ve had about eight hours of total time on this subject and I’m finding I need probably at least another eight hours to bring out more detail and all the fine dust that is still invisible in this frame.

01/10/2026

JOY is getting a new set of fresh batteries today!

01/02/2026

My little Dwarf Mini telescope arrived on New Year’s Eve and I posted pictures of how dinky this telescope is. Until we got clear skies last night, I wasn’t able to image anything with it. Even though the app interface is fairly intuitive, it still took me some tinkering with it to become familiar enough to begin capturing deep space objects.

Here is my first photo from the Dwarf Mini of the Orion Nebula. There is a lot wrong with it but still, with only 75 minutes of integration time with the built-in duo band filter, it’s evident that beautiful images are in my future. It needs more integration time to crisp up details and smooth out the nebulosity, so next clear night I will gather more data but I also need to re-frame it because some of the nebulosity is cut off at the bottom of the frame. My bad.

When I have a nicer photo I’ll post it.

Thanks for looking!

12/31/2025

I did something. Yup, bought the newest, smallest, lowest cost smart telescope available today. from DWARF LAB! It’ll actually fit into a (large) pocket. Will be amazing to take with me in my travels.

So, now I have two smart telescopes, this one and my lovely Vespera Pro which cost me 10x what the Dwarf Mini cost!! Yes, I know that it looks like a toy but it’s actually an extremely capable astro telescope for lazy lugs like me.

Anxious for the next clear night sky to see what it can do!

12/28/2025

After 9 days with my kids and grandkids in Colorado, I flew back to Austin to celebrate with my Texas family. One of the fun gifts in Texas was this Dr Seuss “Joy Ride” shirt, inspired by my van, JOY.

I’m so grateful for all the love ❤️ from both my families!

12/16/2025

Terre has been wanting some of my art up on our walls for quite awhile now. So the first one to go up, I posted a few days ago and then this one arrived from Germany two days ago. I’m super happy with the way it turned out, both the printing on archival Fuji metallic pearl paper and the beautiful framing job they did. Honestly, I don’t think I could’ve had it done as nicely if I’d had it printed and framed in the USA.

I chose this piece because it is my favorite photo from last year! It captures a fleeting moment in time with great light, dramatic clouds, great detail, and I couldn’t have asked for a better composition to capture that lightning strike between the mittens of Monument Valley in the Navajo nation. And the other thing about it is the shape of the lightning strike itself reminds me of Kokopelli, the fertility deity of the native tribes of the Southwest. You know, the guy with the flute.

It was not inexpensive. At almost 2‘ x 4‘. It is definitely a significant piece for our home and it supports the Southwest motif we are going for.

I’m definitely proud of this one and can offer one to you as well if it speaks to you the way it speaks to us. Please DM me if you are interested because it’s not available yet on my website.

12/02/2025

My last excursion over to West Texas was about three months ago and I have another trip planned for next week, again to Davis Mountain State Park along with Big Bend National Park for some more Astro photography under some really dark skies. Wish me clear skies, please!

While I was in Big Bend during that trip, I was on a drive and encountered a field of oddly scattered rocks. So I pulled over the van, grabbed my camera and started looking for a composition. Mind you, I was just on the side of the road and did not take time to thoroughly explore this tiny little anomaly in the local geography. That being said, I like the lines of this image and the uniqueness of these rocks that were nowhere else in Big Bend that I’ve ever run across.

Address

519 W. 22nd Street Ste 100 PMB 92987
Sioux Falls, SD
57105

Website

http://www.keithcuddeback.com/

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