Posts in Category: New Mexico
11/22/2010: Mule Deer
Mammals on Monday (a Twitter thing).
Twice in my few days at Bosque del Apache NWR I came across small groups of foraging Mule Deer. The deer at Bosque are fairly secure (and they are Mule Deer, who are, in my experience, much less skittish and secretive than White-tails), and both times I was able to get the car stopped, digiscoping rig out, tripod up, camera ready, and take a series of shots while they peacefully continued about their business. They were aware of me, certainly, but not unduly concerned.
The first three shots are from an early morning encounter and the last from early afternoon. In both cases the New Mexico November sun provided spectacular light. The deer were about 75 yards across the water channels which line all the Bosque roads.
Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for equivalent focal lengths (fields of view) of about 1500mm (1-3) and 1000mm. First three at f5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 125, last shot f5 @ 1/640th @ ISO 125. Programmed auto.
Processed in Lightroom with a touch of Fill Light, Blackpoint slightly right, added Clarity and Sharpen narrow edges preset.
11/21/2010: Bosque Sunset HDRs
Happy Sunday!
I went out after my day of work manning the ZEISS booth at the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro NM, to digiscope Prairie Dogs in the last light of early evening, but the PD town was already closed down for the day. There was not even a single sentry on guard.
So I headed back to town and supper. Of course I had to pass right by three flooded fields where the Sandhill Cranes come in for the night, right at or around sunset. And, on day like yesterday, the sunset itself is a show. I stopped and parked and waited. As the sun sank, the parking lot filled with folks who had the same idea. During the festival, sunset parking is at a premium anywhere on the refuge, and they actually take buses in to particularly choice vantage-points otherwise inaccessible to the public. People pay $5.00 to ride the bus.
What you have here are three HDR shots: southwest in line with the sun, north along ridge that hides the mountains behind, and southeast where a larger mass of clouds behind the mountains took the color. The top shot is the last I took, just before the color died, when it was at its most intense.
I find it hard to believe that there are people anywhere who would not be moved by such a sunset, with or without the spectacle of the returning cranes. Such awful, such awe-filled, beauty in the fire in the sky at day’s end…there are no words for what it says to our souls…but there is no doubt that it speaks.
When the color died, everyone got back in their cars, or boarded the buses, and headed back to town. Route 1 is a steady stream of tail-lights for 8 miles into San Antonio. From the air it must look something like the cranes coming into the roost for the night 🙂
I am not sure what the Sunday thought is in the Bosque sunsets, but I certain it is there. Being there, along the dyke by the flooded field, and knowing that people were gathered all over the refuge to witness the same sight, with the air filled with the “music” of the cranes and geese, as the sky colored and as the color died, was very like being part of a worshiping congregation. I know who I worship, and I find it hard to believe that in those moments, we aren’t all, whether we acknowledge it or not, caught up in the same act of worship. Our awe may be as variously colored as the three images above, but it is the same awe, our birthright and our heritage as human beings…children of love.
Canon SX20IS. Three exposures per image, auto bracketed at minus 2/3EV, assembled and tone-mapped in Photomatix, processed in Lightroom.
11/18/2010: Snow Storm (goose)
From Texas to New Mexico: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Snow Geese. Sunset. A storm of wings against the blush of sky. I still have lots of birds from Texas left to share, but I can’t resist this from the first day at Bosque. Not that everyone who ever visited a Snow Goose wintering ground doesn’t have one just like it…but still. (I seem to remember a Steve Creek shot from a few months ago.)
Canon SX20IS. 560mm equivalent @ 1/125 @ ISO 800. Programed auto.
Fill Light in Lightroom. Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen narrow edges preset.
2/25/2009
Rockies Tail
Sandia Crest is a famous birding destination. It is one of the few places in North America where you can reliably see at least two species of Rosy Finch, and often all three, in a single day. For a birder, no visit to Albuquerque is complete without the drive to Sandia Crest.
Sandia Crest is also the last major peak at the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains. From the crest, looking south, you can see the Rockies tail, so to speak, winding down one side of the Rio Grande Valley.
This is a difficult shot. There was a lot of haze in the air, and a heavy cloud cap to the south, and the mountains just kind of disappeared into the gray. Visually, there was significant detail, enough to make an interesting image, but I knew that the camera would catch mostly scattered light from the water in the air, hiding the distant detail. I also knew, from past experience shooting on similar days, that the scattered light is mostly blue light, and that, in Lightroom, I could lower the luminance of the blue channel in the finely divided luminance controls provided, and recapture much of that detail.
The image still shows more haze than I would like, but who knows when I will get back to Sandia Crest, and it is still as satisfying record of a magnificent and particularly significant view.
And, yes I did see the Rosy Finches: All three species, feeding on the deck outside the window, while I sipped tea and ate a breakfast muffin at the Sandia Crest House. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Sony DSC H50 at about 45mm equivalent. F6.3 @ 1/320 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, as I mentioned above, I first reduced the luminance of the blue channel in the Color panel, which restored much of the detail that otherwise was lost in the haze of scattered light. Added Clarity and Vibrance, and used the Sharpen landscapes preset. I pushed the Contrast up a bit.
From Albuquerque.
This is, by the way, my 100th Pic of the Day! Pic of the Day has gotten over 11,000 views since I started it in December. Thank you all.
2/24/2009
Blind
Bosque del Apache in one of may favorite places for bird photography: in November. A trip down while in Albuquerque this past week was, not exactly disappointing (Bosque will never disappoint) but a lot more subdued than I expected. Most of the wintering birds had left and the summer (breeding) birds have not arrived. Very slow on the tour loop.
This image presented itself at the photo blind (in lue of the birds I suppose). I had almost walked away without taking anything, in my focus on what I expected to see, when stepped back a really looked at what was there. I should learn to do that more often.
I was not sure I could get satisfying focus on both the wood of the frame and the view beyond without resorting to Program Shift, but the first exposure on Programed Auto looked fine on the lcd and turned out to be almost exactly what I envisioned.
In post processing, I noticed the shadow of the tree on the water…that makes the image, and I was, at best, only partially conscious of it while shooting.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel and Landscape sharpen…but I also use Fill Light to lighten the shadow on the wood and reveal more of the detail there.
From Bosque del Apache
2/23/2009
Southwest Sun
This is my last day in Albuquerque. I am heading home to a late winter snowstorm and all that comes with it, so…
One more sun and hot chile shot. Just a corner of a building glimpsed down a passage to small interior plaza off the main streets in Old Town, but the typical riot of New Mexico color and form. I especially like the flower head molded into the adobe. This is another sunset shot, the lower floor of this building was already in shadow, and the warmth of the light adds to the character of the image.
[Dan from Albuquerque tells this story about the flower shape, which is apparently a common Albuquerque decoration. It is made by repeatedly pressing a watermelon into the still wet adobe. This makes it an interesting visual pun, since the original Spanish immigrants to the area named the mountains that dominate the Albuquerque skyline “Sandia” (watermelon in Spanish) because the color of the range in the sunset reminded them of watermelon. Interesting! Thank you Dan for the story.]
Sony DSC H50 zoomed out to about 140mm for cropping. F4.0 @ 1/160th at ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel, and used the Sharpen landscapes preset. I also, since this is really about color, pulled the black point up a bit and added just a tiny amount of saturation.
From Albuquerque.
2/22/2009
Old Town Detail
The southwest, and Albuquerque in particular, produced some of the most interesting iron work of any region of the country. This is another Old Town detail, from a second trip, when the sun was all but level on horizon. This is a second story window. Street level windows were already in shade.
I like the strong verticals which contrast with the curves of the iron, and I like the doubling of the iron curves through their shadows.
Sony DSC H50 at just under 200mm equivalent. F3.5 @ 1/125 @ ISO 160. Programed Auto.
Standard Presence processing in Lightroom, and some cropping on both the left and right.
From Albuquerque.
2/21/2009
Reproach
Okay…I do not like zoo shots. I don’t like shooting at zoos, and I don’t, actually, approve of zoos. There are a few that win my grudging admiration for the humane enclosures and the conservation work they do with rare and endangered species, but I wish the world were such a place that there were no need for the work they do (and where I had enough money and time to see all the animals in their natural habitats).
Still, I do go to zoos. With a free morning, and being only a mile from the Rio Grande Zoo and Biological Park in Albuquerque (and having limited options because of the lack of a car), I went. And I enjoyed it for it what it was.
I got some really fine images of Wood Ducks (free) and Flamingos (captive), and I got this catch of an African Vulture really near the fence of his enclosure and very aware of me on the other side of the fence. To me it says something about zoos that resonates. I have no idea if the bird felt the way he looks (unlikely), or if it is a total projection on my part (likely), but what I see in his eye is a whole testament on the nature of captivity.
I shot this by holding the lens of the H50 between fingers on either side of one of the little diamonds of open in a woven cable wire fence, front of the lens actually touching the wires of the fence.
Sony DSC H50 at just slightly over 400mm equivalent. F4.5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I used the Recovery slider to bring out detail in the highlighted area above the eye, added Presence with the Clarity and Vibrance sliders, and used the Sharpen portrait preset.
From Albuquerque.
2/20/2009
Aspire
One of the things that made my color shopping trip to Old Town Albuquerque so satisfying was the light. Late afternoon. High elevation. As uniquely southwestern as the chili restras and the turquoise trim.
The spire of the church in Old Town in that light was a spectacular sight against the high New Mexico sky. In this shot I used medium tel on the zoom to frame the spire against the clouds. The small cross at the bottom right anchors the image and somehow emphasizes the soar of the spire. The bold, sharp angles in the low light contrast with the softness of the cloud behind, and the stark white of the spire is only set off more by the off-white/gray cumulus. Lots of dimension in this shot.
Sony DSC H50 at 250mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I used some Recovery to pull the whites back and reveal texture in the clouds. Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel, and a touch of added saturation for the sky. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Albuquerque.
2/19/2009
Pink Space Contemplation
I don’t do much urban photography, mostly because I rarely have free time in an urban setting. This trip to Albuquerque is giving me an opportunity to practice my urban landscape skills. And where better than this city of color?
I saw this building from 3 blocks away and left my intended path to photograph it. This is one of several shots. I played with the zoom and framing bits of detail. The strong shadow, the vivid colors (adobe and sky), the basic shapes, the lone Rock Pigeon perfectly posed…it all comes together here in design that catches the eye and won’t let go. To me it looks like an abstract painting, but with pigeon, as though the artist felt the need to include a natural reference at the last moment. I find it just slightly amusing.
Sony DSC H50 at about 325mm equivalent. F5.0 @ 1/500 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I cropped and straightened somewhat for composition. There was a drainpipe and a corner on the right that had to be dealt with. Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel, and a touch of added Saturation. Portrait sharpen preset.
From the Albuquerque gallery.