Hot and Cold

Old Town, Albuquerque New Mexico. The mother-load of color! I am in town for the North American Nature Photographers Association Summit. The hotel and convention center are about 2 miles from Old Town. I had the late afternoon light. Not hard to figure out what to do.

Color is everywhere. I will be posting an extended appreciation of the colors of Old Town and New Mexico on Point and Shoot Landscape in the next few days. For this shot I was working from behind a locked gate that prevented me from entering the passageway to a small plaza. Chile was everywhere. These wreaths were hung casually across the back of a Santa Fe bench, in a traditional weathered copper green. I liked the contrast with the bench and with the larger Hatch chiles hanging behind. The zoom on the H50 reached out for the shot.

Because it was in deep shade, and I had to use considerable zoom, the ISO was pushed up to 400, and I still might not have gotten the shot without the Sony’s image stabilization. This is the kind of shot, though, where a higher ISO can work. There is so much detail and color that the noise, while there, is effectively massed. Even in the wall behind, the texture of the adobe hides noise.

Focus was also an issue at this relatively wide F-stop, but there was nothing I could do about it. A smaller F-stop would have pushed ISO higher or made the shot difficult to hand hold. As it was I let focus rest on the chilis closest to the viewer, which kept the carvings on the bench sharp, and have to count of the eye’s forgiving nature for the rest. I am not sure it would work as a 16×20 print, but at screen resolution it is effective, and should work at a reasonable print size.

Sony DSC H50 at 250mm equiv. F4.0 @ 1/40th @ ISO 400. Programed Auto.

In Lightroom a small adjustment to color temperature was needed because of the deep shade. Clarity and Vibrance from the Presence panel, to pop the colors. I shifted the black point slightly to the right to add intensity. Portrait sharpen preset.

From Albuquerque.