Monthly Archives: November 2013
Sandhill Crane against the grain.
Even on a year with mostly overcast weather, the Sandhill Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR stand out against the gold of the ripe grain of the fields planted on the Refuge with corn, oats, and wheat. This bird, coasting in for a landing, catches some of the size of the Crane. These are big birds: tall with a huge wingspan, and a relatively heavy body.
This shot is also a demonstration of the quality of today’s small sensor Point & Shoot cameras. I used Sports Mode, for its ability to lock focus on a moving target, and because it is optimized for high shutter speeds. This is ISO 1600, at 1/250th @ f6.5. While there is noise in the image, as is expected, it is still amazing considering what would have been possible even a few years ago with a small sensor camera.
Canon SX50HS. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Bird of Paradise in Texas
Leaving Bosque del Apache for the moment, just taking a break, here is something for #floralfriday and the day after Thanksgiving…aka Black Friday. A little color to break the shopping gloom (shopping madness?). I always love Bird of Paradise. It is such an outrageous plant. I was, therefore, delighted to find one in bloom outside my hotel room in Harlingen Texas while there in early November for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. I generally only see them in San Diego in February and March. And this plant, with just a few blooms, was well exposed and easy to photograph, unlike the often tangled masses of BofP in Southern CA. Had to do it.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Macro mode. f2.9 @ 1/45th @ ISO 100. 28mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Not Turkeys for Thanksgiving!
I don’t have any good Turkey shots for Thanksgiving, so these two Sandhill Cranes from Bosque del Apache NWR, will have to stand in…they are acting kind of turkeyish! They might not gobble, but they certainly honk, and not like a goose either. Much more turkeyish! Much. Trust me.
Of course they don’t fan their tail-feathers…so that’s a point against them…but they do strut…and that is a point in their favor, turkey-wise. I also suspect, by their behavior, that they are bit more intelligent than your average turkey. Certainly they have avoided, as a race, becoming a feast-day bird, and appearing plastic wrapped and hormone fat in grocery meat-cases in great numbers once a year. That speaks to a certain intelligence…or maybe they just don’t taste good 🙂
So you are probably thinking this is all much ado about pretty much nothing…and you would be right! One thing they do share with turkeys…and that is that I am always thankful to see them. They are a magnificent bird, if somewhat comical, and in that they are very turkey-like too. So, for Thanksgiving, I give thanks for Sandhill Cranes…and for turkeys!
And for every blessing of a blessed year!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Snow and Snow Geese
Can you tell where the snow in this Bosque del Apache NWR panorama leaves off, and the Snow Geese begin? Most of what you see in the corn field is geese! I would estimate something over 10,000 in this field alone. View the image as large as your monitor allows. 🙂
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Sweep Panorama mode. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 using the new HDR Scene filter.
Snow Landing
Photography in the snow is always a bit of challenge, but when it snows at Bosque del Apache NWR, it is well worth the effort. This shot of Cranes and Geese landing in the snow shows a lot of subtle detail, and contains a lot of dynamic tension. I like the Crane just falling into the frame.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. F6.5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 500. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Bosque del Apache Snow
Only once before in my memory, close to 25 years ago it must be, has snow fallen during the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR. This year, Sunday morning we woke to several inches on the ground and snow still falling. The roads between our hotel in Socorro and the refuge were snow packed and icy and the refuge loop, while manageable, was snow covered and even drifted in spots. Of course I had to get out there to find Cranes and Snow Geese in the snow. I, along with maybe 50 other intrepid photographers, found them at the far north end of the loop, in what they call the farm fields, and along the west side of the loop as it turns back, facing the mountains, now hidden in snow clouds. The snow on the ground, reflecting back, made the most of the light even with snow still in the air. In the hour I spent there, the snow clouds began to clear off the mountains, providing a dramatic backdrop.
This is an in-camera HDR from the Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. I find it amazing that the HDR software in the camera is sophisticated enough to capture a scene like this with movement. It must have correctly selected the moving Cranes from a single image. I used the HDR Scene filter in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 to bring up the mountains even more, and hold some drama in the still heavy clouds. Finally I used a Photo Editor Smart Blur brush and the Note stylus to smooth out some of the HDR noise in the clouds. All in all this is one of my favorite shots from the Bosque, not only from this trip, but from all the years I have photographed there. And that is saying something. 🙂
Landing Light : Happy Sunday!
One of the things I love about Bosque del Apache and the Festival of the Cranes in November is the amazing New Mexico light. We did not get it this year. The skies were cloudy at best. As I write this it is snowing. There was barely enough light on any day for photography. Still the birds are here. Time to get creative and push the technology to the limits.
Even a few years ago a shot like this…low light action at ISO 1600 and 1/320th of a second…would have been unthinkable with even the best full fledged DSLR cameras. Yesterday, an hour after sunrise with flakes of snow in the air, I was able to catch this Crane coming in to land with a small sensor super-zoom camera. And I had a 12×8 inch print made on the demo Canon printer at the Festival that looks good enough to hang on the wall. Amazing!
And I like the shot. I like the forms and textures…the grace of the bird…the colors of the fall grains and mountains, even in the dull light.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. Exposure as above, at 1200mm equivalent field of view @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
And for the Sunday Thought : the light is what it is, and no amount of wishing will change it. If you are a photographer you can pack your gear and wait for better light, or you can get out there and see what can be done with the light you have. You never know. Even at the edge of what your gear is capable of, there might be a very special image waiting. And of course that is a great spiritual lesson as well. If you make the most of the light God gives you every day, you can expect blessings every day. That has been my experience often enough to provide a firm foundation for a life of faith. 🙂
Snow Geese in Flight
It was cold and cloudy all day yesterday…not typical weather for the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR. In fact I can only remember one Festival in the past 30 years with a similar cold and threat of snow. The Geese were hunkered down close the the ground for the most part, and the Cranes feed quietly, stoic, in the cold.
Terrible light for photography, especially flight photos.
Except when you catch a shot like this, where the subdued light allows a full range exposure of the white plumage of the goose, set of nicely against the gray patterned sky.
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. f5.6 @1/800th @ ISO 800. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Bosque del Apache Thrill
We are at the festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR this week. We got here Wednesday and did a quick loop around the refuge. My daughter Erin, if she was ever here, was here as a two year old, so this is really her first experience of the Bosque. And, as is only fitting, we drove up along the corn fields the refuge folk have prepared for the Geese and Cranes just as a flock of 4 or 5 thousand (maybe more) Snow Geese panicked and took to the air. This is classic Bosque. The swirling Geese panicking are the one sight, the one experience, of the Bosque, that, once seen, compels people to return season after season. And it does not matter how often you have seen it, each time it happens, you get that same quickening of the senses and the spirit! The thrill of the Bosque!
The light was somewhat subdued, but I swung the control dial on the Canon SX50HS to Sports Mode and shot several sequences of the swirling Geese. This is the densest shot from the series, as the Geese were still rising off the ground.
Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Acoma Sky City
Into every life some rain must fall. We decided to visit Acoma Sky City on our way from Gallup to Socorro yesterday. We also decided not to be put off by a little rain. It was the day we had, and it was the last weekday Sky City would be open to the public until next spring, so we went. Of course traditional Acomas would have considered it a blessed day. Much of the energy of their religion goes into praying for rain for the crops they traditionally grew at the base of the Mesa. And it was a blessed day. I shot a lot of HDR from under an umbrella 🙂
Sky City sits on a mesa top 700 feet above the valley. Until the 1930s the only way up there was long climb up foot and hand holes worn into the sandstone. A movie company built a road to film in the pueblo and another film company paved it, so today the tribe shuttles tourists to the top in small buses. My wife and daughter and one other were the only tourists on this rainy last day of the tourist season.
I could go on and an on. It was a memorable experience, but I will spare you. The tribe maintains an excellent Web presence. Just google Acoma Sky City and maneuver around the casino pages, or visit the Sky City Facebook page, and you will find a lot of information.
This shot is of one of the larger “hidden” kivas. The Spanish tried to whipe out the Acoma religion by blowing up the round underground chambers where it was practiced. The Acoma retaliated by building new kivas right out in plain sight, disguised as houses. They had to give up the roundness but it was a price they were willing to pay to keep the tribe alive. You can identify the hidden kivas by the unique white ladders with lightning bolts across the top. The ladders symbolize rain. White for clouds and lightening bolts… All the kivas in Acoma Sky City must of been happy places this day.
In-camera HDR from the Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 using the new HDR filter.