Heads Up
This nifty arrangement was leaning against the back wall of a church. I always enjoy it when I happen upon an interesting visual pun that I can shoot.
Rawhide
An interesting discovery inside an old barn up in the mountains. I loved the visual appeal of the afternoon light that filtered into the darkness through the various holes in the walls and the roof.
Elk in the Desert
We encountered this elk in Chaco Canyon and were able to get a fair amount of good photos of it before it decided to run off.
Head for the Hills
I’ve been here and photographed this truck a few times in the past but this was the best light I’ve ever had here and I wanted to find a composition that highlighted how well both the truck and the landscape looked in the light.
Deals on Wheels
I knew at the time I photographed this that I wanted to do an artistic treatment with it. I took the time last night to work with it and get it to look like what I envisioned in the first place.
The Final Journey
The late afternoon light was soft and warm through the window of this little shrine, gently illuminating a touching scene.
Glass Behind Glass
It’s no secret that I really enjoy photographing windows. When the inside view merges with a scenic reflection it’s a good thing and when the window itself has a lot of character it’s even better.
Icons of the Southwest
Nothing says you have arrived in the southwest quite like a brilliant red chile ristra hanging in the sun in front of an adobe wall.
Friday Night in the Diner
I took this photo of the counter while having dinner in the Owl Cafe in Albuquerque. They have a great green chile cheeseburger that I keep going back for whenever I’m in town.
Chaco Canyon by Moonlight
We were blessed with crystal clear skies in the canyon all day yesterday and into the night. When the moon came up over the mesa it illuminated the entire canyon with it’s bright light and we really enjoyed standing beneath the stars in the silence of the desert photographing the moonlit vista.
Rainstorm, Valles Caldera
On Saturday we spent the day slowly working our way up the volcanic mountain stopping to take photos the entire way up. I could see the storm cloud building above the mountain throughout the day and had a secret hope that by late afternoon conditions would be right for a rainbow at the top. I didn’t say anything though because I didn’t want get everyone’s hopes up. Luckily though as we came over the rim and descended into the caldera this was the sight that we encountered. Our timing was fortuitous indeed, the rainbow lasted less than ten minutes and then silently vanished.
Desolate Sunset
I’m finally shooting in New Mexico again and so far it’s been a terrific trip. This is from the first evening out here. After arriving on the plane and getting settled in I took my group out to the Ojito Wilderness for a sunset shoot. I climbed to the top of a very tall clay mound in search of a good vantage point to shoot the sunset and encountered this scene as I approached the summit. Lucky me.
Sandia Sunset
Sandia Mountain gets it’s name from turning the color of a watermelon at sunset. This is a view of the rugged side of the mountain from the far bank of the Rio Grande.
99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall
Glass bottles in a glass window with a perfect background. I love finding things like this with my camera.
A Light Sprinkling of Snow
With all the oppressive heat that we are suffering from around here is it any wonder that I keep daydreaming of being here?
The Beauty of the Badlands
Bright morning sun and and a blue sky are the perfect complement to this distorted landscape.
The Squeaky Wheel
As you can tell I’m still picking out images to post from my last trip out west. I’m looking forward to getting some new material on the next trip which is coming up soon.
Built the Old-Fashioned Way
This weathered old barn provided a lot of great natural texture to work with thanks to all the rough-hewn lumber and simple construction techniques.
Symme-tree
The direction of light on this tree and it’s placement with respect to the adobe wall made me stop in my tracks as I was walking by. Using adobe as a background in compositions is one of my favorite things to do.
Earth and Sky
I was spending some time revamping some of my marketing material for my New Mexico photo tour and came across a bunch of images from past trips that never made it to being posted here. Here is one from the Ojito Wilderness.
Ramblin’ Man
Yesterday I talked about keeping a point and shoot camera handy in the vehicle. Sometimes though when I’m traveling and I know I’m likely to shoot while on the road I do prep a DSLR and keep it handy. The prep is the important part. I just want to grab and shoot, not fiddle with anything on the camera. First off that means considering the lens. No variable focal length lenses, that takes two hands to adjust and it could be tempting to try and adjust it. I use a 24mm prime lens. Its just right to show a full windshield view without catching too much interior. It’s also a manual focus lens and that has a few more benefits for quick shooting. If the selected focus point of an autofocus lens is positioned on empty sky valuable time can be lost while the lens hunts back and forth in search of detail to lock focus on. Just keeping an autofocus lens switched in manual mode has issues too. The moving parts in the lens are designed to move freely and quickly while being being driven by a very small motor. That also means that the slightest touch or vehicle vibration can move the focus meaning that pre-focusing the lens isn’t a viable option. A lens like the one I prefer that is manual focus only is deliberately designed to have a lot of friction in the focus mechanism with the intent of keeping it where you set it. When it comes to pre-focusing that type of lens there is also the added benefit of having a distance scale coupled with a depth-of-field scale, a combination that rarely exists in an autofocus lens. With my old-school prime lens I am able to choose a reasonable aperture, usually between f/5.6 and f/8 depending on conditions, and preset the focus at the hyperfocal point using the scales on the lens. With aperture and focus preset, the camera operating in aperture priority mode, EV compensation set to -1/2 to account for bright sky, and metering set to matrix mode, I essentially have a big, high quality point and shoot rig. I can pick it up, hold it up over the dashboard and push the button. The image above was taken with this exact setup.
Blue Sky
Still sticking to my impromptu theme for the week. This is one of several example images I like to use when I talk about how the best camera to use sometimes is simply whatever camera you can lay hands on in a hurry to get the shot. Any shot captured with a point and shoot or phone camera beats a shot missed with a fancy DSLR. I try to keep a point and shoot handy in the console or dash of my vehicle whenever I’m traveling so that I can quickly and safely grab a shot through the windshield or window. In this case I was driving on a reservation in New Mexico and for no more than about ten seconds a sunbeam broke through the clouds illuminating the mesa in the distance and creating a small section of rainbow above it. I had just enough time to grab the little camera, turn it on, point it through the windshield, and shoot. Almost instantly after I got the shot the hole in the clouds closed and the light was gone. A few other people who were with me tried but were too slow with their big rigs to get the shot in those fleeting few seconds.
Artistic Inspiration
On the day I photographed this church in New Mexico the air was thick with smoke from a forest fire. I was inspired by the effect of the smoke to create this artistic vision from my photograph.