I didn’t have an opportunity to get back into the woods today, but I did take the time to create some portraits of aspen leaves that I collected yesterday while hiking in the Valle Vidal.
Click here to see the other photos of aspen leaves that I created today.
Please click on any image for an expanded view.
I spent the entire day photographing autumn color in the mountains north of Taos. We still have about a week to go in most places before we reach peak, but even so, I still managed to find some nice color in the aspens. My first stop was Cabresto Canyon, the same location from my post on August 13th, 2008, and then onto Valle Vidal. It’s been a bit warmer than usual for this time of year, but we had fresh dusting of snow on the mountains around Costilla Reservoir.
Click here to see the rest of today’s photos of autumn color in northern New Mexico.
Please click on any image for an expanded view.
I’ve finished editing and processing a majority of my photos from last weekends grape picking event at Vivac Winery in Dixon, New Mexico. Here are the images from the day.
Some of the photographers viewing Across the Southwest will notice that I’ve used a tilt-shift technique to minimize depth of field in some of my images from the shoot at Vivac Winery. The technique used creates a scene that gives the impression of being a miniature, or a model, because of the lack of depth-of-field.
The warm sun, the intense blue New Mexico sky, and lots of juicy grapes. That was the scene yesterday in Dixon, New Mexico, as workers took to the vineyard to harvest the grapes of Vivac Winery.
Please click on the image for an expanded view.
Sometimes it’s nice to leave the ‘big’ camera at home. Last year I purchased a Canon G9 to be used as my point-n-shoot, always with me camera, a camera I could take anywhere and would not necessarily draw a lot of attention. What I didn’t count on was having so much fun with it or the quality of images that it’s capable of producing when used properly.
Here are a few pictures that I shot in Santa Fe last year when I first got the camera, but have just recently got around to developing. All images were captured in color as raw files and later processed as a black & white using the Black & White tool Photoshop CS3 and several curves layers to selectively add contrast.
The photos shown here are available as limited edition prints, please contact me for pricing and availability.
As always, please click on any image for an expanded view.
Here it is, the first photograph I’ve had published in a calendar. I photographed this scene of lupines and a fence, a few years ago near Crested Butte, Colorado, during the peak of the wildflower season. I’m really excited to have this image published and in a wildflower calendar no less!
Here’s a link to the Barnes & Noble website where you can purchase the calendar: >>>link<<<
Please click on the image for an expanded view.
We had a good wildflower year here in and around Taos, but more specifically, in my yard. We had poppies, cleomes, sunflowers, and of course the cacti bloomed. This year I wanted to try something a little different from my usual wildflower photography, so I picked up a 12mm extension tube to experiment with.
If you’re not familiar with extension tubes, they look similar to a tele-extender, but unlike an extender, the tubes have no optical element(s), i.e. tubes are hollow. Extension tubes work by moving the lens farther away from the film or digital sensor in the camera. Doing this allows the lens to focus closer producing greater magnification at the loss of being able to focus on infinity, in fact when using tubes you have a very narrow range of focus and depth of field to work with.
Both the first and second images shown here were photographed using a Canon 24-70mm/2.8L lens at approximately 60mm and f/6.3. The last images was captured using the Canon TS-E 45mm tilt shift lens with a 1.4x extender at f/11. All images were captured with a Canon 5D , 12mm extension tube, and a portable reflector to cast even light on the flowers.
When working with extension tubes, it’s important to be aware of how close the front element of your lens is to the subject. I had to clean pollen off of my lens several times.
Please click on any image for an expanded view.
This past Friday I had the honor and privilege of being a judge in the KTAO Solar Radio & Five Magazine photo contest. Myself, along with Lenny Foster (a very gifted photog) and Cat Legere, the Art Director at Five Magazine, judged entries in the Uncontainable Image photo contest.
Overall, the images blew me out of the water! With so many amazing photos, it was difficult to select winners, but especially so in the amateur category. My hat’s off to all the photographers that took part in the contest. It’s truly a humbling experience to be surrounded by the incredible talent here in Taos.
Every now and then, you get lucky. I was eating dinner this evening at the Ranchos Grille, on the patio, when this beautiful red and white ‘56 Chevy pulled into the parking lot.
The driver parked among all the other cars, and my first thought was “cool, I’ll get some shots when I’m done eating”. I went about eating my dinner of chicken enchiladas smothered in green chile (yum!) Continue Reading »
Here are a few photos from my visit to the Very Large Array (VLA) on the Plains of San Agustin. Located approximately 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico, the VLA is part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). The VLA consists of 27 massive antennas (satellite dishes) that can be spread out along three arms of a Y-shaped railroad track to expand and contract the overall size of the array.
Photographers visiting the VLA should be prepared to use every lens in their bag, but in my opinion, a super-wide such as Canon’s 17-40 on a full-frame camera, and telephoto-zoom are probably the most useful. For the first photo I used a 300mm lens and a 1.4x teleconverter (420mm equivalent) to compress the scene making the antennas look closer together. For the second image with the woman walking in front of the array I used the 70-200 at about 80mm. Continue Reading »
This is from my flight back into Albuquerque as we made our turn for final approach into the Sunport. We were passing over the Rio Grande River a few miles south of Isleta Pueblo and the bridges that span the river on I-25. Can you tell that we’ve had a lot of rain in New Mexico? The monsoon has been very generous and has provided some insanely green crops, pastures and trees along the Rio Grande. Please click on the image for an expanded view.
Things are quiet now on the ExpressJet ramp. The airline ceased branded, scheduled service on September 1st, 2008, citing higher fuel costs as the main factor. According to xjet.com, ExpressJet will continue to provide charter services and will continue flying for Continental Airlines as Continental Express.
My wife and I have flown ExpressJet several times this past year in our trips back to Texas to see friends and family. A lot of them have asked why we don’t drive, after all Texas is the next state over. My answer; because it’s a 12-hour drive if you make ‘good’ time, and sometimes up to 14-hours just to get to San Antonio. Taking ExpressJet still required the 2-hour drive to Albuquerque, but it’s only an hour and 45 minutes by air. Continue Reading »
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