I had another opportunity to contribute to the September 2008 issue of New Mexico Magazine. This time it’s for the article titled Enchanting Decanting about New Mexico wineries.
I have several photographs accompanying the article. I’d like to thank Chris, Jesse, Michele and Liliana at Vivác Winery in Dixon, New Mexico, for their time and hospitality. Here are the pictures that accompany the article.
Click an image to enlarge
The September issue of New Mexico Magazine is in the mail and I’ve got a full page image on page 35! This image was created this past fall in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near the town of Red River, New Mexico.
If you are interested in ordering a print of this image, please give me a call or contact me using the contact button at the top of this page.
What a difference two years makes.
I’ve driven Mokee Dugway on Highway 261 countless times and I remember always seeing a few stickers on the sign at the top of the switcbacks, but I wasn’t prepared for what i found this past May on my drive to the top. As you can see in the above photo, the sign is nearly completely covered with stickers from passing tourists. I wonder how long it will be before the Utah Department of Transportation replaces the sign and the process starts all over.
It’s time to start posting some new images again. Today I offer a panoramic of dawn over Monument Valley. I had actually captured this same scene 4 years ago with my old 6 megapixel Canon Rebel and cropped it down to create a panoramic crop. I loved that image but it was impossible to make a large print since I was only working with 3 megapixels after the crop.
For the past 4 years I’ve been wanting to recapture this scene, but this time with a better camera and with multiple images stitched together. I’ve tried many times but ran into many problems including clear skies, and high wind. Clear skies aren’t such a bad thing, other than they are quite boring for most landscape photography, but the wind would keep me from getting a sharp photo and would make it difficult to stitch together multiple images.
This past May I made another attempt. I was pleasantly surprised to awake to pleasant temperatures, soft clouds, and a calm breeze. I setup my camera and tripod in the dark (4:30am to be exact) and waited for first light. I knew from past attempts that I didn’t want any direct light on the landscape because the red rock in the foreground cliffs is very brilliant when the sunlight strikes it, distracting from the rest of the scene. I managed to capture the three exposures I needed just before the light started to illuminate the cliffs.
After stitching the three images together, the resulting image is 28.3 megapixels. At full resolution you can clearly see the West Mitten, Three Sisters, the “Hub”, and even Agathla Peak which is over 30 miles away (as the raven flies) near the town of Kayenta, Arizona.
This image is available in a limited edition of 50 prints. Please contact me for pricing and availability.
It’s been awhile since I last posted here on Across the Southwest. In the past five weeks I’ve been very busy keywording and writing descriptions for all of my stock images. I’ll be the first to admit that keywording is a the worst part of the job when it comes to photography, but it is also one of the most essential tasks. Lets face-it, if a buyer (or worse, you) can’t find your work then there’s little chance its going to sell. With that in mind, six weeks ago I set out to keyword all of my images, but what I didn’t plan on at the time was getting the crazy idea to completely reorganize my website.
I’m now displaying my fine art photo galleries separate from my stock database with a new look to that part of the website. The end result is that all of my images can now be efficiently found through a keyword search, and many of my best fine art images can be viewed in one place.
I will continue to add images to both the fine art pages and the stock database as I create new work.
Late last month I was exploring along the San Juan River near the town of Mexican Hat, Utah. It was nearly 100 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and the wind was blowing. To be honest, I was prepared to write the day off when I spotted a bit of color among the drab brush. What I found was a single cactus in bloom with a brilliant flower perched atop it’s spiny base. With my wife holding a diffuser to soften the light, I was able to create the image you see here.
Details: Canon EOS 5D, 70-200mm f/4L IS @ 200mm.
This was one of my last images from my recent trip to Grand Canyon National Park. I came across this agave while hiking back up to the rim from my morning shoot.
Details: Canon 5D, 24-70mm f/2.8L at 48mm.
I’d like to invite you to attend the Taos Land Trust’s 14th Annual Art & Adventures Auction on Saturday, June 14, 2008 at the Kachina Lodge Convention Center in Taos, New Mexico. There will be a silent auction, live auction preview that runs from 2:30 - 5:30PM with the live auction from 6:30 - 8:30PM.
I have donated a framed print of my photo titled ‘Pre-dawn, Monument Valley, and a 1-hour private photography or Photoshop lesson to the Land Trust for the auction.
For more information about the auction and the Taos Land Trust, please visit their website at www.taoslandtrust.org.
Here are a few images from an afternoon spent photographing the mules and cowboys at the Grand Canyon upon their return from another successful trip down (and back up) the Bright Angel Trail. All images were captured with a Canon 5D and the wonderful 70-200mm f/4L IS lens.
After completing our orbit around the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers we headed north towards Nankoweap Butte and Marble Canyon. By this point in the flight my hands were beginning to get very cold and numb. We were flying at an altitude of 9,500 feet and I had the window open for nearly the entire flight to avoid photographing through the plexiglas. I wish I had brought some light-weight gloves along on the flight. Continue Reading »