A place far from the modern, civilized, world. A place of extremes with brutally frigid winters and scorching hot summers. A place that was once inhabited by the Ancestral Puebloans and was perhaps the trade and spiritual center of their world. A place called Chaco.

Located in Chaco Canyon in far northwestern New Mexico, Chaco Culture National Historical Park protects some of the largest Ancestral Puebloan ruins in the American Southwest. Among these ruins is Pueblo Bonito, the largest Great House in the park which is believed to have been inhabited between AD 828 and 1126. Covering nearly two acres of land it was once four stories tall and may have contained as many as 800 rooms.

Photographically speaking, Pueblo Bonito is an extremely exciting subject to work with. I suggest that photographers come prepared with ultra-wide angle and medium length zooms to capture the interior of the pueblo. The photo of the T-shaped door above and the photo looking up through the pueblo on the left were both created using a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L lens at the 16mm setting on a 5D Mark II camera.

The exterior of the pueblo can be captured using a a full-array of focal lengths from ultra-wide to telephoto. The photo on the right was captured with my Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS lens set at 150mm. I chose this lens to isolate the back wall of the pueblo against the canyon wall, both of which were bathed in a warm, late-evening light.

In a few days I’ll be sharing more photos from my trip to Chaco Canyon and will be discussing additional photo opportunities in the area.

Related posts:

1. Kiva ~ Pecos National Historical Park
2. Rio Grande Gorge with the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II
3. The Spirit Within ~ Anasazi Cliff Dwelling

Most people know New Mexico for it’s beautiful deserts and canyons as well as it’s tremendous Spanish and Native American cultural sites. But what a lot of people don’t know is that we also have beautiful mountains and high-altitude lakes. The mountains between Taos and Angel Fire, the Sangre de Cristo Range, have peaks reaching to over 13,000 feet above sea-level with many lakes scattered amongst them. The largest lake in the range is 2,400 acre Eagle Nest Lake.

This past February I spent a good part of an extremely cold winter day on the ice at Eagle Nest Lake State Park photographing ice-fishermen braving air temperatures in the mid-teens. People from all walks of life, young and old, were out on the ice. I could not have asked for a better group of people to be the subjects of my first magazine assignment. Everyone was very approachable and extremely eager to share their knowledge and love for the sport of ice fishing. I’d like to thank everyone who shared their day with me.

For the camera equipment junkies that might be interested in the equipment I used for the assignment, I can tell you that I primarily used a Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-105/4L lens, and the original 5D with 17-40/4L lens. Shooting with two camera bodies made it much easier to shoot. The last thing I really wanted to do was try to change lenses in the cold air and blowing snow.

Related posts:

1. New Mexico Magazine, Enchanting Decanting article
2. New Mexico Magazine ~ June 2008
3. A Favorite Place ~ Williams Lake, New Mexico

Holy smokes was it cold this past Friday! I got up at sunrise to photograph the Rio Grande Gorge in early morning light with a fresh snow covering the rocks. As I drove out of town I noticed that bank sign was reading 12 degrees Fahrenheit, and the coldest part of the morning was yet to come. What a lot of people don’t realize is that Taos can get cold…very cold. To put it bluntly, we got down to 5 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind started to blow. Ugh! Enough whining from me, here the photo:

~Tech details~
Camera & Lens: Canon EOS 5D Mark II and EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens
Exposure:  20 seconds, f/11 and ISO 100 ( for the canyon, see notes below)
Filters: Hoya HD Circular Polarizer
Notes: I manually blended two exposures, one for the gorge and another for the sky to handle the dynamic range in this image. It was simply too cold to try to hand-hold my Singh-Ray graduated  neutral density filter in front of the lens.

Related posts:

1. Cumbres & Toltec Railroad – An Early Morning
2. A Winter Morning in the Forest
3. Rio Grande Gorge with the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II

Ute Mountain surrounded by fog

On a recent trip to Colorado to photograph fall color I got stuck in New Mexico. It wasn’t because of car trouble or work obligations, it was because we had some of the most amazing fog I’ve ever seen in the desert. It’s important to understand that fog is not exactly a common occurrence in the high, dry desert of northern New Mexico. So when my wife and I finally broke into the clear and could see Ute Mountain apparently floating on a blanket of fog, I had to stop and shoot and shoot and shoot…until I had over 100 photos of this rare scene in front of us.

~Tech details~
Camera & Lens: Canon EOS 5D Mark II and EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens
Exposure:  1/125 seconds, f/11 and ISO 100
Filters: Hoya HD Circular Polarizer

Related posts:

1. Taos Mountain Balloon Rally 2007
2. North Clear Creek Falls
3. Monsoon thunderstorm over Shiprock

Monsoon Thunderstorm ~ Shiprock, New Mexico

The summer “monsoon” took a bit of a break this month but was in full-force again this past weekend. I always seem to miss good, dynamic weather when attempting to photograph Shiprock Peak in northwestern New Mexico. But this past Monday on the drive home from the Grand Canyon the sky was full of great clouds.

This image of a thunderstorm over Shiprock Peak and another like it but in color, are available for purchase at my website AdamSchallau.com.

.

Related posts:

1. Sunset on Shiprock, New Mexico
2. Spring on the Chama River near Abiquiu
3. Storm over Pecos National Historical Park

Pecos National Historical Park

This image of the Pecos National Historical Park and others like it are available for purchase at my website AdamSchallau.com.

.

Related posts:

1. Kiva ~ Pecos National Historical Park
2. Sunrise on Mount Hayden – Grand Canyon National Park
3. Desert View at Twilight ~ Grand Canyon

The wildflower season in Colorado and northern New Mexico is nearing the end and I’ve begun to sort through my new photos.  One of the first things I noticed is that I photographed several varieties of wild Geraniums this year. The first image was captured on Kebler Pass near Crested Butte, Colorado and the second image was captured in the Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico.

Both photos and others like them are available for purchase at my website AdamSchallau.com.

.

.

Related posts:

1. Extension Tubes and Wildflowers
2. Colorado Wildflowers ~ Lupines on Kebler Pass
3. Dandelion Abstract

Late afternoon thunderstorms have added some color to the Chama River and saturated the surrounding countryside. Near the village of Abiquiu, New Mexico and Ghost Ranch.

This image of the Chama River is available for purchase at my website AdamSchallau.com.

.

Related posts:

1. Rio Grande Vision
2. Colorado Wildflowers ~ Lupines on Kebler Pass
3. A Cold Morning at the Gorge in Taos

A beam of light from the mid-day sun illuminates the interior of a kiva at Pecos National Historical Park just east of Santa Fe, New Mexico. A kiva is a subterranean ceremonial chamber built by pueblo indians. I love photographing kivas, especially in the summer because they are considerably cooler than the outside air temperature.

This image of a kiva at Pecos National Historical Park and others like it are available for purchase at my website AdamSchallau.com.

.

Related posts:

1. Storm over Pecos National Historical Park
2. Sunrise on Mount Hayden – Grand Canyon National Park
3. A visit to Chaco Canyon

A kayaker navigates the rapids on the “Race Course”, a section of rough water on the Rio Grande near Taos, New Mexico.

.

Related posts:

1. Cumbres & Toltec Railroad – An Early Morning
2. Rio Grande Vision
3. A Cold Morning at the Gorge in Taos