What’s Up?
I wrote most of this blog post on Thanksgiving Day after a really short but really wonderful morning photo session. With the heavy cloud cover and the strong east wind, I knew that there was only one spot on the refuge that might offer some quality chances. I had been there the day before and it was dead. But on Thursday morning, it paid off in spades. As I said, it was the only game in town. (See Image #2.)
I felt much, much better on Thursday, the best I’ve felt in weeks. I had dinner with two friends at the El Camino Restaurant on the main drag in Socorro. My turkey special was quite good, so good that I ate much too much including a small piece of pumpkin pie for dessert.
How good did I feel? I went back to the refuge and photographed for four hours, almost all Infrared with my Kolari Vision converted 5D Mark II. With lots of dramatic clouds and a swirling flock of blackbirds I had a ton of fun in the sun. The sunset turned out to be a fizzle.
No dinner for me 🙂
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This image was created on the second morning of the first Bosque IPT with the Induro 304L Tripod/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (with the internal TC engaged at 420mm) and the Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO ?? Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/125 sec. at f/5.6 in Tv mode. Color temperature: 8000K. Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #1: Mega-nuclear Sunrise |
Bosque Being Bosque…
Bosque was really dead before we arrived. Then it was OK for a day or three. Then pretty lousy again. For the six days I have been here, I would rate it 3.5 out of ten as far as photographic opportunities. Now don’t get me wrong, everyone on the first IPT enjoyed lots of great chances and learned a ton, in part because of two great instructors and in part because after 21 years, I know where to be when with these sky conditions and that wind.
It is a very strange year for a variety of reasons. Aside for the first session, there has not been the traditional early morning fly-in. Numbers of geese are clearly down, possibly due to a lack of food on the refuge, and they are roosting in distant pools way north and east of the main impoundment. When they blast off, the head straight north. And disappear. There have been very few geese anywhere near the north tour loop road for the past few days. One afternoon we drove both the north and south loops and saw a grand total of one Snow Goose. But we wound up having a great afternoon anyway.
Bosque being Bosque; it can disappoint one day and leave you in tears the next….
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This image was created at Bosque del Apache on Thanksgiving morning with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 170mm) and the rugged Canon EOS-1D X.. ISO: ?? Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/15 sec. at f/5.6 in Tv mode. Color temperature: 8100K (a fortuitous error). Center AF point (Manual selection/Rear Focus AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #2: Pre-dawn white geese blast off |
ISO Challenge
What do you think the ISO was for image #1? What do you think it was for image #2?
Your Favorite?
Which image is your favorite? And why?
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Awesome sunrise. Plus minus metering to get the color saturation that we like, the wilder the rgb histo the more saturated the colors.
I like the sunrise photo over the blur simply because of the colors.
Sunrise ISO @ 6400 and the blur @3200 ?
Hey Joe, It was great meeting and working with you and Scott. Close on the first one and not bad on the second one…. Answers soon.
a
It was great Artie Honestly one of the best parts was the open discussion on exposure while waiting for the geese to show on the main pond so even if the birds are not cooperating it’s not to say the down time is not productive.
Thanks Joe for recognizing that. I think that it was more of a lecture than a discussion 🙂 a
Interesting about the lack of Snow Geese and I can not remember anyone saying that this late
in the year about the Bosque !
Chas,
There are lots of geese roosting on the refuge. But not in the usual areas. And not in photographically accessible areas for the most part. And then they totally disappear from the refuge to the north for the rest of the day….. a
Good morning Artie. I was wondering about the numbers of Geese. I had hundreds of thousands of snows here in Nd on the 17th. Been extremely warm fall and very slow migration . It was probably around the eighth of Nov. before I saw any type of migration Of sand hill cranes and snow geese here in North Dakota. Not sure if any of these geese make it to Bosque I think they go to Ft Desoto on the Missouri in Iowa not sure after that.Always look forward to your photos . Have a great trip.
Hi Kevin, Thanks for the info and for your kind words.
a