Yes, even more Bosque del Apache

I've just finished two weeks at Bosque del Apache where I photographed so much, and slept so little, that it has been a struggle to keep the blog up! I left Bosque yesterday morning and headed down to White Sands National Monument for a quick overnight trip - which gave me one sunset and one sunrise to photograph the dunes (will share those photos in the next post). I left White Sands late this morning and am now near the town of Portal in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. I've been here once before - about a dozen years ago - but I had forgotten how beautiful it is. The Chiricahuas are simply spectacular! I expect to spend a week or more here and each day will be torn between photographing the scenery and the birds, for which the area is famous.

Before I start showing you photos from White Sands and the Chiricahuas, I have to share a few more of the thousands of photos I shot at Bosque.

And on a side note, the first photo in my last blog posting (right below this one) - the image of the snow geese blast off - will accompany a column on me and some of my unconvential photo tips in an upcoming issue of Popular Photography. I'll keep you posted when it comes out.

All below photos taken with EOS 1Ds mIII

Photo 1: Sunrise Reflections at Bosque del Apache
24-70mm lens at 28mm; ISO 200; 25 seconds at f/14


Photo 2: Sunrise over Snow Geese at Bosque del Apache
24-70mm lens at 34mm; Singh-Ray Gold n Blue polarizer; ISO 400; 1/6s at f/10


Photo 3: Sandhill Crane landing
500mm IS lens + 1.4x teleconvertor (=700mm)
ISO 400; 1/800s @ f/5.6; cropped about 10% for composition


Photo 4: Sandhill Crane drinking in golden reflections
500mm IS lens + 2x teleconvertor (=1000mm); ISO 125; 1/1000s @ f/8


Photo 5: Sandhill Crane blur
500mm IS lens + 2x teleconvertor (=1000mm); ISO 1250; 1/13s @ f/8
I must have tried a thousand pan blurs of birds in flight trying to get a winner. This one was a toss-up for the delete button. What do you think - is this 'art' or junk?