Artesia for the first time
It is rare I get to go to a new place in New Mexico already haven criss-crossed the state dozens of times in just over 2 years for the rural land real estate photography and drone video work I do. So it was very welcome to make my way to Artesia, New Mexico for my latest shoot. I drove east out of Cloudcroft down a beautiful country road through tall timber along a canyon for miles. This is very unusual scenery for southern New Mexico which is mostly empty desert.
Sunrise if not sunset
Once in Artesia, however, the weather was not cooperating. As this was a very high value property to the client (Hemingway Land Company), anything less than virtually ideal sky conditions meant a no go, even if I had to stay in town an extra day or two at their lodging expense. The evening forecast for the next day was not great, so I woke up at 5:30am the next morning, looked out the hotel window, saw clouds in the pre-dawn sky, causing me to grab my camera bag and my drone and rush out to the property. If you cannot get sunset shots, then sunrise shots will look the same only in reverse! The client did not ask me to do this, but I always do whatever is in my power to get the best results for all my clients, and if that means going at 5:30am, that’s what I do.