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50th Annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Fine Art Photos

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50th Annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Fine Art Photos

The Special Shapes of the 50th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

There were a lot of new special shapes at the 50th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta! From animals, to a UFO, to some others not so easily identifiable, I share below my collection of photos of the special shapes as well as the masses of balloons in the air. This year I chose to bring just one lens, my Sony 50mm f/1.2 GM. At first this might sound like a very limited lens to shoot a very unlimited event. Sometimes I prefer this, especially when just shooting by myself, to let the lens dictate how I can frame things. I shot exclusively at f/1.2 as well. What do I look for when framing a hot air balloon shot? I really like to have no balloons over lap, and I do not like balloons half out of the edge of the frame. From there I like to have a focal balloon if there are more than one.

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Exploring Rural Rio Rancho via Land Real Estate Photography

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Exploring Rural Rio Rancho via Land Real Estate Photography

Spectacular Rio Rancho Desert Sunsets

It had been some time since I was in the high desert of northwest rural Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Thankfully I was presented with a fantastic sunset. In fact, I went to three different rural land real estate properties this time, so you can see multiple sunset views. I also like to get detail photos for clients rather than just all wide open landscape photos. Below you can see cactus and flora from the high desert, as well just how far away Albuquerque is from this seemingly nearby desert If you want to own this land, contact Hemingway Land Company.

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Entrance in the Clouds

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An entrance to a cloud kingdom - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200thI have written before about how photographing clouds is always good.  To end this week I wanted to share this cloud gateway image to fuel your imagination for what may lay beyond the clouds.  This is how I often think myself.  No matter how stormy the surroundings may be, there remains at least a small portion that is bright and hopeful.  As long as that small part still exists, so does hope, and therefore so does life.

Photographing clouds is always good

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Just clouds -- Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/200thI was up early this morning not necessarily on purpose.  Rain had passed by recently.  Everything was still early morning tranquil.  I saw a great egret standing on the dock not looking to pleased about having been rained on.  I took my Nikon out to get a shot of the bird in the still very good morning light.  I approached slowly, but the egret was having nothing of it and flew off.  

So now I was standing there with camera in hand and seemingly nothing to photograph.  Fortunately, I really like to photograph clouds and to the west were some getting touched by lingering sunrise beams.  I changed my settings in a quick moment from the ones I was hoping to use to photograph the great egret to the best settings for getting a detailed cloud image.  

Instead of heading back inside with nothing, I have a simple cloud image to look at today and help me daydream and wonder what lies beyond their puffy peaks.

Use Negative Space when composing photography tip

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Composing with negative space - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/400th

 I often tell my DSLR photography students to "fill the frame" when composing shots.  I also recently wrote about how not including the entire motorcycle makes for an image with more impact.  That said, another composition technique follows just the opposite of those and calls for using negative space in the frame to be part of the photograph.  

In the above image instead of filling the frame with the palm tree, or using a rule of thirds type of composition, the palm tree is composed as to look small and isolated allowing the negative space itself to be the main subject of the photograph.  Filling the frame with negative space gives the impression of great expansion, or rather, no end once the eye reaches the edge of the frame.  The viewer's eye continues on past the edges filled in by their own imagination of what goes beyond.  

Post a link to your example of negative space composition in the comments below.

Sailboat Dreams in St. Petersburg HDR Fine Art Florida

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Sailboat masts in downtown St. Petersburg Florida marina - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseMy goal when making this photograph was to just show the part of the sailboat that inspires dreams.  A sailboat docked in a marina is not going anywhere, so the collection of hulls is not the part I find inspiring.  My eyes focused on the masts and in particular the long row of masts, allowing one to pick out their own particular sailboat to build a dream on.

This composition also utilized repeating patterns and leading lines.  I chose HDR for the exposure so that detail could be seen in the masts as well as the background sky maximizing the color gradient as twilight approached.

Mt. Fuji above the clouds

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Mt. Fuji above the clouds as seen from the summit of Yatsugatake - blue color is natural - 200mm focal lengthMy friend i-cjw is the premiere mountain summit photographer in Japan.  He has the photography skill to produce such images, but what makes his images all the better are how rare they are because few have his mountaineering skills to get to the mountain tops he does.  His most recent photo story (view here) made me miss being around mountains even more than I already had been.  In case you did not know it, Florida is basically a pancake.  So I had to dig into my archives to find my own mountain summit images of Mt. Fuji taken from the summit of Yatsugatake.  The above photograph shows Mt. Fuji peaking just above the clouds.  It was not visible again the rest of the time I was at the summit after I made this shot, so I am glad I took out my Nikon first and sandwich second!

Mt. Fuji photographed from the same Yatsugatake summit but at a 42mm focal lengthAs you can see, Mt. Fuji was actually quite a distance away.  The lead photograph is a good example of how a 200mm lens can actually be a very good lens for landscapes.

Japanese Alps from the summit of Yatsugatake JapanThese photographs have no editing done to them other than vignetting removal (due to the not so great 18-200mm lens I had at the time) and some cropping on the above image.  The blue tones are natural.  

It is an absolutely unique feeling to stand atop a mountain summit after spending the previous hours hiking up it.  When you finally return to the base and look back up at the summit, I always do not believe my legs had just carried me up to such a high place.  I have always enjoyed a view.

These Mt. Fuji photographs are available for as fine art prints & commercial license, inquire today!