Horses free in the world at twilight share a moment
At the end of a long day out in Cibola County, New Mexico on a pair of rural land real estate photo shoots, my evening end with a view of this horse dreamscape. I was rushing around to try and beat the increasing clouds that were blocking out the sunset, but I paused for a moment seeing these horses far in the distance, who I believe are looking right back at me. There was no fence between me and those horses, so I could have walked right up to them and touched them. That makes me think they are wild horses, free in the world. After a very hard day out in the field, for a moment, there was a shared moment of peace with those horses. We then each went our own ways into the twilight.
Telephoto Dreamscape Views of Sand Dunes in Colorado
This is my second series of photos from Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado (wide angle first series here), this time featuring all images made with a telephoto lens (Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master). You may think for landscape photography that automatically it’s best to use a wide angle lens. Many times that is the case, but when you are very far from the subject, even a very large subject like sand dunes, a telephoto lens can bring you in close, and produce a unique looking landscape image. As I was driving in to Sand Dunes National Park, I thought the sand dunes themselves looked fake, like CGI. There were this soft focus, creamy aberration before more solid, corporeal mountains. As I was leaving the park, I pulled over and took out the telephoto lens to capture these dreamscape like images. Tell me the sand dunes do not look like they were put into the photos as digitally created features?
Taking my new Sony 12-24mm f/2.8 G Master lens out on its first shoot recently, on my way to the actual shoot location, I saw this farm irrigation system. It was a good chance to check out just what 12mm can capture in a dreamscape setting with the setting sun and dramatic clouds above. The emptiness of the land to me lets me dream of what grew here earlier in the season, and what has grown on it in decades past. What do you see in your dreams in looking at these landscapes?
If you asked me, I would tell you that a tripod is a must for making long exposure photos. In fact, I have already shared some long exposure ocean photos from San Diego featuring the Ocean Beach Pier that were all shot with my Nikon mounted on a tripod. That said, if getting a tack sharp image is not needed, handholding a slightly long exposure photo, especially with a lens that has VR (vibration reduction), can produce some very cool shots. The latter was the method I used to hold my Nikon right above the incoming water at Imperial Beach, San Diego, California at sunset. Why do a long exposure? Because it makes the water look like stretched out cotton. In the above shot you might easily think it was taken from a boat in deep water, when in reality it was me in less than ankle deep water letting that few inches of water whoosh past me as the camera’s shutter stayed open for 1/6th of a second.
