If anyone asks me how did I learn photography, I tell them, by walking the streets of Tokyo for hundreds of hours with my very first DSLR camera, a Nikon D80. What is great about living in a city with wide spread public transportation is you can take a train to one area, walk randomly to where your eyes take you, then just hop on another train and get back home without having to worry about returning to where your car is parked. This is how I went about finding one of my more famous photos, at least in Japan, which I titled, “Last Green Leaves Before Autumn.” I submitted it to Metropolis Magazine (the largest weekly English magazine in Japan) and they featured it in the Photo of the Week section. Picking up a copy of the magazine the Friday afternoon it came out and seeing my photo featured inside, I was stunned and even stopped strangers passing by to say (in English), “that’s my photo!” It was a moment of exhileration I have rarely ever felt again.
A third trip in 6 weeks to Valencia County, New Mexico where I met the enemy of the landscape photographer, i.e. a cloudless sky. However, these agave plants volunteered to be in the foreground of my photo to add some visual flair to what otherwise would have been a mediocre HDRsunset photo. Want to look at this view at your home? Use the buttons below to get a fine art print. Want to own this view and build a house on this land? Check out Hemingway Land Company.
My first rural land real estate shoot with the new Sony a7R IV mirrorless camera took me all the way down to Alamogordo, New Mexico. I was nervous about using this new camera along with the new Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 ART lens, so luckily the weather cooperated and the skies were great for the sunset shots in particular. How different is it shooting with the Sony mirrorless camera compared to my Nikon DSLR camera? A lot actually. It is hard to tell the exposure just by looking at the photo on the back of the Sony camera. However, with its EVF (electronic viewfinder) I can just look at the photo right in the viewfinder like using a mini monitor in totally protected viewing conditions. That took some getting used to! The Sony camera and Sigma lens are significantly smaller than my Nikon DSLR and huge Tamron lens I have used for the past 2 years. So I appreciate having lighter weight and a smaller system in general to carry around the open desert.
This was a return for me to both Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, and also Sierra Negra mountain. I was first in this area over 18 months ago and made one of my favorite landscape photos of New Mexico, so much so I had a print made and it is hanging on the wall in the dining room. The skies were of a different level of drama this time featuring bold clouds, and therefore made the mountain look totally different. Also, I have drone video this time featuring the mountain in the background.
Looking for a destination to end a drive at while scouring Google Maps, I saw Juan Tabo Picnic Site nestled in the norhern end of the Sandia Mountains and thought, let’s try this. I assumed it would have a nice view, and it did, though not as sweeping or panoramic as I thought. Hustling to get my tripod out and my camera mounted on it, I got the last peak of the sun over the foothills to the west. I liked having the boulders for the foreground, rather than just a distant shot of the horizon and sky. Once off of Tramway, the road to this spot would be a good driver’s road, if it were a closed road. The tight twists require the speed limit to be 25mph and then 15mph and the narrow road allows for no spirited driving with other cars and bicycles sharing the road. Still, it is a good spot to end and catch the sunset, even if slowly.
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.
The surrealblack & whiteHDRlandscape photograph you see above is not at all what the client that sent me out to that location needs to sell the land. However, the twisted tree, the ominous clouds, and the fact the tree wa growing out of solid rock really caught my eye. So I paused for a moment to make a photograph for myself that interested me. I share it with you now to give you a moment of interest to look at it and find something in it that makes you feel. Tell me about it in the comments below.
