Getting Low and Close for Desert Flora Photography
When I have some downtime on rural land photography shoots waiting for the sun to get lower in the sky, I put on my macro lens and see what the desert might be hiding. Such was the case on a recent shoot in McKinley County, New Mexico. I had gotten all the traditional photos I needed, wide landscapes, and was waiting to make my signature HDRsunset shots. So I took a stroll around the property, not looking far and wide, but low and close. I have told photography students in the past, if you show me in a photo what I can see from my own eye level, that is one way to make merely a snapshot. To make a photograph I used to say, show me something I cannot see with my own eyes at my own eye level. Thus, by getting low to the ground, to the eye level of this desert flora, and using the very shallow DoF abilities of the macro lens to create a creamy bokeh, I can show the viewer something she/he cannot see merely by standing in the same spot.
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.
My rural land real estate work took me out to Valencia County again, but instead of being south between Las Lunas and Belen somewhere, this time I was 45+ minutes west of Albuquerque down I-40. Apparently, Valencia is a very big county! Mother Nature cooperated very well this evening producing fantastic skies with plenty of clouds. It was very, very windy at this property, but it was still a very peaceful and scenic work place for me for the evening. As always, my trusty Jeep Renegade Trailhawk got me down the dirt roads to reach this remote location.
Over the course of three hours in the desert southeast of Deming, New Mexico covering over 50 miles, many of it dirt road, I was treated to various views of both Rockhound State Park and the Florida Mountains. These have unusual names, but perhaps because of their unusual rock formations. I was actually being paid to enjoy these views as I actually in the midst of a six location rural land real estate photo shoot. Even though it was of course hot, the weather was otherwise near ideal for day time landscape photography with plenty of clouds and mountains on the horizon in most directions. I was quite busy driving to all these locations, but I did take time to pause, and realize the amazing desert environment I was all out all alone in.
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.
It had been a while since I was in Edgewood, New Mexico for a rural land real estate shoot until making a return this week to photograph adjacent lots that were covered in vegetation. I am always glad to see a piece of rural land real estate have a lot of cactus, shrubs, and flora in general as this at least gives me some foreground subject matter to include in my signature HDRsunset shots. An added bonus was this land sitting in small valley with hills nearby to added more visual interest to these landscape shots. When photographing land for clients I do not just include wide open landscape shots. Using either my 70-200mm f/2.8 or 90mm f/2.8 macro lenses I like to get some closeups of the vegetation or flowers if there are any. So when a customer is browsing the gallery she/he gets the macro and micro views of the property.
