After two years I had the opportunity to return, briefly, to White Sands National Monument. It was not at an ideal time of day for photography, but I had a new powerful tool with me this time, the incredible Sony 12-24mm f/2.8 G Master lens. For this photo series I really wanted to focus on the minimalism of White Sands when photographed up close. The patterns in the sand dunes fascinate me. They are mesmerizing. Then there is the stark contrast between the white sand and almost electric blue, cloudless sky above.
Clouds like coral over the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico
Having been to remote northwest Rio Rancho, New Mexico at least a hundred times over the past 3+ years for rural land real estate photography, I have made hundreds and hundreds of photos of the Sandia Mountains using a 70-200mm lens, with this shot being made by the amazing Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master lens. One might not think a telephoto lens is good for landscape photography, but if what you want to photograph is very far away, it will just get lost in a wide angle lens. On this particular afternoon, the clouds above the mountains rivaled the mountains themselves for drama. To me they look like undersea coral? What do you think?
Leaving Albuquerque on a scenic drive for a day trip can take you to Abiquiu Lake. Driving offroad can get you to this less visited southern area of the lake. I was on a rural land real estate shoot for a client who also wanted some footage of the lake. Finding access from the south was a challenge due to a couple of locked gates, but I found a place to launch the drone from just in time to get this stunning golden hour and sunset cinematic 4K drone video. Check out the map link below to visit Abiquiu Lake yourself.
Telephoto lens for mesa landscape photography in New Mexico
At the end of a rural land real estate shoot in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, near Abiquiu Lake, I noticed some mesas in the distance. I did not need to get photographs of them for the client, but one of my axioms is a real photographer always stops to get a photo if he/she sees an opportunity. So I got out my Sony a7 III with Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master lens attached to get these shots, as the mesas were quite far away and they would look tiny in a wide angle lens one might normally think to use for landscape photography. The sun was going down, and there were good clouds in the sky, a recipe for near ideal landscape photography conditions.
At the end of a rural land photography shoot in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, I turned from the west after getting the required sunset shots to see the moon rising over the Sandia Mountains. I would come to learn that in a few days this would be a very rare full (blue) moon on Halloween night. To get unique views one must go to unique places, and not many go miles off road in the desert northwest of Rio Rancho wit a camera.
Clouds making for stunning rural land real estate photos in New Mexico
As the best and most prolific rural land real estate photographer in the state of New Mexico, I am constantly looking at weather reports for trying to get the best possible skies for client shoots. On a day like this in Taos, New Mexico, the clouds were absolutely dramatically stunning and the results were over 50 photos from around the Carson Estates area near Taos, New Mexico that delivered exactly what my client, Hemingway Land Company, wanted for grabbing the attention of land buying customers who will likely be buying sight unseen. I covered dozens of miles off road and hours of getting in and out of my Jeep from noon to sunset to create this collection of rural land real estate photographs that will help my client sell the land faster.
New Mexico is not generally well known as an area of volcanic activity, at least not in this millennium! However, the state’s volcanic past is highly visible in Cibola County where a large swath is covered in lava fields, and in this particular spot I visited recently, Lava Falls. You can drive right up to this area and then explore on foot acres and acres as far as the eye can see of lava in all forms. An alien landscape that you can touch right here in New Mexico! I provide a map below so you can go check it out yourself.
