Never been to Timberon? Never heard of Timberon, New Mexico? It is a very small, hidden community down a long, twisting mountain road south of Cloudcroft. If you long for trees and living in a forest, this is the place for you! I was there for a second time recently on a rural land real estate shoot on assignment for Hemingway Land flying my DJI Mavic Prodrone over rural land real estate in challenging conditions. Note how much the trees are blowing in the drone video. Plus, the property was entirely tree covered, and sloping uphill away from me where I was flying from. It does not get much harder than that for flying a drone. How to make the video interesting when it is nothing but trees?? Lots of gimbal movement!
Being part of a community is pretty important for an entrepreneur. There is no better community for an entrepreneur to be a part of in Albuquerque, New Mexico than 1 Million Cups. I have been going nearly every Wednesday for 8 months straight and enjoy listening to the stories of the presenters about how they started their business, and the challenges they are currently facing. The presenter asks the audience for feedback and with any needs they have. This benefits all in attendance at the event. I always take away one nugget or thought to keep in mind as I go home to work on my photography and drone business. Today it is about keeping my work space even tidier than I normally do per the advice of Feng Shui with Connie K. There are also free donuts and coffee each week too, if that appeals to you!
My rural land photography work often takes me out into the desert were very few signs of life exist. Sometimes I scare a jack rabbit from behind a bush. Sometimes black beetles back their way over the sand. Birds may soar overhead looking aimlessly for food or greener perches. Plants seem to be in abundance in some areas of the desert, like the one pictured above, but how much life is there? What does desert life mean? Is the desert as alive as the jungle?
Car shows are in fact, a very hard place to actually photograph cars in. That’s why when I go to them, I often just bring my 50mm lens, or in this case my Tamron 90mm macro lens. For the SuperNationals Custom Car Show 2019 in Albuquerque I guessed it would be crowded, people walking into potential photos from all directions, and the cars would be bunched in close together and often roped off. All this was the case so I was glad I decided to focus on getting details shots of the custom cars there with my macro lens.
Slab City. It was a mysterious place floating in my mind for decades, ever since seeing Easy Rider. In my memory the movie showed Slab City as a place in California you can just setup and live, on empty slabs of concrete out in the desert. In preparing to go to Slab City recently, I read up some about it. It was supposedly still a lawless place where the police did not go, and were not wanted. I was actually concerned about safety issues trying to just drive through Slab City. I expected to be met with very unwelcome looks, as an outsider. Slab City, I thought, is not a place for casual visitors.
If are a subscriber to my business Facebook Page, then you see my regular Facebook Live videos from the many rural land real estate shoots I am on in remote northwest Rio Rancho and the unique views that area offers. Through the eye of my telephoto lens, you can see nearly all of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho sprawled out at the feet of the Sandia Mountains.
It was a long day at this point when I was driving up a twisting and rising mountain road from Timberon, New Mexico back up to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Earlier that morning I had made the 3.5 drive from Albuquerque to Cloudcroft. Checked in to the same B&B I stayed at last time I was in Cloudcroft (the excellent Crofting Inn). Made the hour drive down to TImberon and then spent 2.5 hours outside making photographs and flying my drone over a rural land real estate property.