New Mexico is a desert state, but mostly high desert, not like the sandy dunes most thought of when picturing a desert. Mescalero Sands North Dune, however, outside of Roswell, New Mexico, is a more traditional sand dune desert, surrounded by an ocean of hearty desert flora. As you can see from the many tire tracks in the photos below, these sand dunes are an all terrain vehicle playground. Even for a person on foot, this desert is a special place to explore and experience. I sent the drone up for a 360 panorama photo as well as video and aerial photos, and had my Sony a7R IV with me for still photos as my shoes filled with sand making my way over the dunes.
Using shallow depth of field and setting your focus point
Since I started Jason Collin Photography back in 2009, I have taught hundreds of people of all levels 1-on-1 photography lessons. In the course of that teaching I repeated some favorite photography advice. Here is one of them:
“Show me something I cannot see by just standing there.”
Another one is:
“A photographer can make something out of nothing.”
In the example photos in this blog post I had my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART lens on my Sony a7 III full frame mirrorless camera. This lens is my favorite lens for making something out of nothing because the large f/1.4 aperture means I can easily create very shallow DoF (depth of field). Making a photo with a very shallow DoF is one of the easiest ways to make something out of nothing.
Back out on another commercial drone photography shoot for WSP in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this time getting aerial drone photos of all four pedestrian bridges that cross Tramway Blvd at the foot of the Sandia Mountains. This is the second time (see Rio Bravo Blvd Bridge) I have photographed bridges to help WSP get contracts. I have also made headshots of their entire team too! Here at Jason Collin Photography, we really, really appreciate our repeat clients. There is not better compliment than for a client to choose us again!
If you find yourself in Roswell, New Mexico and you want to do some non-alien exploring, nearby Bottomless Lakes State Park is a hidden gem worth seeking out. The lakes are actually sinkholes filled with water, and as always, to my disappointment with such things, not truly bottomless! Some are up to 90 feet deep though, which for the desert, is pretty far down. You can hike all along the ~6 lakes even circumnavigating the rims of each which offer unique views adding even more to the sense of bottomlessness of the water. I had both my camera and drone with me to capture these lakes from all angles. Let me know in the comments if you have been to this state park, or after seeing these images, if you will be planning to visit.
On a recent trip to Angel Fire, New Mexico for a rural land client, I sent my DJI Mavic 2 Prodrone up and was shown a landscape totally different than from where I stood surrounded by tall trees. Going up a hundred feet allows for unique landscape photography. Combining dramatic clouds filling the sky, with the tall pine treetops, and the distant mountains, these drone aerial photos are some of my personal favorites that I have ever made in New Mexico. Here on the Jason Collin Photography blog I always like to show you unique views of known places. Angel Fire is a ski resort town, but I have actually never seen it in snow despite three trips there! So if you have only seen it in snow, from these drone photos, you can see how visiting Angel Fire in the spring after the snow melts reveals it is still a very special place with amazing scenery, especially from the drone’s viewpoint!
Composite photos for the best commercial photography
I was contacted by Planar two months ago to make professional commercial photos of their LED panel displays products they installed in a call center in Hobbs, New Mexico. However, Covid-19 soon shut everything down and it took until now for it to be safe to travel to Hobbs and finally make the photos. To make these images I knew the challenge would be how to capture the bright LED displays in a dimly lit space.
Many times I have driven up and down HWY 550 in New Mexico on my way to and from home in Albuquerque to Navajo Dam or Farmington in northern New Mexico. Each time I stared at this mesa, or rather a volcanic plug as Wikipedia describes it, off to the west visible from great distance. This rock formation is named Cabezon Peak, and finally, I had the time to actually drive right up to its base. From this vantage point I sent up my DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone to capture 4K drone video, a 360 panorama drone photo, as well as regular aerial drone photos, before finishing with sone telephoto shots of the peak with my Sony a7 III mirrorless camera. I actually found viewing Cabezon Peak from a little bit of distance to be the more impressive view than standing right before it.
