New Mexico | Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog

Red Rock Balloon Rally in Gallup New Mexico

by hankinslawrenceimages | Dec 29, 2010 | New Mexico, Photo Locations

One of the wonderful unexpected photo opportunities on my trip along Route 66 last month was the chance to photograph some hot air balloons at the Red Rock Balloon Rally in Gallup, New Mexico. My trip started in Gallup on Friday evening – and over dinner – one of the other photographers mentioned there was a balloon rally in town and did anyone want to get up early and photograph the launch the next morning. Since I love seeing hot air balloons – I said of course.

Early Saturday morning, several of us headed out to Red Rock State Park for the Dawn Patrol and early morning launch. We weren’t able to stay long enough to see all the balloons launch (needed to get back to start the Route 66 trip) – but we were there long enough to see (and photograph) some of the balloons.

When I’ve photographed hot air balloons in the past – it has always been in the Maryland/Virginia area. So the balloons are usually launching and flying across farmers fields. In New Mexico, I had the opportunity to photograph them against a much more dramatic landscape. In the early morning light, the jagged red rocks were a great contrasting background to the beauty of the hot air balloons.

Here are a few of the photos I took that morning.

The Red Rock Balloon Rally is held in Red Rock State Park in Gallup, New Mexico on the first full weekend of December. From what little I saw – it’s a wonderful event. I’d love to go back and spend more time photographing it some time in the future.

White Sands National Monument

by hankinslawrenceimages | Nov 8, 2010 | New Mexico, Photo Locations

I recently realized that I’d never edited or shared some of the photos I took last December on a photo trip Bill & I took with Alain and Natalie Briot to New Mexico. I posted some of my photos from Bosque del Apache shortly after I returned, but that was pretty much it. So here are some of my photos from White Sands National Monument near Alamagordo, New Mexico.

Our original plan was for an late afternoon/sunset shoot one day, followed by a sunrise shoot the next morning. Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t cooperate on the morning shoot. The winds were strong enough that I never even took my camera out of my bag – or set up my tripod. Something about not wanting to get all that blowing sand into my gear.

So all my photos are from the afternoon shoot.

For me, the main attraction at White Sand National Monument was photographing the yucca plants. The yucca plants bloom in May & June – so instead of photographing them in full bloom, I photographed the dry stalks where the flowers had been months before. Someday I hope to photograph the yucca in full bloom. But even six months after they finish blooming – they are quite beautiful.

This was the second of Alain & Natalie Briot’s photography workshops that Bill and I have attended. The workshops are always great fun – full of wonderful places to photograph – and lots of great conversations with other photographers. Each year, I seem to come back with a photo of Alain photographing in the field. Sometimes having a person in the photo helps give a sense of the scale of the landscape I was photographing in.

The sunset that evening wasn’t particularly colorful. The cloud cover was fairly heavy – so much of the sky had very little color. I did capture a few moments of color along the ridge line at one point.

White Sands National Monument was a fascinating place to photograph. I will definitely return there someday to do some more exploring and photographing.

Sunrise from the Flight Deck at Bosque del Apache

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 3, 2010 | New Mexico, Photo Locations

Last month while Bill and I were in New Mexico we had the chance to photograph an incredible sunrise at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro. This was one of locations we photographed at as part of Alain and Natalie Briot’s Bosque del Apache and White Sands workshop.

Our first morning at Bosque was December 5 – and the only way to describe the weather was freezing cold. It was something like 12 degrees – before the wind chill. Fortunately, we had packed our heavy winter coats, long underwear, gloves and hats for the trip. We’d also stopped off at a local store to pick up some hand an feet warmers. Even with all this preparation – it was freezing cold standing outside for a couple of hours for sunrise.

But it was worth it. This sunrise at Bosque was one of the most beautiful sunrises I saw in 2009. The sky was an everchanging array of colors and clouds. The marsh was frozen. The best way to describe it was a contrast of fire in the sky – and ice on the ground. All morning – the colors in the sky were reflected on the ice.

We were photographing from an overlook known as the Flight Deck. This location is very popular with people who are visiting Bosque to see the birds. Each night – thousands of birds overnight in the ponds and marshes of the refuge. Many of the geese and cranes spend the nights near the Flight Deck. So in the morning just before dawn, there is an incredible moment when thousands of birds take off, circle around the sky, and head off to spend the day foraging for food. We were fortuate enough to see this the morning we were at the Flight Deck.

As the sun’s rays began to peek above the horizon, the light reflected off the clouds making the sky look like it was on fire.

When the snow geese took flight – they filled the air. Seeing the huge group of the flying was incredible. I’d heard how wonderful it was to see the birds take flight from the marsh at Bosque, but until I saw it in person – I had no idea how magnificent it could be.

As the sun continued to rise – the clouds higher in the sky took on amazing shades of pink.

When I realized how beautiful the entire sky was lighting up, I turned and looked 180 degrees away from where the sun was coming up. The opposite was bathed in a beautiful golden light – with pale pink clouds in the sky

And finally, some of the marsh grasses frozen in the ice. One of the amazing aspects of the morning was how the colors in the sky were reflected in the ice.

Once the sun was up – we headed back into town for breakfast. Everyone drank lots of coffee or tea as we attempted to warm up. I have no idea when I’ll next get back to Bosque del Apache, but I know I will head back there one day and I can only hope to see another sunrise as magnificent as the one I saw in December 2009.

Birds from New Mexico

by hankinslawrenceimages | Dec 16, 2009 | New Mexico, Photo Locations

Bill and I recently returned from a fantastic trip to New Mexico. We attended Alain and Natalie Briot’s Bosque del Apache and White Sands Workshop. As always, Alain and Natalie made sure we were at spectacular places for sunrise and sunset, and provided us with lots of things to think about during the print reviews and instructional sessions. I’ll be posting some of my photos from New Mexico in the coming weeks. This first set are a few bird photographs that I managed to take while I was in New Mexico. If nothing else, this trip proved I really need to practice with my long lens if I want to be able to take even a passable photo of a bird – especially if it’s moving.

It was very cold while we were in New Mexico. These first two photos are of the ducks at Rio Grande Botanical Garden in Albuquerque. They were slipping and sliding on the ice.

These next two photographs are of some of the snow geese at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The snow geese were a little more stable on the ice than the ducks had been in Albuquerque.

And finally a Say’s Phoebe, also photographed at Bosque del Apache NWR. Thanks to my friends on Twitter who were able to identify this bird.

I’ve got lots of landscape photos to edit from our trip. We spent time photographing in several locations including Bosque del Apache NWR, Valley of Fires, Three Rivers Petroglyph site and White Sands National Monument. I’ll be posting photos from all these locations in the coming weeks.