I got up very early on Christmas Eve to shoot at my favorite spot. It was so cold that I couldn’t find many animals to photograph, but the sun playing through the mist from Clear Creek more than made up for the lack of animate subjects. The first image is a straight-from-the camera image. The second is a monochrome image that I toned using a custom tone curve.
I tent to prefer the first image, mostly because I think the composition is stronger, though (obviously) I liked the second enough to post it. Please post a comment and let me know which you prefer.
I started a long blog post about my experience shooting at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge over the last three years, years, the difference between the conditions this year and last, the reasons why I made various images, etc. Then I realized that the post was ponderous and boring. Instead, here is a simple gallery of the best images from my trip this winter, plus a so-so quail image that I included for sentimental reasons. Hopefully the images can speak for themselves. (Click on a thumbnail for a larger view and for a slideshow).
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After spending way, way too much time editing and tinkering with my images from Bosque, I have finally posted a collection of my favorite images from the trip. See the whole collection in the Bosque 2008 Gallery.
If you enjoy the images, please let me know in the comments.
I apologize for the derth of posts over the last couple of weeks — I was away shooting at Bosque, and then preoccupied with work and holiday shopping. In any event, I’ve finally had a chance to start seriously editing the 5000+ images that I captured at Bosque Del Apache earlier this month. Based on my initial review, I’m pretty sure that the image above is my favorite from the trip — and I made it about ten minutes after I set up on my very first day. The rest of the trip was somewhat anticlimactic.
More images after the jump
Continue reading First Bosque Images
