JHP Newsletter - 2010, No. 1, 4 March
Greetings from Joshua Tree National Park, California.
Tour: Bats in August 2010
Come photograph bats in flight in southeastern Arizona, and set yourself apart from the competition! You will photograph several bat species, and also nighthawks, in flight in a controlled situation allowing you to obtain stunning, and unique, images.
Tour: Tanzania in February 2011
Join me for an amazing 15-day photo safari to Tanzania in February 2011 during the height of the wildebeest birthing season where we will visit two of the most famous locations in East Africa to view and photograph wildlife: Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Park.
Tour: Gorillas in February 2011
Join me for an awesome photo safari to East Africa in February 2011 to see and photograph mountain gorillas. This safari will be unlike most other African safaris because all of the photography will be done on the ground after hiking to the subjects. It's a wonderful experience to be in close proximity to these close relatives of ours in their natural habitat. The safari is scheduled to mesh with the Tanzania in February 2011 safari, so join me for both to make the most of your air travel to Africa.
Travel: Abiquiu, New Mexico
In mid January, we went to Abiquiu Lake in New Mexico for a week. Abiquiu Lake is an Army Corps of Engineers facility with free camping in the winter, and it's very close to Ghost Ranch where Georgia O'Keeffe spent several years painting the red rock country. Jan had wanted to spend time in the area for many years, particularly with fresh snow. There wasn't much snow on the ground when we arrived, but the red rock formations were still fun to photograph (below left). This image was created by manually combining three exposures in Photoshop to get good detail in the bright sky, the medium-toned foreground, and the darker shadows. That night, we got about four inches of wet snow which was perfect for photography in the morning, especially when the sun came out (below center). We had a nice campsite at Abiquiu Lake and had the whole place to ourselves during the week. However, a Townsend's solitaire thought we were encroaching on its territory and kept attacking its reflection in our windows. We were able to photograph it on several occasions as it perched nearby in between attacks.
New Mexico, USA
1/15, 1/8, & 1/3 sec, f16, ISO 100
New Mexico, USA
1/180 sec, f16, ISO 100
New Mexico, USA
1/180 sec, f8, ISO 400
Travel: Central New Mexico
We stopped in Albuquerque for a day so we could go to the Rio Grande Zoo. We love that zoo because the gorilla and orangutan enclosures are great for photography. The 15-month-old orangutan was becoming much more independent, but still returned to its mother periodically, and I was able to capture a nice tender moment between them (below left). On this visit, I walked by the cat enclosures, an area I hadn't visited on our last couple of visits because they're not so good for photography. I photographed the two 8-month-old snow leopard cubs because they were in such a nice position (below center).
New Mexico, USA
1/180 sec, f8, ISO 400
New Mexico, USA
1/30 sec, f8, ISO 400
New Mexico, USA
1/250 sec, f8, ISO 400
Then we went to Elephant Butte Lake State Park in New Mexico and spent about two weeks there mainly doing office work. We also photographed the Gambel's quail that were there (above right).
Travel: Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
In early February, we spent three nights just outside Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. We had each been there before, but not in many years. There are lots of colorful badlands to photograph, and many petrified trees throughout the park. My favorite image of our time there (below left) is of frosty rocks and sagebrush. I used the tilt feature of the 90 Tilt-Shift to align the plane of focus along the rocks and sagebrush. We also photographed some of the petroglyphs in the park, including the iconic "bird" (below right).
Arizona, USA
1/20 sec, f16, ISO 100
Arizona, USA
1/45 sec, f11, ISO 100
Travel: Sedona, Arizona
In the middle of February, we spent six nights camped on some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land near Sedona, Arizona. It was my first time to Sedona, and I loved the red rock formations in the area --- some of which were visible from our campsite.
One of the iconic images of Sedona is Cathedral Rock reflected in Oak Creek at Red Rock Crossing. Jan took us there on our first night of photography, and I explored the area for other photo ops. I found some nice reflections in Oak Creek, and the rock acts as a nice anchor (below left). I used a polarizer to maximize the reflections and seven stops of neutral density to increase the exposure time. I went back to "the spot" to get Cathedral Rock, and instead of putting my tripod where practically everyone else had put theirs, I moved downstream a bit to place the small cascades in the foreground to have something more than just a "reflection shot" (below center). I used six stops of solid neutral density to increase the exposure time and both a 1-stop and 2-stop graduated neutral density filter to balance the exposure. One morning we hiked from the Soldier Pass Trailhead to Devil's Kitchen (a large sinkhole) and the Seven Sacred Pools. Neither of those features were interesting photographically, but the agave, red rock formations, and clouds in the area were (below right). We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Sedona, and we plan to return.
Arizona, USA
polarizer, ND,
20 sec, f16, ISO 100
Arizona, USA
20 sec, f11, ISO 100
Arizona, USA
1/45 sec, f11, ISO 100
Travel: Salton Sea, California
We went to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in California at the end of February to photograph the wildflowers. Unfortunately, we were about two weeks early for the peak, and only a few flowers were blooming. Because we were on a schedule to meet up with some photographer friends in Joshua Tree National Park at the very end of February, we decided to go down to the Salton Sea to photograph the birds there instead of waiting for the flowers to bloom in Anza-Borrego.
We found five burrowing owl burrows, and two were good for photography. The pair in the image below left has a burrow underneath an irrigation ditch, and while the concrete isn't very natural looking, it is their natural environment. I was also quite happy to get some nice images of a Caspian tern in flight (below right). Our friends from Nanaimo, British Columbia, came down from Palm Springs for a day, and it was nice to spend some time visiting and photographing with them.
1/250 sec, f11, ISO 400
1/1500 sec, f8, ISO 320
I'll tell you about our stay in Joshua Tree National Park in the next Newsletter.
Take care and happy shooting.
— James
James Hager Photography :: www.jameshagerphoto.com
