Posted by Guy Schmickle on January 1, 2008 at 10:47 PM
I finally made my first long awaited trip to Bosque del Apache between Christmas and New Years. All I can say is....wow, what a birders paradise! Of course, most of you knew that already. Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of shots. While the weather was a bit chilly (the ponds were all partially to fully iced over), the atmospherics were to die for. We encountered one beautiful sunrise/sunset after another. There was definitely no shortage of birds either. You can see my entire collection of processed images here...
Posted by Guy Schmickle on January 2, 2008 at 11:17 AM
Thanks everyone. The trip was definitely an exercise in high iso shooting. I utilized two cameras - a Canon 1D Mark II N with a 400 f/5.6 mounted and a 5D with a 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS. All the images above were taken with the Mark II N - 400 f/5.6 combo. Processing has been very slow going as I've been employing judicious use of noise removal techniques via layer masks. Given the fact that I'm wading through over four thousand images makes this a very tedious task, that's for sure! My biggest blunder of the trip was forgetting my teleconverters at home...doh! It forced me to concentrate more on composing the birds within their environment (which isn't a bad thing either).
By the way Ken, no Artie sightings. I'm pretty sure he wasn't around as most of his workshops end around the beginning of December. The definite advantage of going when I did was that the crowds were definitely at a miminum. I was thankful for that. I did come away from the trip with my usual case of lens envy though. Something I'll just have to get over!!
Posted by Momo Vuyisich on January 2, 2008 at 1:38 PM
Like someone else said, these are ALL amazing. Congrats, and thanks for posting.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on January 2, 2008 at 3:45 PM
I've never seen any Bosque shots with pink mountains like #1. Sweet.
All three you've posted here are really beautiful.
Posted by John Mumaw on January 3, 2008 at 11:38 AM
Simply stunning!
Looks like you've settled in quite well here.
You and I both use Image Counts in Durango for frames/mattes, eh?
Posted by Rene Pirolt on January 4, 2008 at 12:35 AM
Wow! Great shots Guy - they are all fantastic, but #1 is my favorite.
Posted by Les Barstow on January 4, 2008 at 1:22 PM
Very, very nice, Guy! I really have to get down there some time soon.
Discussion
14 replieshttp://www.pbase.com/gschmickle/bosque_del_apache
I especially like those parachuting Sandhills at sunset.
The only problem with Bosque is having to go home and process all those files.
Happy editing!
Regards, Ken
These look terrific.
RichieV
By the way Ken, no Artie sightings. I'm pretty sure he wasn't around as most of his workshops end around the beginning of December. The definite advantage of going when I did was that the crowds were definitely at a miminum. I was thankful for that. I did come away from the trip with my usual case of lens envy though. Something I'll just have to get over!!
All three you've posted here are really beautiful.
Looks like you've settled in quite well here.
You and I both use Image Counts in Durango for frames/mattes, eh?