Imaging the Natural World

Images from Evans Movie Ranch

Images from the photo shoot sponsored by Canon at the Evans Movie Ranch located near Sante Fe.

Albuquerque & Santa Fe

I attended a Canon arranged trip to Albuquerque and Santa Fe this past week. A group of us flew in on Tuesday and enjoyed a welcome dinner at our hotel in Albuquerque. We were all issued the new Canon 7D digital camera  and were able to choose from a wide variety of Canon lenses and accessories for our use for the next several days. I brought many of my own lenses with me so chose the 400mm DO optic. We spent the remainder of the evening being trained on the Canon 7D’s many functions. There will be much more on the camera and my impressions using it in a future post.

On Wednesday morning we were given briefings on the Canon Pixma desktop printers. Following lunch we were bussed to the Evans Movie Ranch in Santa Fe for an afternoon of shooting with the equipment. At the ranch we had access to all the buildings and Canon had arranged for several models in full western cowboy(girl) gear.

Evans Movie Ranch Desperado

On Thursday morning we received briefings on the Canon ipf professional ink jet printers and spent the remainder of the day printing images on the Pixma and ipf 24 inch printers.

That evening we were treated to a wonderful farewell dinner at the El Pinto restaurant.  There we were entertained by the operations director with a discussion of tequilas and a tequila tasting.  He also detailed the restaurant’s development and their extensive chile growing and processing.

Friday was the scheduled fly-out date but I arranged for an extra day’s stay in Albuquerque’s  old town district.

Old Town Albuquerque Shops

Back from Baxter State Park

Ardie and I returned from our visit to Baxter State Park on Saturday. We began the 8 hour drive to the park on Wednesday at about 6:30 in the morning. After checking in at the park entrance and arranging for a drive-up lean-to for our first two nights, we headed directly to Stump Pond to check out the moose scene. It rained heavily for most of our drive to Baxter and was raining at Stump Pond when we pulled in. We did see one lone cow in the middle of the pond but between heavy rain and poor light, we didn’t even pull out our camera gear.

We turned around and headed back down the six miles of the Tote Road to pick up the road to the Roaring Brook camp site where we had lean-to #4. On arriving, we were advised that there was a bear that had a habit of entering the camp ground and to keep all foods locked in the car. After an early dinner we turned in in anticipation of  a  hike to Sandy Stream Pond before dawn.

Fall Foliage at Baxter's Sandy Stream Pond

We awoke on Thursday  to a very cool and extremely windy morning. At first we were encouraged by the light of a very bright moon, but the clear sky quickly gave way to a heavy overcast and very flat lighting. After about 5 hours of waiting we finally gave up on any moose visiting the pond. There was a break or two in the weather and I enjoyed turning my lens onto the foliage which was about at its peak.
After leaving Sandy Stream Pond, we revisited Stump Pond and then rode along the Golden Road checking out moose hot spots from other years. There were no moose to be seen. Fall foliage was plentiful and I satisfied my urge to press the shutter release by capturing more fall images.

Baxter State Park Foliage

All-in-all Thursday was a disappointing day. After all, I was there to photograph moose. Friday is another story but I will have to continue that after my return from New Mexico next week.

Baxter Moose

I will be heading to Baxter State Park in northern Maine on Tuesday. This annual trip is to photograph the moose during the rut which normally occurs between mid-September and Mid- October. A good friend and fellow nature photographer will be accompanying me on the 7-1/2 hour trip. We have  a lean-to reservation at the Roaring Brook campground which puts us within a short walk of  Sandy Stream Pond pictured below.

Baxter's Sandy Stream Pond at Sunrise

We will be spending several days in hopes of photographing the magnificent bull moose that often visit the pond and can be found in many locations in the park.

Baxter State Park Bull Moose

I will be posting a description of our 2009 trip along with some images upon our retrun