I never wanted a pony...

but I do love chancing upon the herd of wild horses in the space between New Mexico and Colorado, in the space between sunset and moonrise, in the space between goodbye and hello.

He was my favorite, the snip:

Down in front!

Lightning Luck

I went out tonight to try to catch the super moon, but the sky was too cloudy to really get anything good.  I soon saw why, as this red virga gave way to electricity.

I've never tried photographing lightning before, so I'm a little happy with these first attempts.

Summer Light

Golden hour shots from home:

Sunset cairns in Aquinnah

 

 Off screen, the "no jumping or diving off bridge" sign.

 Sunrise:

 Piping plover on the run...

 The nostrils!

4th on the 5th:

Petzval!

Last year, I learned of the new Petzval lens Kickstarter too late to join, but I was still able to pre-order one in December.  I've been not-so-patiently waiting for six months, but my new Petzval lens arrived yesterday and I got to take it out for a spin in the afternoon.  (Breaking my self-imposed blog rule of not putting people pictures - my regular website is full of those already - here are some of the shots I liked.)

Shot #1 with my new Petzval.  OK, it has some swirl, but the manual focus dial will certainly take some getting used to.

I quickly discover that the Petzval, with said manual focus dial, is not the lens to bring to the Pond to photograph a toddler happily on the move.  I miss many cute shots before he pauses for a split second.

I also quickly discover that trees give the best swirl.  Sure, I could add this effect in Photoshop, but that's no fun...

I can't wait for my experimental aperture plates to also get here, to really set this bokeh apart.

OK, so this lens has a little flare problem... duly noted.

Now I think I'm getting the hang of it, perhaps. Ashley Pond fish sculpture.

A cool thing about this lens is that it asks me to slow down, to consider the background carefully - rather than rely on my aperture to blur it out and put the focus on the subject, I actually want a specific background to try to get that Petzval blur to put the focus on the subject.  Still need to watch out for trunk-head, but hey. 

I'm getting a little dizzy now, swirled around.

In love with my new lens and ready for more subjects, please.

Sundry

A few recent miscellaneous photos...

Sunset and clouds over Pajarito Acres:

 Irises:

 Hummingbirds:

Bandelier

My submissions to the 2014 Bandelier Pass Contest (the moon shot was 4th place).

Spring Break Beauty

Sunset version 1: East Chop

Sunset version 2: East Chop

A foggy morning:

And then the sun came out and did this at South Beach:

Slow Shutters

 ND filter fun...

Apparently the Gorge Railroad is closed and the trees are all burned (not this one):

River trail:

This goose was very cooperative while the waterfall behind him (her?) was the experiment:

Who's that ghost?

 The river rapids not very rapid:

No filter fun: