Catching a kind of rare sunset at Asilomar Beach in Pacific Grove
For a town on a peninsula surrounded by water, some of which faces west, Pacific Grove does not often have direct, to the horizon, sunsets. Various points make seeing west impossible over the water, and then of course there is the fog, especially in summer into early fall. So when the sun was shining an hour before actual sunset still, I grabbed my camera and headed to Asilomar Beach and was able to capture this rare to the horizon sunset! You never know when the next chance might come.
Creative high desert rural land real estate photography in Socorro County New Mexico
To be a good rural land real estate photographer in New Mexico, one must be able to often make something out of nothing. Maybe there is a distant mountain or mesa, maybe there are good clouds, but the desert land itself, is often just dry grass and thorny bushes. I use these, for low angle shots and incorporate the dry grass into the foreground to make a more creative and eye catching photo of what otherwise would be just a flat, sparse landscape. Thankfully at this rural land photo shoot in Socorro County, New Mexico, the clouds were fantastic and the sunset pretty good to add some style to the photos.
Wanting to try out my new Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lens on my new Sony a7R V camera, I went to the Bosque at sunset time to see what kind of shots I could create with a long lens, albeit it one with a large aperture capable of very shallow DoF. By the time I got there the light was indeed fading fast. I chose to focus on foreground objects and leave the sunset itself out of focus. This results in a kind of melting effect to how the sunset looks. I actually liked shooting at f/1.4 at 85mm and getting most of what was in the photo out of focus. This is most easily seen in the above photo of the very fine grass sticking out toward the sunset. This grass was so hard to see even with the a7R V’s AI based autofocus, I had to manually focus the lens!
Another lake state park in New Mexico you can visit
It was a very, very windy visit to Ute Lake State Park in Logan, New Mexico (see map below for directions). It was so windy I was afraid I would not be able to fly the drone at all to get the content I needed for my client. Thankfully, the DJI Mavic 3 Cine drone is next level over previous drones for flying in strong winds and producing usable content. I was even helped out by one boat driving across the lake, and two kite boarders zooming over the rough lake surface! On the south shore of the lake you can see it has a rocky coast, fun for scrambling around on. The north shore has a gravely beach of sorts good for a sunset stroll. Have you been to this state park? It is out of the way, 35 minutes NE of Tucumcari, but a nice lake retreat area with the small town of Logan having restaurants, gas, and groceries. Check it out sometime!
Spending sunset time in the desert of New Mexico for real estate photography
Lately I’ve been to both Valencia County and Torrence County in New Mexico several times on rural land real estate photography shoots. This is an opportunity to go to an area that is usually pretty remote and quiet and just listen to the desert as the daytime shift gives way to the nighttime shift. Plus, if the clouds are right, the big sky sunsets make for great views.
Commercial Photography for restaurant branding and marketing in ABQ
County Line Restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico basically sits atop the city nestled right up against the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. It made for a great setting as I visited the restaurant a different times over two days to make interior and exterior photos as well as a 4K drone video showing the restaurant in its stunning setting. I used a variety of shooting techniques to get the interior shots, likewise for the exterior shots. As a professional commercial photographer, I am not set on one particular style of shooting, but rather choose the best for the shooting environment that will get the best results for the client. So for the interiors, sometimes I used off camera lighting, sometimes HDR shots, and sometimes a single exposure worked best. It was great working with the team at County Line Restaurant to make this wide ranging series of dynamic visual content for their branding, marketing, and social media.
When you visit Tucson, Arizona, you have the opportunity on the same day, to walk among a forest of saguaro cactus in the desert and snow covered pine trees atop a mountain peak. Tucson is definitely more famous for its cactus, but Mount Lemmon is a fantastic change of scenery to have just a short drive from town. If you time the drive just right, you can arrive at the peak (or rather near it, as there is no defined peak you can actually drive to) in time to see the sunset over the sweeping valley and smaller peaks below. This means when visiting Tucson you can pack both your shorts and your snow pants and use them on the same day!
