My job as a professional photographer in New Mexico takes me all over the state. After photoshoots, I sometimes have the opportunity to seek out unusual places in the remote area I happen to be. On a recent 4-day photo shoot in Silver City, I had the chance to visit City of Rocks State Park. This is a place definitely off of the beaten path, as Silver City itself is out of the way, and City of Rocks is another 30+ minutes drive into nowhere. The investment in miles is certainly worth it though, as you can see in these photographs this is a unique place of natural wonder. Out in the midst of flat desert is an appropriately named city of unusual rock formations. There are no set trails or paths in this park, you have to just wander. It’s fantastic!
Back out in Belen, New Mexico on yet another rural land real estate assignment for Hemingway Land Company, I did not expect to find this view. I have been to this area many times and the land is flat and desolate. However, this time the property was much further south and west than I had been before and a short walk from the property itself revealed this dramatic landscape. Mesas jut out and then expand into a valley that goes all the way to a distant mountain. All of this combines for a fantastic sunset view. Not a bad place to work for an evening!
While out on a rural land real estate photo shoot in Belen, New Mexico, I made some new friends. My dog, Kiki, was with me on this desert shoot as she often is. I noticed that she was noticing something in the distance to the east. I was focused on the west getting ready to make my signature HDRsunset shots. In the far distance I saw two animals moving. I thought they were cows as those are the most common large animal sighting in that area. One was really white though and I thought that is an odd coloring for a cow. Looking closer I saw they were in fact horses. I had already been to that area of the property and knew there was a barbed wire fence. I wondered if they would jump over it?
San Diego and Ocean Beach in particular have many gems in them that may not appear on the front pages of many travel websites. Open up Google Maps and zoom in and you will see a place simply called Tide Pools. There are no signs in Ocean Beach pointing the way to them directly, and likewise no clear way of getting to them exactly. In fact one must scramble down a steep slope to a concrete wall, jump off it, and then there you are. Standing on a shore of black rock with all of the Pacific Ocean before you. It is quite a place to take in the sunset and get splashed by incoming waves! The tide pools are only visual, however, not like the ones I grew up exploring in New England that were full of aquatic life. Nevertheless, the Tide Pools of Ocean Beach, San Diego are a hidden gem worth finding.
My rural land photography work often takes me out into the desert were very few signs of life exist. Sometimes I scare a jack rabbit from behind a bush. Sometimes black beetles back their way over the sand. Birds may soar overhead looking aimlessly for food or greener perches. Plants seem to be in abundance in some areas of the desert, like the one pictured above, but how much life is there? What does desert life mean? Is the desert as alive as the jungle?
If are a subscriber to my business Facebook Page, then you see my regular Facebook Live videos from the many rural land real estate shoots I am on in remote northwest Rio Rancho and the unique views that area offers. Through the eye of my telephoto lens, you can see nearly all of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho sprawled out at the feet of the Sandia Mountains.
It was a long day at this point when I was driving up a twisting and rising mountain road from Timberon, New Mexico back up to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Earlier that morning I had made the 3.5 drive from Albuquerque to Cloudcroft. Checked in to the same B&B I stayed at last time I was in Cloudcroft (the excellent Crofting Inn). Made the hour drive down to TImberon and then spent 2.5 hours outside making photographs and flying my drone over a rural land real estate property.
