After fording the shallows of the west fork of the Rio Grande to one of the large sandbars in the middle of the river, I was faced with a forest of salt cedar interspersed with thorny Russian Olive Trees as I bushwhacked my way across the sandbar to see what was happening along the wider, deeper water running on the east side of the sandbar. Figuring they were hidden from the shutters and eyes of humans they commonly see along the accessible areas to the river, the Sandhill Cranes were playing games, drag racing to be more specific, very much like what you might see in an old Far Side comic.
As I emerged from the orange-yellow briar patch, a couple of Sandhill Cranes took off in a race down the river, while another pair quivered behind the barbed wire starting line ready to start their drag race down the river. I was able to catch the second pair on film and narrate the action in each of the photos below.
Spiky thorns on Russian Olive branches that grabbed and tore at my clothes as a made my way across the overgrown sandbar.
Quick Silver in front and Light Speed in back at the barbed wire starting line.
They are off with Quick Silver getting the jump and Light Speed.
Quick Silver opens a up a gap
Light Speed kicks it in the turbo and goes into warp speed
Light Speed catches Quick Silver and they are neck and neck
Light Speed surges past Quick Silver to take the lead
The race ended when they caught the two cranes that started their race as I came out of the thicket.
The last frame #24 on the roll of film affected by light leaks in the film canister.
I bought some Cine Film re-engineered for 35mm to be developed by standard C41 process. This is a high speed tungsten film normally used for cinematography. I had put the roll of film in my Canon F1 intending to shoot film along with digital of the fashion show at Gears & Glamour. However, since the fashion show was in the dark, and I hadn’t worked with the film before, I didn’t want to push it beyond its recommended ISO 800 until I had used it. Since this film is best used indoors or at night under tungsten street lighting, I only took a few shots in the well lighted prep area at Gears & Glamour, a few more at the West Side Chorale’s winter concert, and then decided to use it outdoors with a 600 mm lens. I knew the color would be off in daylight, but I wanted to see how well I could hand hold a 600 mm lens with high speed film.
I got a surprise when I got to the end of the roll of film. I noticed the advance didn’t stop, and when I tried rewinding the film, the knob turned freely. I advanced the film a couple more times to see it would stop — it didn’t, so I took the camera into the darkroom, opened it in the dark and carefully felt by the take-up spool, and discovered the film had not been secured to the spool in the canister. I took out the canister, and as carefully as I could opened it up with a can opener. I carefully pulled the film out of the camera, but when the last of it popped off the take-up spool, the coiled mess of film slipped from my hands and fell to the floor. Remember, I’m in total darkness, so I bent down, felt around at my feet, found the pile of film, gently picked it up, found an end to the film, found the spool from the canister and rewound the film back onto the spool. I put the spool back in the canister and forced the end cap back onto the canister. When I got the negatives back, the canister didn’t seal back up tightly around the edges after opening it (I had suspected as much), so the last frames on the roll had light leaks. This was a mystery, because the last frames should be on the inside of the spool and the first frames on the outside where they would be affected by light leaks in the seal around the outer edge of the end cap. Then I remembered dropping the film, so I must have rolled it back on the spool reverse of how the photos were taken.
The lead photo is frame 24, the last image taken, and the effect of the light leaks from being on the outer edge in the canister are pretty interesting. The rest of the images, shown in order taken, were not affected by the leaks on the edge of the canister.
Frame 1 at Gears & Glamour with no effect from the light leak in the canister
Frame 8 at the Winter Concert
Frame 12 of coyotes on the other side of the river.
Frame 18 of a Blue Heron on a sandbar in the river.
I went out on a walk in the bosque New Year’s morning. There was a light dusting of snow, and the sky was overcast. Several seagulls flew up and down the Rio Grande, often flying close enough for me to get clear shots with a 200 mm lens. Seagulls flying around in the high desert is a strange sight.
There are no seagulls in this photo. It’s a shot from one of the large, overgrown sandbars in the middle of the Rio Grande.
I went out for a walk along the Rio Grande just before sundown. A Bald Eagle was flying home along the far bank of the river, almost out of reach of my 70-200 mm zoom lens at 200 mm. The Sandhill Cranes were flying in for the night looking like bombers in formation as they flew overhead. As I made my way back home through the bosque, a lone crow sat on top of a branch watching the last bit of pink before it faded into the gray dusk.
I photographed all the animals Christmas Eve, trying to get them to have a “Merry Christmas” look about them. The birds and Spunk were more than willing participants, Diné was okay with it as long as she didn’t have to get off the heater vent under the bed, but Rosencrantz and Guldenstern took quite a bit of coaxing. Blue, the Boa, opted out because she is getting ready to shed — she has milky-blue eyes and she’s a bit cranky — it’s best to leave a 7 foot long boa constrictor alone when she doesn’t want to be photographed.
Beaker is still looking great after 22 years.
Guildenstern thinking about making a mad dash to get away from the pesky camera.
Søren was more than happy to get in some time in front of the camera.
Rosencrantz was like “You bothering me boy!”
Diné wouldn’t budge from the heater vent under the bed.
We had a thin cloud cover most of the day Friday that produced muted light that colored everything with a grayish tint. The cranes had already flown off by the time I got to the riverbank at sunrise, but they flew back to the river at sunset.
I had to stop by the bank on Saturday morning — the parking lot was empty. When I stepped out to the car, a crow was standing in the parking space next to me. I took on photo of him, and then got closer for a second shot. He just stood there, kind of like Foghorn Leghorn, cocked his head sideways and gave me a “Go, I say go away boy, you bother me” look.
I captured the Finch Connection after I noticed Spunk looking out the window, watching the finches that were flitting around the branches and pulling seeds out of the many pods hanging from the leafless trumpet vine.
Off Center & Not Even 