Views of the Rio Grande and bosque from standing on sandbars and the riverbed.
Category: Sandias
Seagulls on the Rio Grande
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.
Eagle on 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.
PinkPurpleYellow before the Storm
“Did you see the pink sunrise the other morning?” I was asked during a conversation about rain, snow and Sandhill Cranes.
Snow on Sandias
We got a little over 1/4 inch of rain last night, while the Sandias got snow. I went out into the freezing wind around 11:30 AM to get photos of the snow covered, cloud capped Sandias from different locations in Corrales. However, the last panorama was taken at sunset from Rio Rancho.
Sunrise / Sunset on Sandias
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.
Cranes and Heron on the Rio Grande
I took a walk yesterday afternoon and got cranes and a heron on the Rio Grande just before sunset.
Thunderheads
Thunderheads appear, change and disappear very quickly in the desert southwest. They can produce sudden and heavy rains, high winds, intense lighting storms and hailstorms. But often they form and put on a show, changing into all kinds of shapes, and then evaporate without a sound or drop of precipitation.
The first four photos were taken over a timespan of 10 minutes while driving on Highway 550 to Highway 528 and on to Corrales Road. The Weather Service interrupted the radio to announce the there was heavy rain and flooding on the other side of the Sandias from these thunderheads.
The last photo was taken from our deck where we sit and watch the clouds form and change over the Sandias through the bamboo and cottonwood trees.
Cumulonimbus
Back To Days Gone By
The last time I processed B&W prints myself was in the summer of 1982. I had done photos of the wedding party at our wedding reception. But I soon dismantled my darkroom and sold the equipment that was at my parents house after we got married. I did some photo processing at the photo studio I worked for in 1980’s until they moved their studio and didn’t reassemble the lab. From the late 1980’s up to 2003, when I went all digital, I had all my film processed and printed by commercial labs.
My darkroom is now fully functional and I have used it to process film and print photos. On my first venture back to those days gone by, I chose a few negatives that ranged from thin to dense to get back into the printing process. Printing the negatives of the “Road Closed” and cornfield with the Sandias in the background were particularly challenging because of the large ranges between light and dark — these photos were taken in heavy rain while the sun was shining (a New Mexico phenomenon).
In the last version of the “Road Closed” photo, I accidentally exposed the back side of the paper and noticed nothing was happening in the developer, so I rinsed the paper, squeegeed it off, and then exposed the emulsion side of the paper. After developing it again, there was a ghost image from the exposure on the backside of the paper that makes it look like I picked up a reflection in glass.
Off Center & Not Even 