A Day in the Desert (and More Photo School)

.
We spent the day out in the desert.

I remember when I thought of the desert as nothing but boring tan and brown. Endless miles of blah.

Not any more though, I've fallen in love.

We like to look at a map and find the tiniest town we can, then jump in the car and go look for it. We usually find that nary a trace of the town remains, but we're rarely disappointed.

The subtlety of the desert in spring continues to fascinate. The colors don't jump out at you, but they're there if you just slow down and take a look.

Since I've been into photography, that's something I appreciate. We always slow down to look now, cameras in hand, and oh what we find.

Since I'm using this blog as a sort of photography journal, bear with me, lots of pictures. As always, you can click any image for a larger version.

We started off by crossing the Rio Grand

These trees are all along the river.
They stretch for miles.

Then we got far out into the desert.

I love the way these trees
silhouette against the skies.

Doesn't this guy look like a
little walking alien?
We are in New Mexico after all . . .

With the new camera,
I'm trying to learn about aperture.
The higher the number
the smaller the aperture
(go figure)
and the more of the image
in focus.

The lower the number
the larger the aperture.
This means less of the image is in focus
and more of the background
is blurred.
This is called Depth of Field.

The shadows are as interesting
as the foliage.

I think it looks just as good
in sepia.

We got so far out in the desert
we began seeing these signs.
You can bet we stayed
right on the road.

I don't know what this is supposed
to be guarding.

A close up of the post above
(and another test of aperture).
I'm learning,
slowly . . .

Another test
of focus and aperture.

I call these walking plants.
They're all over the New Mexico desert.

I even like the dead plants.
They're not really dead,
just waiting to bloom again.
Sometimes this is how I feel.

I'm really enjoying
playing with close ups.

I like them nice and sharp.

Driving along,
we saw this nest.

So once again,
I had to play with aperture
and depth of field.

And I couldn't finish this post
without one more cow shot.

As always