I have been doing digital photography for more than four years now, yet I think I learned more in my five days in New Mexico this year than in all the previous four years combined. Nowhere else has photography been so easy for me, and yet, ironically, so challenging as a result. It's easy to make great images of geese and cranes at Bosque; it's much more difficult to push your own limits of imagination and creativity beyond any expectation you've ever held for yourself. Such is the challenge of Bosque, and that which draws photographers from around the globe. This year was my first try, but it certainly will not be my last.

 

Word among those I met at Bosque with experience and knowledge of the place was almost unanimous despair that this year was one of the worst in memory for photography at the refuge. There is a perception of mismanagement, that the ponds have been allowed to morph into weed pools, and that the vegetation along the road has grown unchecked too long. Perhaps that was the case, but I was a wide-eyed neophyte and amazed by Bosque nonetheless, and rumor had it that things would be brought back to "normal" next year. I can hardly wait to get back.

 

As you might expect, the pictures from Bosque below are dominated by Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes, but of course there are dozens of other species present. I managed to capture good images of a few, but in total our Bosque list was well over 60 species for the trip, and that was without trying to "list" at all.

 

We also ventured out to White Sands National Monument, about 3 hours southeast of Bosque. Long ago (in the film days, for those who know what "film" is) when I first began thinking about photography, I imagined that I would ultimately gravitate to landscape and general nature photography. Then I bought a 400mm lens and got derailed into bird photography probably for the rest of my life, which isn't so bad. After all, birding has always been my first and best hobby. But visiting White Sands reminded me why I was drawn to photography in the first place, and what it was about the natural world that made me want to be a photographer, even if only in an amateur sense. White Sands is one of those special, unique places that leaves an indelible impression on those who venture there. It truly is one of the most visually stunning places in the country, if not the world. I only include three photos below, but I took over 100, and the day we were there wasn't exactly the most photogenic of days. I can guarantee that I have not made my last visit to White Sands either.

 

Finally, to wrap up the trip, we made a visit to the famous Crest House on Sandia Crest, high above Albuquerque. Here, we were treated to a horde of tame and photogenic Rosy-Finches. Black Rosy-Finch was a life bird for us, but the whole thing was more of a "life experience" of Rosy-Finches, because to that point we had only seen a handful on cliffsides in Washington State and some distant feeder birds in Colorado, and a few on the Aleutian Islands. At Sandia Crest, by contrast, one of the dozens landed on my camera flash! Absolutely unforgettable. New Mexico is clearly one of the best-kept secrets in North American birding.

 

 

 

All pictures on this website were taken by and are the copyright of Geoff Malosh.