It doesn’t seem possible that I was blessed with another great workshop in Bosque but it truly was a great time. I had Donna Bourdon as a co- leader and she did a terrific job helping everyone with tack sharp flight photography and in-camera blurs.
We had a very nice group of talented photographers. Some old and some new to us but everyone got along and had a good time capturing some memorable images.
Bosque and birds, what could be better— thousands of geese flying in to give us a warm morning welcome to Bosque… well that happened just like old times!!
A very typical snow geese blast-off. As you can see there were quite a lot of geese.
We also had many chances with blackbird murmurations, Below are two other version of some of the blast-offs that we saw. The shot on the left represents my best shot from the foggy morning we had, at one point it was really dense fog. The image on the right below is a composite of one of our blast-off s together with some geese from the same morning. CLICK ONTH EIMAGES BELOW TO SEE THE LARGER, SHARPER VERSION.
Bosque had a ton of Snow Geese and most were found on the North loop or to the left of the flight deck in the morning. The Sandhill cranes preferred to feast on corn at a nearby field and kept their distance when found at Bosque. We split our time between two locations this year and that really paid off.
Most sunrise and sunsets were blah this year but we did have at least one or two good shoots with glorious color. I relied on backlighting to help create that warm “Bosque feel”.
We did have snow geese and cranes landing very close to us but we also fought some bad wind conditions— hey, that happens and you just look for those bank shots or action.
“The Kiss” featured above was my favorite of my deer images. I also really liked both images below. The group was there for the hoarfrost shot. CLICK ONTH EIMAGES BELOW TO SEE THE LARGER, SHARPER VERSION.
On our scouting shoots Donna and I ran into a buck with two of its ladies walking around a small pond. At one point the buck kissed one of the females before walking into the water and out of sight. The light was gorgeous and we were thrilled. We checked that spot often for our clients but we never did see them in that spot. We did however see them in the early morning walking through a field of hoar frosted brush… that was cool!
One of my favorite snow goose blurs from our last morning.
Snow Geese at first light, inspired by Andrea Piatt from our group. Hers is completely different and beautiful!
Lots of usual suspects like ducks, harriers, blackbirds, hawks, eagles, kestrels and kites. The Spotted Towhee (left) below was photographed in nice light against some willow.
CLICK ONTH EIMAGES BELOW TO SEE THE LARGER, SHARPER VERSION.
Sandhill Crane peeking out of the grasses, I converted it to B&W and left its red patch and eye in color.
We didn’t see any bobcats but we saw Javelina with young. Even a White egret! In a wildlife refuge, you just never know what you will spot.
Overall it was a very productive workshop and I enjoyed my time at Bosque! So is it worth a visit? Absolutely YES!
Plans are underway to conduct another workshop at Bosque and surrounding areas for next December 8-12, 2025 (5 full days with Denise Ippolito and/or Donna Bourdon). If you are interested in learning more or want to reserve your spot—-here is the link for the workshop.