My time in Bosque del Apache, New Mexico was fantastic! Every year I anxiously anticipate my time in Bosque and this year did not disappoint. I also had a wonderful group. None of them, with the exception of one, had ever been there before. They were like I was on my first visit about 10 years ago; I was amazed at the amount of birds and the quality of light. Every year I come away with images that are unique to that year.
It was nice to meet up with lots of old friends and new acquaintances while I was there. I saw several folks that had signed up for future workshops and it was nice to meet them in person! The refuge is a wonderful place to drive around even if you don’t photograph. Watching the Snow Geese blast off again and again just never gets old.
Temperatures were relatively warm during my stay with only a couple of cold mornings. This was also the first time I ever saw any rain at the refuge. We had one sunny day and the rest were cloudy/partly cloudy. Lots and lots of geese and it appeared that the crane numbers were down. A Bobcat stole the show this year as just about everyone was looking for it and lots of folks got pictures of it.
One of my favorite mornings was the enormous fly-in we had at the crane pool. We arrived early and set up. The sky was dark and we were not expecting any color- and to be honest, I was doubtful we’d see any geese since I kept hearing all this chatter about no birds at Bosque. Well, someone should have given that message to the geese, because as we waited, I heard a huge flock coming over the ridge directly behind us. It sounded like a train coming at us FULL FORCE. After that large group landed, skeins and skeins just kept appearing from out of the clouds. It was magical. And yes, they blasted off all at once…the oohs and aahs from the photographers put a huge smile on my face!
Here are some of my favorites from this trip. I had a large group so I didn’t photograph too much but I did manage to squeeze in a few <wink>. I head home after a final morning shoot with my group. Then home for the holidays with my family—can’t wait!!! Then Death Valley here I come.
I’ll be doing another Bosque del Apache, New Mexico workshop next year (late Novemberish) if anyone would like to get on the interested list jut leave a comment below or email me, thanks.
