Exploding watermelons

These are from some pics I took at the range last summer. I was proud of my camera for being fast enough to capture these frames.

Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park

Winter weather

The school I worked at took a field trip to Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park. It was the first real cold day of the the fall. The wind was cold and sharp, I watched it push clouds over the Organs most of the morning. I forget how gorgeous southern New Mexico is sometimes. 

Picacho peak from a river levee 

Cottonwood sapling and clouds spilling over the Organ Mountains. (B&W HDR)

Moon Rise Timelapse

My first dedicated attempt at a timelapse, I messed up by changing the exposure settings halfway through the video, now I know better.

Rocky Mountain National Park

I was recently in Denver for an interview at the med school (great time), and while I was there I had the chance to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. The park was closed just 10 miles in but I was still able to hike around and enjoy the scenery. Cool fact, the headwaters of the Colorado River are in RMNP, I was able to hike up the same river that cuts through the grand canyon until it was wide enough to jump across. Such a cool day. 

Colorado River valley

Fall Colors

Colorado River Valley -- Tilt shift

Interstate Road

Duke interview!

Interior of the Duke Chapel

I was stoked to get an interview invite from Duke. They have a super cool curriculum and I the area was nice. The medical campus is new (<5 years old) and has great teaching facilities and other resources. The rest of the campus was completely beautiful. The Gothic architecture was very photogenic and the Sara Duke Memorial Gardens were gorgeous. I greatly enjoyed my time here, and would be very happy to receive a letter of acceptance come March :)

Chapel from the outside, Tall!

Red Bridge

Duke architecture (IR filter)

Night shoots (pictures not guns)

Trucks, lit by the city lights

Night shoots are always fun. The Perseid meteor shower was roughly August 9 -12, I tried to get some cool meteor shots but met with limited success. I still took advantage of the night sky, and the fact that we were still pretty close to the made for some cool lighting.

The next night I was able to catch some cool photos of lightning over the dry Rio Grande river, and ran away from a big angry dog protecting the irrigation bank.

Star trails

Lightning storm over the river

Lastly I found this super nice time lapse video of the Perseids by Kai Gradert I think everyone should see, Enjoy!






60 Seconds Timelapse of the Perseid Meteor Shower in Joshua Tree Park from Kai Gradert on Vimeo.

Time lapse

Something I'd like to try sometime is making a good time lapse. Before I get my own done here's one to provide some inspiration, and it's completely magnificent. Love it.

Mountains in Motion: The Canadian Rockies from The Upthink Lab on Vimeo.

 

Bluff springs, Cloudcroft.

Crossing the Tularosa Basin on the way to Cloudcroft, Organ mountains in the background

Bluff Springs

Cloudcroft is one of my favorite places in this part of the state, it's an easy 1.5 hr drive from Las Cruces, and offers cooler temps and a good change in scenery.

This past weekend I discovered bluff springs for the first time. It's a perennial spring fed waterfall with a nice network of trails around. I was surprised by how many people were there, but it was Saturday, and it probably is the closest mountain waterfall to the entire state of Texas...


Having grown up in the southwest, anytime I find water while out exploring it seems like a miracle. Water sources are centers of life and vitality. I like photographing water almost as much as visiting it. Color in the desert can be hard to see, around water the plants are brighter, more vibrant, and there's more of them. Hopefully I can make it back here in a few weeks and explore the trails a little more, when there's less people and I have more time.   

Gotta catch that stick

Lightning

Strike over centennial high school, Just west of "A" mountain

It's thunderstorm season in New Mexico right now and I've been trying to get some good photos of lightning for several weeks now. The air around here is clear, and you can usually see the weather fronts from miles away, making for some pretty magnificent displays.

I chased storm clouds several days before I got any good shots. These are from up on a hill at the edge of town, we were watching the lightning to the south, when the storm moved in right on top of us from the East.

The shot with the lightning over the water tower was the last one I took. We could hear a wall of water moving in and we grabbed our gear and ran. We got back to the trucks just in time to avoid getting soaked. Fun times.

Right in front of a sheet of rain, which was moving fast.

First post!

I have no idea what I'm doing...

I have no idea what I'm doing...  I just wanted somewhere to post more of my photos, I feel like Facebook isn't the place anymore. I also sometimes want to comment on politics, society, and our American culture in general, and maybe I can do that here. I think it may be presumptuous to think that anyone would actually read what I write, but I'll do it anyway.

But mainly photos, I love taking pictures and working with them in Photoshop (it's the EE in me).