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Blog
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Images around Cochise County, Arizona.
It has been an incredible year for photographing wildlife in Cochise County, Arizona. Coues deer, with their delicate features and diminutive size, are always a highlight. These tiny whitetails, much smaller than mule deer, make even the largest bucks—around 110-115 lbs—seem modest, like a big dog with antlers.Sometimes they…
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Coues Deer Bucks and Does - 2023
Living in Cochise county Arizona has allowed me to capture shots of Coues deer I had never seen growing up in southern New Mexico. We have mule deer where I grew up but I had only heard about these tiny deer in Arizona. If you’ve never seen one, they are… -
Bosque del Apache 2023
Bosque del Apache is a wildlife refuge just south of Socorro New Mexico and is connected to the little town of San Antonio New Mexico. The refuge is home to a number of native animals and migratory ones as well as they head south for the winter. The sandhill cranes… -
Hummingbirds - 2023
A variety of hummingbirds are in the process of migrating up from South America and our feeders are full. We’ve had up to 20 birds swarming the feeders, lots of chasing one another taking place. They are so colorful and not very fearful of my camera or me being close… -
House Renovation Part 2
Part One HERE I’ve run out of room on the first post when it comes to the image limit on a blog page. UPDATE 2-14-23 The floor crew has applied the base color and the house looks so refreshed and new feeling. This isn’t the final color, it will have… -
Bosque del Apache November 2022 Part 2
The trip to Bosque was a fun one, it was quick but I still managed to capture a ton of images. I’m just now getting around to processing another batch from the trip. This year I visited the refuge fairly early in the migration season. The sandhill cranes were not… -
Four Bucks
There was a time when I would leave my camera at home but things have changed. Since relocating to southern Arizona, I don’t leave home without it. The wildlife is abundant here and you never know what you will run across. A few days ago, I was lucky enough to… -
Bosque del Apache November 2022
Bosque del Apache has turned into an annual trip. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it this year as we’ve gone through a move and are in the middle of a full house renovation. The trip was a quick one. I arrived Friday evening and left Sunday morning. Although the… -
House Renovation – Updated 02-14-2023
We closed on the house in August and started on transforming it into our vision. The house has “good bones” but really needed or needs a lot of work to lift it up to its potential. We started with demo on the inside while doing an overall cleaning of the… -
Turkey Time
We were fortunate to have 17 Merriam’s Turkeys pay visit this weekend. They spent most of time looking for seeds and devouring any grasshopper that dared to move. The young ones even took some time to rest in the shade while the adults continued looking for something tasty to eat… -
Local Wildlife
It’s been about seven months since the last post, where does the time go? During that time, I’ve been out shooting and enjoying the local wildlife. Southern Arizona has a lot to offer with wildlife, landscapes, beautiful sunsets/sunrises and so much more. The Sony A1 has been and is amazing… -
Hummingbirds
The temperatures are on the rise and the hummingbirds are out an about. They pose a challenge to photograph as they zip around erratically, sometimes I get lucky and snap a nice shot or two. They fear little, I’ve had them fly up and drink out of the feeders while… -
Instagram Image Collection
I haven’t used Instagram much over the past few years, the account has been neglected. That being said, I’ve decided to start posting to the site again as not all images I take make it to the blog or social media sites. Here is a collection of shots I’ve recently… -
Bobcat Encounters
In the past six months we’ve encountered bobcats four or five times. I grew up in southern New Mexico and I might have run across two over the years. They are quite prolific here in Tucson, I’m just glad they are in my neighborhood area. The following recent shots are… -
Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area (video)
Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area is about an hour and a half south of Tucson near the town of McNealy. We arrived at the location around 8am and only a few people were out and about viewing the wildlife. The site has several walking paths, a number of benches, and a… -
Chiricahua Mountains
Its been 30+ years since I last visited the Chiricahua Mountains or Portal AZ. I grew up in the tiny Phelps Dodge copper smelter town of Playas New Mexico, it is located about an hour from Portal Arizona. We would take trips to Portal and the surrounding area on occasion… -
Bosque Del Apache 2021 - Trip #2
I just returned from a peaceful and somewhat relaxing visit to Bosque Del Apache wildlife refuge, just south of Socorro New Mexico. If you’ve never been and you enjoy bird watching or just wildlife photography in general, this is place you will enjoy. As this was the second trip, I… -
Backyard Birds
You never know what might show up in your backyard when it comes to wildlife. Most recently, I’ve spent some time trying to capture images of the bids in the area. This is the first time I’ve run across a broad-billed hummingbird. The colors are amazing! Thanks for taking the… -
Harris Hawks 2021
Hawks or birds of prey are fascinating to me. Harris hawks are one of the few bird species which hunt together to increase their odds of a successful kill, much like wolves do. The birds will often stand on the back of another hawk to help scout for prey. We… -
Bosque Del Apache 2021
Bosque Del Apache is just south of Socorro New Mexico. The wildlife refuge has been around since the 1930’s and offers a lot for wildlife in the region. Sandhill cranes, snow geese, ducks and more use this area as a stopping point while migrating south for the winter. This was… -
Bosque Del Apache - Socorro New Mexico
What a great place to photograph! We left on Saturday morning and thankfully the weather held out. About a week or so ago most of the high country in AZ and NM were hit with storms and snow. It made for a beautiful drive, but I was a little nervous… -
Photography Lighting Diagram - Cheetah Colt 45
One of the ways to light your subject when in the full sun, is to use a powerful strobe and a bare reflector. The hard light tends to compliment the scene and bring out the details. During this session, I used the Cheetah High Performance Colt 45 Reflector and the… -
Gear Review - Canon 200mm F/2.8 L MK II
There are times when you need a little extra reach, and a 200mm lens can do the trick. I’ve owned the Canon 70-200L IS F/2.8 MK1, and it was a great lens. This lens, at 200mm is sharper than my 70-200L was. If you are in the market for a… -
It’s been three years - A session with Lisa.
Hello all It was about three years ago I decided to hang up my gear and focus on college. A career change was needed after I retired from the Air Force. At the end of 2012, I had my last shoot and called it quits. Now, with school coming to… -
Photography Lighting Diagram - Christina
One of the challenges when you want to shoot with a wide aperture while using studio strobes is either having too much strobe/flash power or you can’t get your sync speed low enough to capture the shot. You have several options you can try. A neutral density (ND) gel on…