Carlsbad Flower Fields

Photo Caption: The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch, Carlsbad, California

This picture was taken last night at the Carlsbad Flower Fields after a lady laughed at me and said, "Those types of shots won't work with all those clouds." Perhaps they should rename it to Carlsgood Flower Fields. Only a third of the flower fields have any flowers so far though. I would wait a few more weeks to go there because I have seen the flower fields look a lot better than this. There is a free Canon sponsored macro photography workshop on April 22nd so I plan to go down there again next month.

I need to cut back on the shooting as I'm starting to fall behind on my imaging as there are still New Mexico pictures from last week and Descanso Garden images from Friday that I haven't even looked at.

Better Man

Better Man by Pearl Jam

"Waitin', watchin' the clock
It's four o'clock
It's got to stop
Tell him, take no more
She practices her speech
As he opens the door, she rolls over
Pretends to sleep as he looks her over

She lies and says she's in love with him
Can't find a better man
She dreams in color, she dreams in red
Can't find a better man
Can't find a better man
Can't find a better man

Ohh
Talkin' to herself
there's no one else who needs to know
She tells herself, oh

Memories back when she was bold and strong
And waiting for the world to come along
Swears she knew it, now she swears he's gone

She lies and says she's in love with him
Can't find a better man
She dreams in color, she dreams in red
Can't find a better man
she lies and says she still loves him
Can't find a better man
She dreams in color, she dreams in red
Can't find a better man
Can't find a better man
Can't find a better man

Yeah

She loved him, yeah
She don't want to leave this way
She feeds him, yeah
That's why she'll be back again
Can't find a better man
Can't find a better man
Can't find a better man
Can't find a better man"

This song, "Better Man" by Pearl Jam is one of my favorite songs. It came out on their cd, Vitalogy, in the mid-90's when I was in high school. It's about a woman who settles for a man that doesn't treat her right because she doesn't think she can do any better. I think she dies of misery.

This is my biggest fear in life. To settle for something less than what makes you happy. Why I'm writing this is because I was listening to this song while processing my files from my New Mexico trip and it got me to thinking how much happier I was living in San Francisco than I have ever been at any other time in my life. I think I could find a similar level of happiness in New Mexico. I had that same feeling when I was in Colorado in November. Like I had been to heaven and didn't want to come back down. Life doesn't always hand us a perfect deck of cards, but there's no reason why not to be happy. Some might refer to that as "having your head in the clouds." But dreams do come true eventually if you make them happen. You just have to recognize the opportunities when they present themselves. My point is that you take your chances when the windows are open. You do what you need to do for yourself, not what someone else or society thinks you should. When your windows close they rarely open back.

This picture here of Navajo Rugs is my favorite picture I took in New Mexico. It screams life and passion to me.

Picture: Navajo Native American Rugs, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Colors of the Southwest

Photo: Blue Door and Ivy at Old Town Plaza, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Taken yesterday in Albuquerque. I really want to visit Taos in the future as I've heard that the architecture there is amazing. It might be a while before I finish processing my files as taxes are due soon and mine are a bit more complicated than usual. I filled out most of the forms last week before I went to New Mexico but looking through them again today, I caught a mistake. I'm sure there are more because number crunching is not my thing. While I don't find taxes to be enchanting, New Mexico is.

Santa Fe

Picture: Red chiles for sale on vendor stall at the Plaza, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I spent all day at Santa Fe today walking who knows how many miles. The Plaza is a great pedestrian area with the the original New Mexico state capitol dating from the 1600's, the current state capitol building, San Miguel Mission, and two other catholic churches. Southwestern culture is a unique blend of Native American and Spanish cultures. The buildings all have their own distinct look, and though many are several hundred years old most have been preserved to look modern. On every street corner there are locals selling Indian arts and crafts. A lot of turquoise in particular.

I went to the San Miguel Mission several times during the day to photograph it because the light wasn't good in the morning, but what I'm disappointed about is that I didn't find out that the State Capitol was a block away. I had the tourist maps they give you in town but it didn't list the location. It wasn't until I was waiting for sunset at Fort Marcy Park high above town that I looked at my AAA map and realized I could have easily seen the State Capitol as well. One reason why a first-time tourist to Santa Fe might miss the building is because it doesn't look like the other state capitols. New Mexico's capitol is a circular adobe / stucco style building that blends in with the rest of the town's architecture. So it's not obvious to spot where it is unless you know where to go or happen to walk by it.

Tomorrow afternoon I am flying home and will see what my photos actually look like in a day or two. I have taken mostly travel type photos as the sights I have seen this week have been very colorful. I haven't seen any good scenic nature photo ops here but when the culture is as rich as it is here, it doesn't matter. There is more than enough to keep any photographer satisfied.

The Land of Enchantment

I have been in Albuquerque, New Mexico since Wednesday night because I have been doing freelance work at a local advertising agency. I have been free to explore around a little since 5:30 tonight so I went back to Old Town Albuquerque where I went last night, and also a year ago with my brother. It's the only place in town that I'm familiar with so I wanted to make sure I got all the photos I wanted from there so I could go on and shoot elsewhere until I fly back home on Sunday night. Last year I didnt know you could go inside the San Felipe de Neri Church so i didn't. Yesterday I followed some other people in and it reminded me of the California Mission churches on the inside. There's cool dehydrated red chiles in front of all the stores here too. Red and green chile sauce is a major part of New Mexican food from what I've been told. McDonalds here even serves a green chile burger from what I've heard.

I messed up a few shots because I have had to handhold a lot of my shots lately. My tripod is damaged from salt water / beach sand wear and tear. So one of the legs doesn't extend fully. Very frustrating. Someday when I actually have money, I need to replace it. Taxes and car insurance bill comes in next month... ughhh. Birth, taxes, bills, taxes, bills, taxes, bills, death, estate tax. America in a nutshell. Anyways, I am in the Land of Enchantment and it's great.

Tomorrow I will be going to Santa Fe. Everyone I have talked to here has raved about that city's art and historic architecture scene so I will be there for sure. It's about an hour to the north. If I ever have an opportunity to come back here, I want to check out the Indian Pueblos in the area.

After I shot my photos at Old Town I went driving around trying to find the way into nearby Petroglyph National Monument to find a sunrise shoot location but I didn't know where to get inside the park so i skipped it and made it to the Rio Grande River in time for sunset. Well sort of. I saw wild alpenglow on the Sandia Mountains and clouds but couldn't find a high enough vantage point to catch that light. I still haven't found a decent location for sunrise so I will probably skip it and just save my energy for Santa Fe. My original plan was to go visit Bosque del Apache somewhere to the south but I think it's a little late in the season to find the types of birds that I want to photograph. Namely sandhill cranes. Too much to do, too little time.

Birder's World

In the past few days I have gone to the Los Angeles County Arboretum several times to photograph the Indian Blue Peacocks Pavo crisatus. Their courtship ritual is unlike anything else I have ever seen. The males (peacock) have the colorful feathers and raise them to try wooing the females (peahen). They get a bit aggressive especially if the females aren't paying much attention as such the case when I was there. The male will then ruffle it's feathers and run back and forth bumping into everything in its path in an effort to get attention. It's so fascinating I don't even have words to explain it. I spent three hours photographing them and took several hundred photos. After being there so long they got used to me and let me hang out wherever I wanted. I was even able to get frame-filling pictures with my 17-35mm lens. Here is a picture of a peacock catching the attention of a peahen.

Picture: Indian Peafowl Blue Peacock (Pavo crisatus) Courting a Peahen, Los Angeles County Arboretum, California

The peacocks weren't very active yesterday so I only spent about an hour with them then spent the rest of the time photographing the Mayberg Waterfall, Wood Ducks, lagoon and Queen Anne Cottage. I don't know of anywhere else within a few miles of my home that offers this many photo opportunies for bird photography. In addition to the famous peacocks I saw many wood ducks, Snow Geese, Canada Goose, and a few Herons in the ponds and lagoon. The squirrels were making me a bit nervous however as they kept following me and standing next to me. Getting rabies is not something that I want.

Photo: Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)

Picture: Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) Flapping Wings in Front of Lagoon and Queen Anne Cottage, Los Angeles County Arboretum, California

I must admit that I underestimated how difficult it is to get photos of wood ducks. They are constantly moving and since I prefer to photograph in diffused lighting conditions it made for a lot of blurry photos. As a result, I had to toss out some nice colorful sunset wood duck water reflection photos. I took some action photos of a wood duck flapping its wings wildly and being hostile toward other ducks but didn't like how I composed the photos so I plan to photograph them again soon. I don't mind messing up all my shots as long as I'm trying to photograph something in a different way than has already been done. If you aren't trying for something unique with your own twist then why bother photographing? Striving for anything less is too easy.

I'd like to purchase a Canon 400mm f5.6 L lens in the future as my $150 Tamron 70-300 lens has so many chromatic aberration defects (purple and blue color fringing) on bright edges that I end up throwing out the majority of photos I take with it at 300mm. Hence the reason why I prefer to photograph birds in diffused lighting. Plus the AF is so slow that I have to manually focus my bird photos. One good thing about my cheap lens is that it's sharp from 70mm to about 210mm at the f7.1 - f11 aperture range. The 400mm prime lens on the other hand has fast autofocus and is razor sharp from what I've seen of the reviews. Plus it's only $1000. There's no other good lens of that length on the market for that price. I wish it weren't white color though. If I buy the lens down the road, I'll probably put a camouflage cover on it.

Check my New Photos gallery for more photos.