Santa Fe Mountains – New Mexico – Part 3

The condo we rented in Cochiti was about halfway between Albuquerque & Santa Fe so we decided to make a trip over to Santa Fe, established in 1610.

We drove into town and it was crowded! Coming to New Mexico for the hot balloon fiesta is a great thing but be prepared for all the attractions, restaurants, and towns/cities in the vicinity to be busy! We drove around Santa Fe several times and could not find a place to park! I took one shot as we were at a stoplight!

We eventually decided that we would drive out to the Ski Santa Fe ski area in the mountains in hopes of seeing some golden aspens.

As we drove to higher elevations the trees were getting more and more colorful.

We stopped at the ski area and hiked up to the hill there for a bit. I saw my first ski lift up close!

We went on through the mountains and found some curvy sections of road that we could use in our images.

As we went higher the trees got brighter and brighter!

When you are in a grove of trees, don’t forget to look up. Using a wide-angle lens helps to get an image like this.

I have always loved different trees, so aspens and birches, with their white bark and bright autumn leaves, have been favorites.

I also love to do Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) shots on these types of trees, as the contrast of the trunks and the leaves makes some interesting abstracts.

You need to take a lot of these to get some good ones. Slow down the shutter speed to give you time to move the camera. Take a look at the camera LED to see if you have the exposure right and then swoosh away.

With this type of tree, swooshing from top to bottom works best but try side to side and at an angle. Also, move closer and back up to get different parts of the trees and the sky in some images.

After shooting the aspens for a while, we decided to head back toward the condo. I had to get one last shot of the beautiful aspens!

We drove back through Santa Fe. It was still very crowded but we decided to stop at the supermarket and pull together a steak dinner to cook at the condo.

Grilling the steaks out on the deck at the condo led to a great discovery. More on that in Part 4 of my New Mexico trip.

Be sure to check out Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Mountains, especially if you are there in the fall when the aspens are so golden.

To see these and additional images of the Santa Fe Mountains and the beautiful aspens, please check out my Gallery.

That is all for now.

Lynn