theboondork's RV blog

the Bosque Del Apache, day one; boondocking.

11/4/2023

The Bosque is a magical place if migrating birds are what you chase. a lot stop here, I don't know why, maybe there just too tired to fly.....click a pic.

I told The RV Park owner that's just outside the Bosque Del Apache main gate, that I preferred boondocking to staying in RV parks, and he told me, "if you really like to boondock you can stay over there in the middle of that Pecan Grove, and you can have all the pecans you can eat." That sounded like a challenge to me, so I told him; "Challenge accepted ! "

I left Las Vegas, New Mexico, about 8 a.m., stopping only to fill up with diesel fuel at four dollars a gallon, which is the cheapest I've seen diesel fuel in a long time. I hope it continues that cheap as I go through New Mexico; that might cause me to hang around New Mexico longer than usual.

It was in the 30s when I left, which seems to be about the normal morning temperatures wherever I go nowadays, and then by after lunch, it will gain 40° and be T-shirt weather all afternoon.

I'm still waking up too early, and getting out of bed in the morning, usually before the sun comes up, which is a sign that I haven't shed all of my Denver summer habits yet; when the grandkids were getting off to school, it was something I needed to be aware of, but now I've shifted into traveling mode, where temperatures are more important to me than time.

I still wear my wristwatch, partially out of habit and partly because I like to look at my watch in the morning and see if it's close to sunrise so I can peek outside and see if it's worth taking a picture of. I like to park with my back door facing the morning son so I can open the door, take a quick picture, and go back to bed. One of the many things I like about my photography hobby is that I can be as lazy as I want.

I pulled into the Bosque Bird-Watchers RV Park, which, by the way, is one of the very few RV parks that I go to in my winter travels. The main reason is that it's only a few hundred yards from the entrance to Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge, which is as close as you can camp since there's no camping in the park. It's inexpensive, the owner will work with you on the price. he's always got a place for me to stay when I show up, and best of all, He's a nice guy with a great sense of humor.

I signed up for a week of boondocking, which should give me enough time to get some good pictures for the blog. I only sleep at the RV Park since I'm in the Bosque, where I eat, relax, and take pictures... All day long.

I know that sounds incredibly boring, but I look at it like there are a lot of professional photographers who pay a bunch of money to fly halfway around the world so they can spend a day or two at the Bosque, and I'm lucky enough to spend as much time here as I want...And In the comfort of my own home.

Theboondork

Pecans still on the tree.

A couple of thousand Snow Geese, are what greeted me as soon as I got in the main gate at the Bosque.

Huge groups of Snow Geese are actually what a lot of people come here to see.

Shoveler duck.

A heads up.

If you don't like pictures of various migrating birds you probably need to skip my blog for a week. The Bosque Del Apache in New Mexico is all about birds, so there's not much else to take a picture of. But I enjoy it, because I enjoy taking pictures of just about anything, even birds.

12 Comments

OFM

11/4/2023 04:59:33 pm

That pecan orchard looks like a great place to me.

Tom

11/4/2023 06:35:37 pm

I sure hope it is, cause I'll be here for a week. One thing is for sure it's deftly not crowded.

The owner told me there may be Javelina wandering around at night picking up pecans, so I guess I won't be poking around in the dark taking pictures.

Tom

Judith

11/4/2023 07:36:24 pm

I'm one who won't be tuning out for the next week or so....(not that I ever do anyway, you do take fine photos wherever you are). This time of year I'd go easy on the pecans....surely they need another few weeks . But maybe a different climate, though I wouldn't trust javelinas on pecan edibility. Have fun!

11/4/2023 08:10:37 pm

Thank you, Judith; since you feel that way, maybe I'll start reading my blog.

I haven't had a chance to check out the pecans yet, but there surrounding me including lying on the ground so if the Javelina leave me any I'll give them a try.

But you may be right because I thought when the pecans were ripe you could shake the limbs and the pecans would fall out of the tree.

When I would visit my mom in South Georgia a lot of folks had pecan trees in their yard, and they would hit the branches with a long stick and the pecans would fall out on the ground. But I shook some low-hanging branches on the trees here, and nothing fell out of the tree except a squirrel and a one-legged Woodpecker, so maybe they're not ripe yet.

Tom

Larry Worsham

11/5/2023 06:19:50 am

Glad your out there in your element! Love the bird pic's but enjoy the aircraft pic even more. I'd love to upgrade my photog. skills but dammit life keeps getting in the way. Back in the day I was a dark room guy with an old Minolta and a Yashica twin lens reflex. All this digital stuff is truly amazing. I haven't touched the processing part of the digital world in photography. I'm curious on how much time you spend with the computer (current darkroom) perfecting your shots? Or do you rely on good technic out of the gate? Maybe a blog post on your photographic process will give us an insight on how you put out such a fine product.

SAFE TRAVELS!

11/5/2023 11:52:01 am

thank you Larry. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, but I got up just after dawn and I've been driving and walking around, taking pictures.

Aircraft pictures, just like pictures of Sandhill cranes, I can't get just anywhere. I usually need to be in Tucson, or Ajo Arizona to get pictures of Air Force planes flying over. And those places are in the works its just a matter of me getting there one day this winter.

It's called the digital darkroom for a reason, you do the same thing on the computer that's done in the darkroom except it's a lot quicker and easier to do on the computer. About all I do to my pictures is the things that require very little skill to do in Adobe Lightroom.

I've tried lots of other photo processing software's but lightroom seems to do a better quality job than any of the others I've tried. I just do the basic things, starting with taking the pictures in raw format, and processing them in raw, the raw format has a lot more digital information in it than JPEG's which the camera has processed for you. I get the lights and darks right, a little dodging and burning here and there, remove some digital noise if need be, and of course sharpening.

Good technique out of the gate? You've got to be kidding? I'm a taker of snapshots. I seldom use a tripod, I mostly point and shoot, and if a good picture appears on my computer screen I consider myself lucky. But if a picture looks good when I first see it I'll spend three or four minutes trying to improve it, the operative word here being try.

But I feel without a doubt, the most important thing I've done to improve my pictures is... I stopped taking pictures just to be taking pictures. And started taking pictures when the light is right which for the most part is early mornings and late afternoons. Unless its cloudy and then you can get some pretty decent pictures without the bright sun overhead.

Tom

11/6/2023 04:09:54 am

True, awareness of light and composition are the first steps of taking a quality photograph. I have used Adobe Photoshop Elements over the years briefly. I have a Nikon D610 that has too many buttons, settings, and bells and whistles. I usually leave it on Auto and let the camera decide.........

Don't let me keep you away from you pics with my questions.

SAFE TRAVELS!

11/6/2023 07:14:49 am

No problemo Larry, I'm always glad to talk about my hobbies; in fact, I'm much better at talking about them than I am at doing them.

In fact, I have a lot of downtime when parked next to a lake at the Bosque. For about half the day the birds are off feeding in a field somewhere, so I get to relax in the camper, thinking about how I screwed up so many pictures in so brief a time.

The auto setting on a camera will work for most pictures, most of the time, but when dealing with a herd of birds, it's really the speed that matters so I will set my Canon camera to give me control of the shutter speed, which I usually set for about 2000 of a second and let the camera take care of the rest.

But 90% of the time if I'm taking everyday pictures I camera set so I control the aperture, so I can blur the background if I want to, and the camera takes care of the rest.

I remember back in the day when my cameras weren't autofocusing, and since my eyes aren't that great I didn't even bother to take a picture of anything that was moving, I couldn't get anything in focus in time. But the autofocusing of nowadays is so incredible it will find the subject, lock on, and stay in focus no matter where the subject goes

The cameras are almost good enough that they don't need me anymore. When I can relax in the camper and send my camera out to take the pictures photography will be the perfect hobby for me..... Wait a minute! A drone with a camera already does that. I now have the perfect hobby.

Tom

Linda

11/5/2023 10:36:52 am

I like pecans! That would be a real bonus for me. We used to camp at the Orange Grove RV park in Bakersfield but the oranges were never ripe when we were there.

11/5/2023 11:57:56 am

I'm rather fond of pecans myself Linda, if you spend much time in South Georgia you had better like pecans, and peanuts, they seem to be a staple of life there. But Judith may be right, the pecans I'm parked under may not be ripe yet, I didn't see any of Javelina running around eating the ones laying on the ground last night.

Tom

11/6/2023 01:11:00 pm

No peanuts, please. My body does not like them But pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews, yes, please.

11/6/2023 04:29:06 pm

Well, that's a shame, Linda; one of my favorite things is boiled peanuts. In South Georgia you can buy boiled peanuts on a street corner, their very popular.

I have to admit that the thought of a boiled peanut doesn't sound very good since there supposed to be roasted, but I prefer them boiled.... Strange.

Tom

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the Bosque Del Apache, day one; boondocking.

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