Is There Anything for a Photographer Here

One of our photographer friends asked J recently if there was anything for a photographer here at Elephant Butte Lake State Park. My answer is "Yes, and no." To paraphrase John Shaw, "A photographer makes images in the field and makes money in the office." Elephant Butte Lake State Park is a great place for a photographer, who is also a full-time RVer, to get some office work done because there's not much around to photograph. While there are Northern harriers, American white pelicans, great white egrets, great blue herons, Gamble's quail, roadrunner, and several species of smaller flitty birds that one could photograph, it's easier to photograph them elsewhere.

Today's Happenings

It was 32°F (0°C) and sunny when we got out of bed this morning. I had Quaker Natural Granola - Oats & Honey & Raisins with powdered milk for breakfast again to conserve real milk. I worked up a blog entry then did some computer work. We left around 11:15 and ...

Walked out to the abandoned shack that's south of the campground. There was an old dirt track from the big water tank at the campground out there, so it was an easy trek. The old shack had been abandoned years ago, and while the roof was mostly intact, the walls are mostly just studs now. The shack sits near the end of a peninsula overlooking the lake, and the view from the shack is better than the view from the campground. Plus, there were lots of orange bushes that would make nice foreground elements. After exploring the shack for a bit, we walked down to the lake shore and followed it to the boat ramp.

We returned to the RV at 12:15, and it was still only 51°F (11°C). I had lunch of a Chocolate Peanut Crunch Clif Bar followed by cold (refrigerated) pizza that was leftover from dinner four nights ago. The pizza had been much better right out of the oven. I did some computer work, then showered.

I processed the final set of images for a stock submission. (You may read more about stock submissions on August 7, 2009.) I continued working through images from our trip to South Africa in October and November 2007 and in particular our time at Karoo National Park and Mountain Zebra National Park. Karoo National Park reminds me a lot of central New Mexico. It's arid, there's scattered shrubs on the dry ground, and there are bluffs.

Quagga Project

Karoo National Park, South Africa, is unique because it's part of the Quagga Project. (This Wikipedia article provides a good introduction to quagga and the Quagga Project.) Quagga (left) are a zebra-like mammal with stripes mainly only on its head and neck that became extinct in 1883 when the the last one died in the Amsterdam Zoo. DNA studies of quagga pelts indicated that quagga weren't a separate species of zebra but rather a subspecies related to the southern plains zebra, and that led to the Quagga Project. The Quagga Project's goal is to recreate the quagga by selective breeding from plains zebra — just like making a chihuahua from a wolf. A fifth generation foal, born on January 20, 2005, has markings that are very similar to a quagga. My image (below left) is of one of the earlier generations in the project and shows less stripes on the hind quarters than a regular plains zebra, but still more than a quagga.

The main attraction for me at Mountain Zebra National Park, South Africa, is the mountain zebra, a subspecies of zebra that's unique to South Africa. On our trip there in November 2007, my favorite subjects were the vervet monkeys. I love primates, and the babies, in particular, are great fun to photograph. The image of the mother holding an infant (near left) has a big "aw" factor. :)I made an impulse buy on eBay. I've been thinking about getting a Canon digital projector since we left the Denver area because I was asked to give a slide show to a group there. I sold my Canon REALiS SX60 when we moved into the RV because I didn't think I'd be doing any more slide shows. I've given some since then, but was able to borrow a projector for those occasions. I had been looking for projector on eBay, and a "low-mileage" (only 5 hours on the lamp) Canon REALiS SX80 came available recently with a decent minimum bid. The SX80 like the SX60, is an SXGA+ (1400x1050 pixels) projector that uses Canon's LCOS (Liquid Crystal On Silicon) technology which produces images that are superior to LCD- and DLP-based projectors. (You may read about the advantages of LCOS over LCD and DLP on the Canon website.) I was the only person to bid, and I'll soon be the happy owner of a high class digital projector. :)

We left around 4:30 in the Jeep to check out the North Monticello Campground in Elephant Butte Lake State Park. Compared to South Monticello, which has paved loops and sheltered picnic tables at each site, North Monticello is undeveloped. There are only gravel roads and no real designated camp sites. There were quite a few pelicans and some great white egrets in the lake near there, and we tried to photograph them from the Jeep in the fading light. The egrets were up first, but were among too many odd twigs poking up from the water. Plus, I had gotten off the dry dirt track and into some rather soft mud while trying to get closer to them. I threw the Jeep into 4Hi and got us back onto the dry solid ground without getting stuck — whew! The sun had set by the time we were trying to get into position to photograph the pelicans, and I didn't want to get off the dry dirt track and risk getting stuck, so I didn't photograph them.

We returned to the RV around 5:35. I downloaded an episode of Car Talk and some system updates because I had leftover quota on my USB stick that was to roll over tonight.

We had dinner around 6:25 of leftover cheeseburger pie, and this time J enhanced it by smothering it in salsa.

I prepared the 67 images that my stock agent had selected from my previous submission, then did some computer work.

We watched a fascinating program on PBS called Documenting the Face of America about Roy Stryker and the RA/FSA/OWI program in the 1930s and 40s. It included stories about the photographers and their work, including Dorothea Lang (Migrant Mother, far left) and Gordon Parks (American Gothic, near left).

We have a TV antenna embedded in our roof and our flat-panel TV, that came with the RV, was digital-ready. Here at South Monticello, we get one good TV channel — the PBS station in Las Cruces.