Photo Essay – Northern New Mexico Updated
- This topic has 8 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated Jul 24, 2006 at 1:19 am by
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Someone was asking recently about the Chama river in S. Colorado. These photos will be similar although the Chama is somewhat larger than the Rio Castillo that we fished in the Valle Vidal. I had my doubts about the destination this year having never fished the area. I must say I was again overwhelmed by the sheer diversity of the American Landscape and trout habitat.
Rio Grange Box Bluffs in late afternoon sun
We caught both Cut Throat and CutBows on the Rio Castillo
The Cimmaron is a tail water not far from Angelfire NM
The Rio Grande was way off color due to the rains in the mountains
This is the view before the 800 ft vertical hike down to the confluence of the Rio Grande on the right and the Red River on the left.
This is the view back up from the bottom
Rio Hondo parallels the road up to the Taos Ski Valley and is loaded with browns.
These little buggers were as drunk as they could be on the nectar of this plant.
First Cut I have ever caught.All images caught on a Cannon 20D, 28-200 Cannon f3.5, Moose Filter
Flybum,
Your photos have me excited. I’m fishing the Rio Grande near Creede in Sept. I’m as excited about the terrain and the experience as the fishing. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Splitshot
Nice images, TX
One question. Why the Moose filter? If I am not mistaken, it is a combination polarizer and 81a. With digital, there’s no need for the 81a. The last coulple of trout pics and the cimmaron look unnaturally warm.
The warmth is a subjective call. But my reason for asking is why add an 81a (or Moose) when a WB adjustment would be so much easier and precise?
TX, #2 and #4 are my favorites.
Hey Zach,
It doesnt make any difference, other than having an unnecessary piece of glass in front of your lens. The day I started shooting digital, I got rid of my warming and cooling filters. Its duplicitous. All I carry now are a polarizer and a set of Singh Ray GND filters.
The WB adjustments should be done in the RAW conversion where its non-destructive.
I am not familiar with the +1 +2 +3 WB compensations on the D70. The D2X and now the 5D have precise WB settings in Kelvin. 5500K for daylight, etc. and you could adjust that number, depending on the conditions.
But, if you shoot RAW, it doesnt matter. RAW captures every possible WB combination at the time of the capture. Thats the beauty of RAW. When you make the adjustments in the RAW converter, you are choosing a WB setting and discarding the other possibilities. Its a process of discarding data, not changing it. Thats why its non-destructive.
I leave my on-camera WB at or near 5500. Thats the light temperature of daylight-balanced film. I can expect results that are pretty close to what I got when I shot film. Then I fine-tune in the RAW converter to fit my taste.
All of these have been “Tweeked” in photoshop. First ‘Auto Contrast’ then a bit of saturation and hue adjustment. I like the deeper and warmer tones and highlights that the Moose brings. I supose that it is all subjective. I also use this same filter on my film set up when shooting slides.
The guys I was with, were talking about a grand slam for the area being a Pure Strain Cutthroat which we caught in the upper reaches of the Castillo River where they are cut off from the hybrid population by a natural falls, a cutbow which we caught in the lower reaches of the drainage, a Brown and a rainbow. All of the Rainbows we caught were hatchery fish by my estimation due to their muted coloration. I have no idea if that qualifies as a grand slam but we caught all four strains in a single drainage. The Cutthoat were amazing. Such a vivid slash and wide dark vertical banding down the length rather than the irridescence of the bows.
One of two I took as a brace for dinner mid week
This one is for you Zack.
We woke up one morning and the truck door was open on my Nissan Armada. I knew I had shut it the evening before and when I approached there was an empty bag of chips, an empty bag of dried fruit, and this empty container of animal crackers on the ground around the truck. Not a crumb left. Only a paw print on the door handle and second door and black hair and dirt in the drivers seat. Thank God the door did not shut behind the bear.
Our Trail mate
This is a crazy little shot of a hatch of craneflies I think.
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