It's Day 3 in my series here on my blog: 5 Days of Bosque del Apache Images and Tips. I'm running this series in preparation for my 2015 Bosque workshop (which is full) and my 2016 Bosque workshop. Click here to see all my 2016 workshops.

Feel free to drag my images into Bridge or Lightroom for Metadata.

Today's Tip: Don't overlook landscape photography possibilities.

But first . . . Want to improve your landscape photography skills? You've come to the right place. Check out my on-line class, Master Landscape and Seascape Photography.

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Yes! I know you want to photograph the birds at Bosque. However, don’t overlook the landscape possibilities, especially on the North Loop at sunrise. For the opening photograph in this post, I boosted the Vibrance in Lightroom to enhance the color. If you boost the Saturation too much, you can lose detail in saturated areas.

When composting a photograph, look for separation between subjects. This helps to “cut the clutter” in a two-dimensional photograph. Notice how the sun, large tree and small tree are all isolated in this image.

Often times, a good HDR image, like this one, does not look like an HDR image. That is, you don’t notice the halos where the dark and light areas meet. Reduce halos by using the Lighting Adjustment slider in Photomatix. Get a 15% discount on Photomatix on my Save on Plug-ins page.

In landscape photograph, strive to get the entire scene in focus – so your photograph looks like the scene looks to your eyes.

For maximum depth of field, shoot with a wide-angle lens, small aperture and focus 1/3 into the scene.

To add an artistic quality to this image, I applied the Duplex filter in Nik Color Efex Pro.

I took the photographs above and below on the North Loop. The tree in the distance in this photograph is the same tree that is in the foreground in the preceding photograph.

Watch the weather. Snowstorms can block Loop roads – as well as major highways. One of my workshop students missed a flight home due to heavy snow.

Shoot panoramas to capture the awesomeness of the sweeping landscapes. Or, do as I did for this image: shoot with a wide-angle lens and crop off the top and bottom of the scene to create the look of a panoramic photograph.

This pre-dawn photograph is another example of why you want to arrive at Bosque well before sunrise.

I hope to see you on one of my Bosque workshops . . . or on any workshop for that matter! :-)

For detailed information on photographing birds, check out my on-line class: Master the Art and Craft of Bird Photography.

Explore the light,
Rick