My show will be starting in a few minutes!

My wife and I were coming out of Home Depot on a Saturday evening and I looked up at the sky and saw the perfect setup for dramatic and fantastic evening colors. If the wind didn't blow the clouds away I knew it was going to be a very inspiring sunset.

I called a friend of mine, who is a pastor in Albuquerque as well as an APD volunteer chaplain, and let him know I was going to do some photography tonight. ( He wanted to go with me the next time I went) I didn't reach him but left a message. Ev and I went home and I loaded up my camera and tripod and headed off. I didn't have much time so I didn't want to have to drive far to setup. I parked off Osuna Rd. and went out onto the golf course at Arroro Del Oso.

The sky was really shaping up. My friend sent me a text message saying thanks for the invite but he and his wife were at the movies. I sent him a text message back hoping he and his wife enjoyed the movie and that my show was just starting.

People sometimes ask me if the colors in my images are real because they often look surreal.

They are. I rarely, if ever, add additional color saturation to my photos. I do some minor levels and curves adjustments, some minor color "corrections" and for the most part that's about it. Basically adjusting contrast. Similar to shooting in the Velvia 50 days when we would underexpose the image by a full stop, sometimes 2, then have the lab push the development by the same stop to increase contrast and color. Velvia is still a great film by the way. With digital, a photographer must be very careful underexposing or overexposing an image. Underexpose too much and all of the photos shadows will have noticeable digital noise when you try and pull the image up. Overexpose by too much and the bright highlight areas will lose detail that can't be recovered. RAW provides more room on both the shadow and highlight side of the image but when making large prints, as do when I sell a 20" x 30" print, shadow noise and clipped highlights will ruin the enlargement and make it unsaleable.

Did you see that?

My wife and I just returned from Steamboat Springs, Co. We were on vacation. I had never been there before and was excited about the possibility of some great mountain images. It was cloudy and cold the entire 4 days we were there

and our days revolved around our multi-trips to the Steaming Bean for coffee and to check emails. I didn't scout much, the photography this week was more of a "study" in contrast and color and the scouting trips were more down the lines of "Wow!, did you see that?", I exclaimed, as we rounded a curve in the road in our car. "See what?", my wife would say. "We have to turn around, I have to shoot that stand of trees, wow!, what contrast and color!" Driving down the road with me can be a dangerous event. I see photos around every corner, literally, and sometimes, I'm distracted by the way the light is reflecting, at that moment, off a stand of Aspen trees or the way the light is illuminating the landscape into multiple patterns of light and shadow, color and contrast. Oh, I'm very careful not be distracted when other cars are on the road but Ev gets a little nervous sometimes and I don't blame her. You don't always have to hike for miles to get great photographs and some of my best have been right off the road somewhere.
Most of the time I don't have a clue as to exact location of a shot I've taken by the road, I just know it's "this side of Rabbit Ears Pass off Hwy 9". I should make a stronger effort to look up exact locations and names of mountain ranges that are in the distance of one of my shots but I don't always have the right map adequately describing these particular areas, but I often wished I knew more. I don't often shoot well known and heavily photographed national monuments, anyway. I'd rather shoot the out of the way "no name" places that have never had their moment of glory with a photo, "virgin territory" one might say! Such as this photo taken on a backstreet in Kremmling, Colorado, pop. 1538, just after sunrise when the temp was only 11 degrees. We were driving through town, on our way home to Albuquerque, and I just noticed this scene as we rounded a curve coming into town. I found a back street, stopped the car, got out setup the camera and took a few.
Not your typical national monument type image but I love the, out of the way, small town, realistic look.
So I didn't get the beautiful "last light" hitting the snowy mountain tops photos this time around and I'll be planning more trips to Colorado just to focus on the photography but I still love what I came back with and it goes to prove that there are photo opportunities literally "everywhere". You just have to look but. . . PLEASE. . . keep one eye on the road when the road is clear and the both eyes on the road when cars are coming.

Full Moon Along I-25

I was looking out the window from work and saw that some great looking clouds were rolling in over the Sandias. As soon as I got home and kissed my wife hello, I grabbed my camera gear and headed out the door. I thought I would shoot off of I-25, between Albuquerque and Bernalillo because it was late and I didn't want to drive far or have to hike. I've seen some beautiful views driving along this section of highway but have never really liked any images I've shot from this area, partly because Rincon Ridge hides most of the real Sandias, and it's just too difficult locating decent places to shoot in high speed traffic but I thought I would try again tonight. It's not easy flying down the freeway at 70 mph with cars on your tail, looking for a good view and a safe place to pull over and be safe shooting. By the time I would find a place I had already passed it. I managed to pull over but the angle was not very good, the clouds had all but blown away so I waited for a break in traffic and got back on the interstate and headed to Bernalillo to turn around. The sun had already set and I was just going to head back home but the moon was rising over the mountains and the twilight colors were beckoning so I began looking for another place to pull over, this time going the opposite way. I had to locate a hillside I could climb up to have a clear shot across four lanes of fast moving traffic.
The wind was blowing and exposures were long, over 3.5 sec at F11 so getting a clean, sharp photo was not a guarantee. I couldn't see well to focus so I set my focus to "Infinity" and did the best I could to keep the camera and tripod steady in the wind.

These are different images than anything I've shot before. Even though it seems like the shoot is not going to be productive, I usually come back with something worthwhile, even if it's not what I was originally after.

The streaming lights in the foreground of this photo are vehicle headlights and taillights as they pass by on the interstate during the long exposure. I shot a couple this way just for fun.

To see more Sandia photos please visit my website at http://www.howardholley.com/

Hunting the Sandias

I went out shooting again tonight. There was a big storm that would be breaking and creating that beautifully magical light I call the "magic minute". This is that fleeting light that only happens during certain times, when a big storm begins to break in the western sky, late in the day. This light is part of what's called the "golden hour" only more dramatic.

However, the shot above, was not the shot I was after tonight. That was a last minute shot after I had already gone back to my truck and was putting everything away.

The shot I was really after evaded me tonight. The clouds stayed somewhat low, slightly hiding the top of the mountain, as in this image on the left, with the rainbow, however, I still like this shot. I love the way the rainbow and sun hitting the hillside work together to immediately draw you deep into the photo.
The clouds were still pretty low when I took the top photo, just before leaving, but because of the dramatic light and beautiful clouds, it still works as far as I'm concerned.

Click here to see more of the Sandia Mountains from my main website http://www.howardholley.com/

Here is another one I shot at the same time just to show how low the sun was on the horizon. It takes more than just the sun low in the sky to get that ultra saturated light that only lasts a few minutes, it also takes some heavy cloud cover to act as a giant reflector and bounce the light back down to the ground.

I still don't have the shot I'm really after and I feel like I'm a hunter, stalking the light, waiting for everything to come together at the same time while I wait patiently from my staked out position. That is about the best way I can describe it. I'll be back until I'm satisfied I couldn't take a better shot from this area.

New Sandia Images

I shot some new Sandia Mountain images tonight. My wife and I took our dogs hiking this evening and the sky looked like it might really be a beautiful sunset so I took my camera and tripod. The wind blew most of the clouds away but I still was able to get some beautiful shots.

I shot this as sun had already gone down, just before twilight. I really love the tones. The Sandias are beautiful anytime and from anywhere.

Here is another image I shot just before the first one when there was still a little more sun hitting the landscape.

Click here if you would like to see more Sandia photos.

2008 Balloon Fiesta

Ahhh. . . the Balloon Fiesta is here again!

Seems like it was only last month when we had friends over for breakfast and to sit and watch the balloons fly by. We have the best seat in the house, actually it is our house. The mass ascension balloons drift right over hour house every morning that the breeze is blowing south out of Balloon Fiesta Park. The balloons fly so low over the rooftops that we can talk to the people in the balloons as they drift over us, Ollie and Buddie, our little dogs, go nuts barking at them in the sky and running around the backyard like it's an invasion . . .to them it is I guess.

I took these shots right from an upstairs window.

We even get up close because they will land in our street, between the houses. I always wondered how they could do that so easily.


People have asked me, since I'm a photographer, if I have any really great balloon shots. I have a few decent photos but shooting balloons doesn't interest me all that much. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy shooting the beautiful saturated colors against the clear blue sky but so does everyone. That's why the Balloon Fiesta is one of the most photographed events in the world. There are a gazillion balloon photos out there and if I was going to shoot a balloon pic, to possibly sell on my website, it would have to be a very, different type of shot, one that works more as a fine art print, and not just pretty colors. I've seen some real fine art balloon photos and they really inspire me. Maybe I'll try and work on that this year and if I do I'll post it here.

Howard Holley Print presented to Senator Jeff Bingaman by American Rivers

(left to right) American Rivers Board Chair Ned Whitney, Senator Jeff Bingaman, American Rivers CEO Rebecca Wodder

American Rivers presented a Howard Holley Photography print of New Mexico’s Chama River to Senator Jeff Bingaman during the 5th Annual River Action Day in Washington, DC. On June 3, 2008, 115 river advocates and 28 members of Congress came from all over of the country to discuss issues that impact the health and well being of rivers in our communities across the country.

This was a real honor for me to have one of my prints presented to Senator Bingaman during the River Action Day in D.C. I would have loved to have been there in person but the photo above is the next best thing.