In 2005 I was commissioned to photograph a big game hunt in South Africa. These are are my stories.

South Africa is the queen mother of all brothels.

When you talk to a man with soft hands who claims to have killed an elephant, you have to wonder what reason a man with soft hands has for doing such a thing. Unlike Heart Disease and Type 2 Diabetes, elephants are not high on the 1st world list of threats to humanity.

My job was to portray the gentlemanly sport of big game hunting as genteel and aristocratic, which is not at all what it really is. What it is, is paying for flattery. I mean how else does a man with soft hands end up with an elephant head on his wall?

My employer wanted me to make him look important and distinguished. He wanted to make sure the world knew of his international exploits, so long as they met the first two criteria. My photographs of him have been published in prestigious hunting magazines that are read by tricks everywhere. I guess that makes me famous.

I did my job perfectly. He knew I would and this is why I got the gig, but I wasn’t happy.
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My employer, who usually looked to me for council, had become deaf in both ears and was making an international ass of himself. An adolescent boy with a rifle; spending big money to kill big animals, running his mouth like a fool and fondling his mistress who was a carbon copy of his wife. I would have let all this slide, had he been nice to me, but seeing as how that was evidently not part of the plan I decided to show him what big game hunting looked like to me.

I shot his photos, the ones he wanted, and then I shot my photos, the ones I wanted him to see. For every one magazine ready portrait, I shot hundreds of gruesome images: tongues lolling from bleeding mouths, heads with lifeless eyes hanging from the back of flat bed trailers, pools of blood in the sand, ripped skin.

     The Ojito Wilderness in New Mexico is an 11,000 acre site located north of Bernalillo, around the vicinity of San Ysidro. It is a BLM owned public open space full of desert jewels such as petrified wood, rare plant species, dry river beds, ancient petroglyphs, hoodoos and a generally alien landscape. 
     Some things to be aware of when visiting Ojito is that it is closed to motorized vehicles. I don't recall there being any proper parking lots and it is in no way ADA accessible. There are no bathrooms, water fountains, tour guides or snack bars. What there is is wind and lots of it. If you come here, be prepared to pack in anything you might need and carry it all out too. The desert doesn't want baby wipes and beer bottles so, as always, leave only footprints and take only photographs.

      I guess that's why it closed, you know, because no one knew it was there. I found plenty of sites with information about the Ojito Wilderness but I couldn't find even one mention of this abandoned trading post that once sat out in the middle of it all.
     These photos were recovered from my (previously missing) archives. They were shot in 2006. I know the trading post was still there for at least another five or six years but I heard a rumor that it had since fallen down - either by itself or with the help of bulldozers.  With that in mind, these are likely the last photos of this forgotten place.  

     The dragonfly pictured below was stuck to the window in the above photo. I do recall that on a subsequent trip, the window in question had been broken thus marking this image as a one of a kind moment in time. And for the record, the dragonfly was already dead when I found it, I did not harm the dragonfly for the sake of staging a weird photo (because I would never do that!).

     The photo above is one of my all-time favorite images. In fact, there is a large framed print of it hanging front and center in my living room so the three people that come to my house can say, "Wow, that's a great photo!"
     Believe it or not, I didn't stage this photo. In the back room of the trading post was an over turned stove. Sitting on the stove was a copy of The Red Badge Of Courage that was well past it's prime. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it is always windy in the Ojito Wilderness. So all I did was turn the book slightly so that the draft coming in through the broken window and exiting the missing door would blow the book open. Then I set myself up across the room with a telephoto lens and a slow shutter speed and waited for the wind to make the book do just the right thing, which it did... eventually. Good things come to patient photographers.
     To see my posts about other Abandoned Places, click here.

     To reach the Ojito Wilderness, start in Bernalillo and travel north on U.S. 550 for about 21 miles. Then turn left (west) on Cabezon Road (County Road 906). After approx. 9 & 1/4 miles there should be a sign for the Ojito Wilderness. Continue for another 3/4 mile and start looking for some kind of parking area. There should be two trail heads here; the Seismosaurus Trailhead and the Hoodoo Trailhead. I honestly have no idea which of these trails might lead to where the trading post is (or was). What I remember doing was driving until a sandy dry river bed forced us to park the vehicle for fear of getting stuck and then walking across the river bed to the trading post. That being said, even if the trading post is no longer standing, there is still plenty of cool stuff to see and I think a hiker wouldn't be disappointed with either trail.

In October of 2005, I was commissioned to photograph a big game hunt in South Africa. These are my stories.

The dark hills of South Africa are filled with baboons. They hide in trees, scanning the landscape with human eyes, barking monkey messages to their monkey brethren and smiling broadly so the sun glints off their razor sharp lion teeth. To hunt a baboon is both murderous and futile. While a human predator camps out in the bush, waiting for an unsuspecting beast to wander in front of his gun, baboons are stripping his truck and using the parts to build a spaceship.

Troops of baboons crowd the shoulders of the highway; waiting for food scraps and making obscene hand gestures at the VW Buses rattling non-stop up and down the wrong side of the road. You never, ever see a dead baboon in the road. They don’t get hit by cars. The same cannot be said of dogs or boa constrictors but baboons understand traffic laws. A baboon always knows who has the right of way.

While it is not uncommon to see unemployable men camped in front of the general store; cooking fowl meat with a butane lighter and pissing in a Coke bottle, this is not a fate that would befall a baboon. They don’t smoke dope, grow delirious from malaria, or live in shanty towns. A baboon does not call plywood and a tarp with a house number a house, nor is it a master of exploitation. A baboon knows it’s place in the scheme of things.
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A successful predator in any environment, this intelligent, albeit ugly, lion-monkey is a marvel of nature. If I were you, I wouldn’t antagonize the baboons. They know where you live.

     Hummingbirds are arguably one of the most difficult subjects to photograph. Their tiny size and incredible speed present a unique challenge to any photographer and any camera system. The issue, of course, is how to get an image that is both close-up and in-focus.
     As the old saying saying goes, "there's more than one way to skin a pig" and this summer I tested a couple of methods using different camera systems to see which would render the best results.

      My original go-to camera for this test was my Canon EOS 80D and my Tamron 70-300mm telephoto lens. All of the images in the first part of this blog post and in Hummingbirds 2019 Part 1 and Hummingbirds 2019 Part 2 are shot with that camera & lens combo.

     The Canon 80D is a DSLR camera that can be used in most any professional situation. The benefits of using this type of camera include:

• Superior image quality
• Interchangeable lenses
• Full manual controls including ability to manipulate ISO, shutter speed, and f-stop.

     While the DSLR style camera system seems like an obvious choice, there are a couple a major drawbacks when it comes to photographing hummingbirds.

     The way a DSLR camera creates an image for the user to view through the eye piece is by reflecting that image off of a mirror on the inside of the camera body. Back in the days of film, the "film plane" was behind this mirror. When the photographer pushed the shutter, this mirror would flip up and expose the film to a carefully measured and focused amount of light that would create an image on the film. In the age of digital, DSLR cameras still work this way but instead of a film plane, the digital sensor is behind the mirror. The classic "click-click" sound that is universally associated with a camera firing is the sound of that mirror flipping up and coming back down and herein lies the problem.
     A rapidly firing DSLR camera sounds like a machine gun clickity clackity clickity clackity and it scares the birds. Because hummingbirds are so small, even with a 300mm lens, it is still necessary to stand pretty close to the feeders in order to get images that don't have to be cropped a ridiculous amount. As soon as they hear that sound, they promptly go investigate the other feeders.
     While the Canon 80D does indeed produce beautiful images, it's noisy shutter scares the birds so I started to consider a quieter option. If price were no issue, the obvious solution would be a mirrorless camera system. If I were just now getting into the game, I would invest in this type of camera system. As of now, Canon is not even developing new DSLR models and are putting all of their R&D dollars into mirrorless cameras.
     That being said, I have a large investment in DSLR camera bodies and EOS lenses and jumping ship just for this one super specific application seemed a little silly. Mirrorless cameras are quiet but do you know what other kind of camera is quiet? Point and shoot cameras are quiet too!

     While researching different types of quiet cameras, I discovered that one could easily spend almost as much on a fancy point-and-shoot as on a DSLR. Spending $1000 on this experiment seemed excessive so I opted for the Canon PowerShot Elph 360. It's small, it's purple (always a plus!), it's quiet and, at $200, it's affordable.
     Disclaimer: to be successful with this camera it is still necessary to have a healthy understanding of the principals of photography. I don't want to imply that this is an out-of-the-box, no-brainer solution because it is not.

     While this camera is not without it's frustrations, it can produce pleasing results when it comes to hummingbird photography. Benefits include:

• An electronic shutter noise that can be turned off.
• Almost silent operation.
• 300mm optical zoom lens
• The ability to stand closer to the hummingbird feeders without scaring them with shutter noise.
• Being able to stand closer means less cropping.     
• Rapid fire mode.
• Affordable price.
• Offers a wide variety of features.
• High Speed Burst mode can capture many images in a short period of time.

     As previously mentioned, this camera is not without its frustrations. Drawbacks include:

• Temperamental focusing mechanism.
  
• Short battery life (so buy extra batteries).
  
• Diminished image quality, especially when operating in High-Speed Burst mode.
• High ISO and low light adversely affect image quality (so photograph hummingbirds in full sun.)
• NOT a no-brainer camera.

     As you can see in the images below, the Canon PowerShot Elph 360 is capable of producing very nice images of hummingbirds in flight that are both exposed correctly and in focus. For the purpose of blogging and creating medium/small prints, these images are more than sufficient. 
     The Elph 360 does offer a lot of features but, as there are few external controls on the camera body, most of the options are buried in the menus. Additionally, as point and shoot cameras do, the Elph does most of the thinking for you but the problem is that it does not always arrive at the correct solution by itself. Therefore it is necessary to have an understanding of things like shutter speed, f-stop, ISO and metering functions to be able to manipulate the way this camera "thinks". It's not difficult but it does require a bit of experimentation and patience. 
     All of the images below were shot with the Elph 360. Please feel free to compare them to the images at the beginning of this post, weigh the pros and cons, and decide for yourself which type of camera system is the most ideal for photographing hummingbirds.
     Click here to see my other posts about hummingbirds.

      Betsy Bus is a 1953 GMC short school bus. Johnpaul bought her from an interesting back yard in Bernalillo, New Mexico. He asked, "What should we name the bus?" and I said, "Betsy!" and that's how it happened.
      Now, before you start wondering why we would bring a motel for spiders and stray cats to our house, there is a method to the madness. Betsy Bus is the future home of Old Bus Creations, AKA Johnpaul's woodworking shop. 
     There's no telling how long it's been since ole' Betsy was independently mobile. There are several church names on the back and sides of the bus but no kids have been brought to church any time lately. As you can see from the photos, Betsy has no engine, no transmission, no seats, mostly broken windows, and six flat tires. At some point, someone had tried to use Betsy as a camper but it's hard to say if that was before or after the engine went away. Maybe they intended her to be a stationary tiny house? All of this missing stuff was just as well because it made the bus lighter and easier to move - which is not to say that it was easy.

     What Betsy lacks in mobility, she more than makes up for in character. She has such a cool classic look, complete with the front grill, rounded back end, split windshields and  - get this - an ashtray.  Imagine that nowadays, a school bus with an ashtray! "Put down the vape pens kiddies, four out of five doctors prefer Camels!" Personally, I think the shopping carts at Costco should have ashtrays but I've never been one to spend time with children.

     At the end of the day a tow truck probably would've been a safer, albeit more expensive, option but you know what they say: hindsight is 20/20.
     When it came time to address the issue of how to relocate Betsy from a backyard in Bernalillo to our property in Meadow Lake, we were faced with a serious conundrum. Obviously, the bus isn't going anywhere by itself and we don't have a vehicle capable of towing it. Fortunately my dad lives next door to us and has a truck with four wheel drive and a 20 foot flatbed trailer so problem solved... mostly.
     What we thought would be quick trip up and back turned into an eight hour adventure in problem solving. With extremely limited room to maneuver the truck and trailer, and Betsy being boxed in on three sides by other vehicles that also haven't moved in years, we were faced with the seemingly insurmountable problem of alignment. 
     Prior to our arrival, the seller of the bus was supposed to have moved it out closer to the fence so it would be easier to approach but he didn't do that, was not present and offered no help whatsoever so thanks for that, buddy.
     Anyway, it's a good thing my dad was there because his vast knowledge of good ole' fashioned git 'er done was called upon time and again to figure this mess out. For four hours, I watched my dad and my husband solve one problem after the next and all I did to help was take pictures and run to Walgreens for snacks and drinks.
     

     Because of the weight distribution in the bus, the ideal option would've been to load it on the trailer backwards. However, due to the bus's location in relation to all the other junk in the yard, this was not possible. I don't know how much Betsy weighs but suffice to say, she is not a skinny girl and, since there's no engine, most of her weight is in the back. As you can see in the photo below, the back end of the trailer is just inches from the ground. As previously mentioned, the truck has 4-wheel drive so the front wheels did all the pulling but there was another issue...
     The weight distribution being so off-kilter caused a serious problem with stability. We had already planned to go slow and take the back roads but we didn't know just how slow it was actually going to be. Anytime the truck exceeded 27 mph the trailer would fishtail wildly all over the road, at times threatening to tip over the whole rig. I was following behind in my car and thought for sure I would have to call 911 while pulling bodies from the wreckage. In order to maintain stability, our caravan was relegated to a speed of 20mph. Do you know how long it takes to drive from Bernalillo to Meadow Lake at 20mph? Don't bother with the math, I'll just tell you. Two and a half hours, that's how long it takes. 
     It was well after dark by the time Betsy rounded the corner of our driveway and by that time, we were all exhausted, so Betsy spent the night on the trailer.
     In the morning, Betsy was delivered to her new home and getting her off the trailer was substantially easier than getting her on the trailer. Big thanks to my dad's mad skillz for getting everyone home safe!