High Desert Nature Snapshots 2023

The 2023 High Desert Nature Snapshots video features wild horses, wildflowers and bugs! There are also some black & white desert mountain scenes and a few sunset tripod compositions in the mix. This nature video is short and sweet, yet there are a few interesting macro lens studies that are guaranteed to captivate desert Bee Fly fans! There are also a lot of cactus flowers in the 2023 nature video, which certainly do add bright colors. 

The black & white telephoto landscapes occurred when I accidentally switched the picture control to red. Red tint is most often used to make contrasty black & whites, so I took the cue. There are a few night sky images midway through and one features the gigantic blue streak, which puzzled me until I found out what it was. I had not done any starlight photography for a couple of years, so I had no idea that the mysterious blue streak in the sky was a long row of unsightly satellites orbiting in unison. 

All of the macro lens photos were hand held and most of the extreme close-up compositions are not true 1:1 macro ratio. Honestly, a macro lens does close-ups like no other lens, so just go with it! Dead flowers, dried up flowers and fresh budding flowers are all macro lens material, especially when bugs are doing their thing. If you wish to fill the entire picture frame with one flower, a macro lens is the one to use. 

The macro lens got plenty of work during the spring season, but other than that, very few loose end snapshot photos were captured in 2023. The reason why has to do with the cameras being preoccupied with filming time lapse videos at every given opportunity. Of course when the wild horses decide to hang around, the time lapse mission definitely is paused in favor of snapshots with a super telephoto lens. 

Catching a glimpse of a colorful painted wild horse in desert terrain is the dream of nearly every western artist. As everybody knows, the shaggy long mane hair draped over the eyes is a requirement for a good wild horse image. Just the memory of such a sight is enough to inspire stretching the largest possible canvas for an oil painting. 

Oddly enough, thoughts of the artsy painted horse moment barely crossed my mind while I was busy with the camera, partly because the wild horses tend to hang around so often while filming time lapse. I gave the horses plenty of room and did not try to get to a better vantage point, since that would interfere with what the horses were doing. After taking few snapshots with a 200-500mm lens, it was back to filming time lapse the rest of the day. After looking at the painted horse images later in the evening, it was then that the share button started glowing red! 

Wild horses are creatures of habit and they tend to follow the same trails on a daily basis. They also have places where they go to meet up and gather. When they come out of their canyon hiding spots to graze out in the open, that is usually the best opportunity for capturing a keeper photo. The reason why is when they start grazing in the desert fields, they will be in no hurry to leave anytime soon. 

This is the only Destination West Org nature video this year, but I have already captured more wild horse photos since this video was completed only a few days ago. This means there will be more nature videos to share in 2024, so be sure to like, subscribe and stay tuned!
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