Glad you got sunshine, arrived yesterday evening and it’s been completely overcast. Was photographing a red tail hawk in a tree this morning when a Northern Harrier flew right over my head!

Love from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada! We have been watching your videos on our TV and came here to subscribe and leave a comment. Needless to mention, your vlogs are very informative about a region that, honestly speaking, we cannot relate to. New Mexico looks beautiful, a holiday place for snowbirds. Awesome that you got to take a photo of a long-tailed duck. We call them pheasant-tailed ducks out of affection. They are on Lake Ontario on Canadian side in thousands. We are sure they are there on the American side as well. We love them because of their calls to each other. Thank you for sharing your superb pictures.

@BrentHall

5 ай бұрын

Hey thank you so much for the kind words, I really appreciate that, and I'm glad you're enjoying the videos! New Mexico is definitely an awesome place, and quite different than what most people are used to, or expecting.

Total ally jealous of you getting a photo of long tailed duck I have been photographing duck for over forty years I am 71 and watching you lay down to do the shoverlers made me laugh cause that is how I would have done it great photos and videos of bosque one of my favorite places keep up the good work I watch most of your wildlife videos ERIC J. HANSEN ESTES PARK CO

What an amazing place! And wonderful pictures. I hope to.one day be a gifted photographer like you! For now, I'll continue with my Rebel t7 and kit lenses. Thanks for sharing!

Another great Bosque video! On a recent trip there I saw both the long tailed duck and kites but they were too far away for good images. I love the ones you got of the long tailed duck. So beautiful!

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Oh that's awesome, I'm so glad you got to see both!

That big glass is allowing you to take some sharp close shots, even though you're cropping and using the teleconverter. You need a foldable three legged camp stool to sit on as a sable platform, save your knees Brent. I'm old, feel older and my knees are shot. I can feel the ache just watching you squat down to take those photos.

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Yeah, the sharpness of this thing, even with the TC on, has been pretty impressive!

Awesome video. I love Bosque del Apache and grateful I have family in Albuquerque so I have a free base from which to bird!

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Thank you! Yeah, Bosque is awesome, and so is Abq. I really miss living there, but at least I still go up a few times a month.

Hi Brent. Hope your shoulder is better. You look happy. Merry Xmas from James in Scotland.

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Thanks. The shoulder is partially better. I'm pretty happy.

Brent, long-tailed ducks are awesome. So glad you got to see one in person! They're just starting to come in numbers to my area, and stick around until spring. This year a pair even stuck it out to June! But, you guys out there get 1000's of snow geese and tons of Sandhill cranes. I've only seen a handful of each of those. That is what makes each area of the country so unique....I need to get out to your neck of the woods. It's so true about focusing on the rarities and missing the beautiful creatures right in front of your face that you regularly see. Next time, hoodies...I'm rooting for you!

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Yeah, the long-tailed ducks are super cool! I'll get my dream hoodie shot one of these days... :P

Hi from Saskatchewan. Great video. As I am on the other end of the migration, Snow geese by the thousands fly over every spring and fall. My nemesis bird is the Sandhill Crane. Guess I have to book some time with you.

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Oh nice! Yeah, you guys have like the exact opposite of us down here, lol. I'd love to get back up to that region sometime. Coincidentally, I have just yesterday finished building my new website, and have my new workshops page up and running. I still have some openings for birding (cranes et all) at Bosque this Jan and early Feb, and will also be taking spots for next Nov-Feb season as well. www.hallofthewildstudios.com

wow. another great hands on video from Brent. I also was at Bosque recently. I had similar results, I am just not as talented as brent. award a super thanks for the memories and brent getting dirty

@KIDDYLAN

6 ай бұрын

❤

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Thanks Erick! Definitely had fun at Bosque, and I'm so glad you had a good time as well!

Really love this day's shots!

It's almost time for me to make a trip a couple of hours north of me to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge. They get a lot of snow geese and also a lot of bald eagles that follow them south. Last winter there was a point when they counted over 700 bald eagles in the 10 mile loop. It's a great area for bird watching and photography.

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Oh nice! I used to live like an hour and half from there. That's a lot of eagles, for sure! There's usually a bunch that come down the Rio Grande and hang out at Bosque for the winter, but this year there have only been a few that I've seen.

@ericviera5120

6 ай бұрын

@@BrentHall Nice! I am originally from NM (Alamogordo) so try to make it back yearly. My main focus is herps with birds a close second. I hope to make it back next year to try and photograph various rattlesnakes.

Thanks!

You absolutely made the correct decision with the lens change and sacrifices together it. You come across at one with camera and nature now. Nice vid!

Nice video Brent and what a great spot! I'd be there everyday...

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

It really is an incredible area!

Great video and photography! You guys make a great team, the video shots were simply beautiful, love the slow motion clips of the snow geese!

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Hey thanks, we both really appreciate that!

Great video.... Enjoyed seeing the long-tailed duck and crane photos!! Also, nice selection of music to go along with the video. Thanks!!

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! The Long-tail was certainly cool to see out here.

Hi Brent... the 500mm F4 lens purchase was a definite right decision for you... just looking at the quality of photographs taken in this video is evidence of that... awesome and it's amazing how birds of prey always seem to be too far away to get the best pictures.. even with the 500mm F4 and 1.4x converter being used... birds of prey have a sixth sense in how they manage to protect themselves from eager wildlife photographers.. very entertaining video

Awesome video!

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!

If you want to see a cool Snow geese video, check out my most recent video. 4K full screen. They did this for hours and hours, crazy sight to see. Hoping to see them again in March. Not many rare birds around here unfortunately. Great Video as always.

If you want that hooded merganser come to CT, they are easy to get! 😊

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

I'd love to get back out there for some migration and winter birding!

I was just down there a couple of weeks ago-- My first visit-- The spot you were at for the Huge flock of snow geese I recongnized from my trip. Such a cool experience. Great Video

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Oh that's awesome, I'm so glad you got to visit and experience it! Such an incredible place.

Great video ... some of my Maine friends have just headed that way. I love the regional differences on rarity here in Maine, the long-tailed duck is a little more common than the northern shovel, which is kind of rare.

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Yeah, I really need to get back up to that area for some migration goodness!

Brent, when you to el Bosque, do you also go to Bernardo area, I was there last sat., the birds were going crazy and a lot of cranes and snow geese.

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

I haven't been to Bernardo in a long time. I've heard it's been good this year though. I need to stop by there next month.

Nice love the Javelina

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

They're always fun to watch!

Caught the Kite this morning snacking on a rodent,beautiful bird.

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Oh that's awesome! I need to go back up there and try again. I really want some better images of them before they bounce!

Another great video Brent! I got my first buffleheads, common and hooded mergansers a couple weeks ago - all on the same day if you can believe it. Quick question for you - the first few images in your closing sequence - the sandhill in flight and the shoveler, obviously taken with your big prime and R5. Could you have taken that shot - say the sandhill, with the 100-500? I'm not talking about taking a shot - I'm talking about taking THAT shot. I feel like I may need to start preparing my wife for that lens next year. I already have the 100-500+1.4x and R5.

@BrentHall

6 ай бұрын

Oh nice, that's a solid day of birding right there! I certainly could have taken that shot with the 1-5, but it wouldn't have had the same look and feel. The 1-5 is awesome, but it probably would have taken me a bit more editing effort in post to match the 500 prime. Seems like the big whites just have a different look and feel to the images they render, or at least that's what I've noticed in my own images lately.

@msmith2016

6 ай бұрын

@@BrentHall I hear you - I have an old EF 300 f/4 L and although it doesn't have the reach, it does have the "look". Keep up the good work!

500 EF Mark I or II? Or RF? Was teleconverter used? If yes, which model?

@BrentHall

5 ай бұрын

The mk ii, with the 1.4 TC mk iii.

Brent, I don't have a specific comment on your video; actually i like all your video'a and commentary. What has struck me about photography over all is that in the last few years it appears that this avocation has now evolved into two separate skills: actual picture taking and editing. I am getting concerned that the editing component has begun to overtake the picture taking part of our hobby. Lightroom; Photoshop ,Topaz and NIK, etc. are now so powerful that computer skills have become the key component of a "good photo.". What do you think? Alex

@BrentHall

5 ай бұрын

Yeah, with the way technology and society as a whole are progressing, it's pretty evident that software and editing are encroaching on more of the photographic process. However; I will say that editing has always been around, and we got REALLY creative with image manipulation in the darkroom back in the day, but it's certainly evolved and grown as the tech improves. Personally, I don't mind because I've always loved editing. I loved doing it in the darkroom in the 90's and I love using photoshop and software now. I just love creating art really, no matter the process. I'm also a drawer/painter, and I'll draw or paint with anything, on anything, so I kind of have the same attitude with photography. I'll use whatever I have at my disposal to make an image. I wonder if you might also be struggling with how society is changing with technology and how that's shaping our perceptions of what art is as a whole and also how it's created ( I think about that a lot lately). For me, photography has always been a means of artistic expression (I'm not a photojournalist, lol). I've always enjoyed the art of understanding the exposure triangle, and the settings necessary to "get the image" that I wanted in camera, messing with focal length, compression, bokeh, slowing the shutter speed to introduce movement, etc., or at least that was the first part of it for me, and then came the rest of the manipulation, whether in the darkroom or now in the computer. I've always needed and wanted both aspects to get an image I had in my head out; and as tech grows and society changes because of that, the tools I have to get what I see in my head out, just continues to expand. Your last point about what's needed to make a good photo. That's the key here, in what I was saying about how society is changing that definition based on our evolving technologies, creative tools, cultural shifts, our digital needs for art, and just societal perceptions as a whole, all shifting to re-define what a good photo is and how to create it. And that, unfortunately, leaves the purists behind. While there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be a purist (I really hate that word though), or even just not wanting to spend time to learn and do a bunch of editing, you just have to continue with the understanding that from a societal view, that type of imagery won't go as far as the ones that are willing and able to put the time and effort into "making the more complete" images, at least in the eyes of the majority. Anyways, there's some random thoughts for you, lol. Sorry, I do like to ramble. Merry Christmas to you!