“There is no bad light. There is spectacular light and difficult light. It’s up to you to use the light you have.”

“The drama of light exists not only in what is in the light, but also in what is left dark. If the light is everywhere, the drama is gone.” – Jay Maisel

The bird movement patterns had changed from my previous visits to Bosque, and virtually all of the bird photography took place within the hour that falls on either side of sunrise or sunset.  Of course, this is the time of day when less light is available to photograph moving subjects ... the birds!  And, the geography adds to the difficulty because the surrounding mountains hasten the disappearance of direct light from the sun as it rises/settles from behind the hills. 

The images in this post were taken at the very edge of darkness ... in some cases literally inches away!  

or these two black and white images of Cranes:

A view of the Crane Pool with clouds playing the dominant role of directing light on the subject:

And this shot (which isn't favored by some photographer friends) shows just how close the edge of darkness can be ... one bird in "adequate" light; one bird not:

And, by giving in to the failing light, and shooting using a very slow shutter speed,  I captured these two impressionistic images of the cranes ... both shot at the edge of darkness:

And, finally, an iPhone image using the rear view mirror as we left Tucson headed home ... still at the edge of darkness!  :)

This is the last post using images taken at Bosque del Apache.  Thanks for your patience and for spending the time looking!

Adam