Albuquerque hot-air ballon festival - no pics, just some questions

I have taken the opportunity to attend a 3 day course been given by Andy Biggs and Michael Clark in Albuquerque, New Mexico in October. The course centres around the balloon festival and the use of Lightroom 3 for post processing. I am curious whether anyone has been there and would care to share their experience. Apparently, we get to spend our mornings on the grounds under guidance of the "teachers" and the rest of the day in instruction on processing our images in Lightroom...I am looking forward to both. :thumbsup:

I have not been to that part of the world in a very long time, so I would imagine that things have changed (be surprised if they haven't), so my wife and I are planning to spend a few extra days in the area and I am curious about places to go for good photography at that time of year. The only one I know of so far is something called the "Bosque del Apache". Looks like it is a great "bird" site. I would be interested in some ideas about places to go within a couple of hours of Albuquerque for some landscape photography as well. My thanks to any and all who would care to "clue me in" on some good places, maybe "out of the way" or "off the beaten track" that they would care to share. :D :D

Cheers,

WesternGuy

Hi Western Guy...I don't know too many of the names around Alb. but one place is Santa Fe which if I remember is to the northeast. Anywhere along I-40 there are many sites, all the way to the Arizona border. The mountains around Alb. offer some great hiking opportunities and of course desert wildlife is all around. To the southeast is Roswell, which might be an all day outing. It's fun because of the Roswell UFO incident.
You may have a slight problem with haze since the fires in SE Arizona have been so bad. All in all, I think you'll enjoy the desert around there. If you really want an experience, take some extra time and run over to the Petrified Forest in Arizona. It's probably 3 hours or so from Alb. ...but will be well worth it. The Painted Desert is over there as well. both of these are along Interstate 40, as well as much more. Oh and Meteor Crater is in that direction also, Near Winslow, AZ. Good luck. Can't wait to see what you find...so please post lots of pics when you get back home. I grew up in AZ not far from the NM border and miss the area. hehe

Thanks Ken, I will look up some of these things on the web. Thanks also for pointing out the fires in the area. I have watched the stories on the news, but they had slipped my mind.

Regards,

WesternGuy