Christmas on the Pecos — Part 1

25th Anniversary of Christmas on the Pecos

Time for what has become sort of an annual tradition here at the blog — Christmas light photography — but this time with a travel twist.  This week I’m going to not only give you five articles, but I’m going to take you to Carlsbad, New Mexico, for a Christmas light boat ride along the Pecos River taken in 2016.

Christmas on the Pecos

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Christmas on the Pecos, which originates from the Pecos River Village.  Ursula has talked about going on Christmas on the Pecos for some time, and this past Friday was the day.  She purchased our tickets in advance online, picked me up from work, and we headed east for the Pecos River Village.

Pecos River Village

Once you arrive, plan on touring the village:

Pecos River Village

There will be many lights and decorations to photograph:

Pecos River Village

Pecos River Village

Pecos River Village

Pecos River Village

About thirty minutes before your scheduled boat ride you can pick up your boarding pass and get in line for the tour boat:

Lining up for the Christmas on the Pecos boat ride

You’ll be offered a blanket to keep you snug, but we didn’t need it this night.  Temperatures were in the low 60s/15°+ Celsius.  From here we began our trip along the banks of the Pecos River:

Christmas on the Pecos

Most of the shots you’ll see this week were taken in manual mode at 1/40th of a second and ISO 800 at widest possible f-Stop (f2.8 to f5.6 depending on the focal range used.  The camera was my trusty Canon G1 X with it’s 1.5-inch/38mm 12 megapixel sensor.  I chose this over my usual travel camera, a Panasonic FZ100, because the larger sensor and larger pixels on that sensor would give me the least amount of noise at higher ISO settings.

Christmas on the Pecos

Even so, most shots were about two f-Stops too dark, which I corrected with post-processing, and several shots were motion blurred because of the moving boat and slow shutter speed.

Christmas on the Pecos

Even with all this working against me, I still think I came out with some winners.  You’ll see the best of the series on this week’s Fun Photo Friday, but I’ll also present other photos over the next three days as well.

Christmas on the Pecos

One of the more fun aspects on photographing Christmas lights along the banks of a body of water are the colorful reflections you can use to balance out the composition and add interest to the photograph:

Christmas on the Pecos

Here are two more examples of what I mean:

Christmas on the Pecos

Christmas on the Pecos