I’m very excited to share with you the completed product of the first magazine assignment that I shot. The January 2010 issue of New Mexico Magazine features an article titled ‘Ice Breakers’ by Arnold Vigil with the photos shot by yours truly.

Most people know New Mexico for it’s beautiful deserts and canyons as well as it’s tremendous Spanish and Native American cultural sites. But what a lot of people don’t know is that we also have beautiful mountains and high-altitude lakes. The mountains between Taos and Angel Fire, the Sangre de Cristo Range, have peaks reaching to over 13,000 feet above sea-level with many lakes scattered amongst them. The largest lake in the range is 2,400 acre Eagle Nest Lake.

This past February I spent a good part of an extremely cold winter day on the ice at Eagle Nest Lake State Park photographing ice-fishermen braving air temperatures in the mid-teens. People from all walks of life, young and old, were out on the ice. I could not have asked for a better group of people to be the subjects of my first magazine assignment. Everyone was very approachable and extremely eager to share their knowledge and love for the sport of ice fishing. I’d like to thank everyone who shared their day with me.

For the camera equipment junkies that might be interested in the equipment I used for the assignment, I can tell you that I primarily used a Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-105/4L lens, and the original 5D with 17-40/4L lens. Shooting with two camera bodies made it much easier to shoot. The last thing I really wanted to do was try to change lenses in the cold air and blowing snow.