The First Images of New Mexico鈥檚 Godzilla El Ni帽o鈥擜ll Shot on an iPhone
They said it was coming. And they were right. Godzilla has arrived鈥攁t least in Santa Fe. Over the past three days, storms caused by the giant El Ni帽o dumped more than three feet of snow on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near New Mexico鈥檚 capital and 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 home base. This is the snowiest November many of us can remember, and the skiing has already been an all-time high. Especially this past Tuesday after a Monday-night blizzard.
As is custom on big snow days, most of the 国产吃瓜黑料 office (including both the magazine and Web editors) organized for a dawn patrol up Ski Santa Fe, our local area 30 minutes outside town. It took two hours to get up the 16-mile road鈥攕everal cars got stuck or had to wait for the plow to clear the road鈥攁nd another hour-plus to skin up the hill, but everyone鈥檚 patience paid off. At the top of the mountain, we skied through powder so deep that dogs were buried and had to be put in backpacks and carried down. Face shots were unavoidable.
I captured the day on my iPhone 6 because I like how easy it is to use out in the snow. I stuff it in my midlayer chest pocket so it stays warm against my chest and the battery doesn鈥檛 freeze, and I can whip it out much faster than a regular, bulky camera. Plus, it doesn鈥檛 get in my way when I鈥檓 skiing and doesn鈥檛 require a special camera bag.
Photo: Mike Thurber, the outdoor program coordinator at St. John鈥檚 College in Santa Fe, gives Mud (who belongs to former staffer Kyle Dickman) a ride down in his backpack after the pup got buried in snow well above his head. Sometimes you have to work to find the best photos. Sometimes they just appear in front of you.
国产吃瓜黑料 contributing editor Nick Heil gets buried in deep snow near the top of Ski Santa Fe. I told Heil to ski fast and come right at me so we could get a sense for how deep the snow really was.
Turin Dickman, left, and Bryan Rogala, 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 video production manager, are still giddy while skinning through high winds and face-freezing temps near the top of Ski Santa Fe. iPhones have a tendency to freeze when it鈥檚 cold and windy, so I kept my phone in my pocket until Dickman was right in front of me. I don鈥檛 shoot magazine assignments on my iPhone (that’s why we have Sony a7RIIs and Canon 5D Mark IIIs), but the images are plenty good for the Web.
Rogala with frosted eyelashes on the way up.
Former 国产吃瓜黑料 staffer Kyle Dickman brought his dog Mud along for the adventure. Photographing happy dogs in the snow can be tricky, but Dickman helped calm Mud down.
Turin Dickman getting ready to ski after warming up in the hiker鈥檚 hut at the top of Ski Santa Fe. iPhone images almost always need a contrast bump to make them pop. I use Lightroom and try to hit a balance where I鈥檓 enriching what鈥檚 already in the image but not over-toning to the point where it looks fake.
Madeleine 鈥淢addawg鈥 Carey, who works for WildEarth Guardians, ripping skins at the top of Ski Santa Fe.
The walls inside the hiker鈥檚 hut are plastered with graffiti. Some notes are clever. Others are not. The iPhone struggles in low light compared to a DSLR, but thankfully there was a little window light for this image.
Turin Dickman shredding through the trees.
When there鈥檚 snow, first we ski, then we wrestle. An in-between moment.