Post 100! El Paso Sunset

This is my 100th post on The Traveling Camera! I was not sure I would have 100 images or for that mater more than 2 or 3 interesting things to say. I found the 100 images, still not sure about the interesting words. But here we are at 100. Thanks for reading.

This image is a sunset in El Paso. I was in town on business and walked out of the office just after 5pm to see what looked like a great sunset in the making. I headed for the edge of the Hueco Mountains. I was hoping I could get a little bit of elevation. In twenty minutes I made the first hill as the sky turned orange. I found a side road, parked, and dashed up the side of a hill in wingtips. Note-wingtips are not the best shoes to climb desert hills or to step in snow with, but you do with what you have. Luckily I had my camera in the car because there would not have been time to go back and get it.

I set up the tripod pushed on a lens, a focused by eyesight to what I thought was infinity just to make an image before the light faded. I got it. Refocused with the loupe. Made another and the light faded rapidly. This snap of the camera came after that, he view is of the first hills of the Huecos, the distant Franklins, with the lights of El Paso and Juarez.

Wow, what a sunset and a quick afternoon was gone. I began to notice the cold more and the darkness fell quick. I packed up everything and slowly made my way down the hill to a warm car and supper.

Hope to have you here when we hit 200.

-D

Dry Mountain Valleys

I love the mountains in west Texas . After one has driven for hours across the Permian Basin they are a welcome relief of a view. The mountains of west Texas rise out of the desert and can be said to be the southern extension of the Rockies, although they look like nothing in Colorado.

There are well over twenty five ranges (29 depending on what you call a "range") that are all really desert ranges-the vast majority of them are dry. Think of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and you think of clear trout streams but the mountains here are all but dry rocky places. Only the Guadalupes, Davis and Chisos get high enough to generate any real moisture and that is still rapidly runs off or is absorbed into the ground. The rest are mostly rock and brush, although you never know what spring or canyon may contain a surprise.

The Franklin Mountains are like that. They rise some 4000' feet above the city of El Paso and top out at 7000'. They are something to look at, but they are dry. Their elevation and size is just not enough "mass" to generate large amounts of rain, so they are dry peaks with dry valleys. Sure it rains here, it has even snowed twice one week when I was there but moisture is still the exception-not the norm.

When I was up on the trans-mountain drive I stopped at the summit of the pass that the road cut goes through. There a trail starts up a dry wash toward one of the high peaks. With some snow on the peak and the rocky dry stream bed I was struck thinking it reminded me of something one might see in the Himalaya (not that I have been there, but the impression from images I have seen). So I set up my camera in hopes of capturing the scene as my mind saw it, not a mountain range surrounded by a city, but a desolate place half a world away.

The crisp temps, dusting of snow, and wonderful fresh smell of the desert after a rain made the scene even more vivid to the senses. I set up the tripod, picked out a lens and added the polarizer and a grad filter to balance the shadows with the light on the peak. This desert valley of west Texas had taken on a whole new look. I made a few images.

I thought about hiking to the peak, but it was too late in the day. I hoped I would get another opportunity but the snow would be gone before I had that chance. Still I made an image that stood out for me as a rare snow in Texas

It was a good day.

El Paso Winter

Spring has turned to summer and with the summer heat I was looking back through some images from a winter trip to El Paso.

Texas winter is fairly short and snow is a rare occurrence. I was lucky enough to catch a little of both in El Paso. I flew in one afternoon to be greeted by a dusting of snow on the Franklin Mountains. After getting the rental car I was heading right to the Woodrow Bean Trans-Mountain Highway which crosses right through the heart of the Franklins. On the western side of the range are some pullouts that make a great place to watch the sunset (and do people ever). They also have a nice view looking up at the peaks. The warm afternoon sun has melted what had been several inches of powder but there was still enough to draw my interest and make a great image.

In making the image I was able to use a longer lens (my 210mm) and use rise to take the orange barrier you see out of the image. I was quite pleased with the result.

It does not snow that often but I got lucky enough to catch it.

And on a hot summer day a little snow sounds nice.