Blog Archives
desert bones
Hey, does anyone feel like a quick trip out to White Sands National Park to look at dead stuff?
I am not actually heading that way myself, but I guess I was just gauging interest. Or something.
Anyway, here’s a photo that I made when I DID go there at the end of last year. And, yes, I was lying flat on my stomach in the sand.
Pushing aside the personal concerns I had about actually being able to get up from that position, I had the idea that the sand felt wet. Not damp, like the packed sand at a beach. But there was a coolness to it that gave me the impression of water lurking somewhere below me. I later learned that the water table at White Sands is only one to three feet below the surface of the sand, which reinforced my initial (weird) thoughts about it.
Also, here’s a Fun Fact: the sand, which is actually tiny eroded particles of gypsum, never gets hot in the sun because gypsum does not absorb heat the way silica or quartz sand does.
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.13.2025
unquiet spirits
Some photographers would probably have taken a tripod on their after-dark stroll through downtown Santa Fe.
I am not one of them. And I’m not even the least bit apologetic.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
photographed 8.31.2024
trailer/house
There’s not all that much to see in Orogrande.
But I did see this place, which seems to be aging itself out of existence. The circumstances of small-town New Mexico have already aged it out of usefulness.
Orogrande, New Mexico
photographed 12.14.2025
gold is immortality
I met a gentleman from Louisiana in the hotel in Alamogordo.
Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right.
What I mean is that I crossed paths with a gentleman from Louisiana and we had a chat in the hotel lobby. He’d come all the way from Monroe to see the dunes (and what he called the “yucca trees”) and was interested in what our group was finding. He said he hoped I got a photo of the sunset.
I did. And this is it.
(Probably to your great relief, this is the end of White Sands. Thanks for sticking with me!)
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.13.2025
my way to be free
The first photo I posted in this series from White Sands was of a picnic shelter, with long early-morning shadows, sun-tipped white dunes, and skinny clouds.
Or rare occasions, symmetry appeals to me, so I’ll close out this run of monochrome White Sands images with another shot of that same picnic shelter – this time, a close look at the shelter’s structure. The rivets caught my attention for reasons that I hope are clear. Or if not clear, then maybe clear-ish.
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.13.2025
One Day | One Image 