Landscapes of the Organ Mountains - What I learned

Organ Mountain Range, New Mexico. As viewed looking West from White Sands Missile Range.

Traveling from El Paso, Texas to Las Cruces, New Mexico last week, I opted to take a route through the White Sands Missile Range and military base. I chose this route for a couple of compelling reasons. Firstly, it is the shortest route to Las Cruces from my office and secondly, it takes me very close to the East facing slopes of the jagged peaks of the Organ Mountain range.

I have been in awe of the Organ Mountain Range since moving to this area and being an active duty military service member, I have access to the missile range, which regular ordinary civilians do not. And I always like to try and get some images that capture perspectives perhaps not yet photographed by others. I figured my somewhat special access to the Eastern side slopes of the Organs might provide me with some unique images.

I have been feeling sort of melancholy as of late and lacked any motivation to go out and shoot photos, but laying in bed yesterday afternoon, I said "enough it enough" and made up my mind to go back to the Organs and see if I could get a shot of the view I had taken in during my recent drive through. The time was 3:30pm.

Sunset was around 6:30pm, however, knowing I would be close to the mountain peaks, the sun would drop behind and out of sight well before 6:30pm, so I had to get a move on and hustle to get my camera bag packed and get on the road for a one hour plus drive.

For my camera, I decided on the Sony A7RII because it's simply the best camera in my inventory, and at 42 megapixels, gives me the confidence to shoot any panorama or composition because I won't suffer a decline in resolution if I have to crop a little. For lenses, I brought along the Zeiss 16-35mm wide angle lens and the Zeiss 24-70mm general purpose lens. I also brought along a variable ND filter and Cokin graduated filter.

HERE'S WHAT I LEARNED

Photography is an on-going learning process and what I learned today is to never take your knowledge and certainty for granted. For example, the ND filter I brought along is threaded for a 72mm lens barrel. I WAS CERTAIN that both my lenses were threaded for 72mm filters, however, that is not the case as my Zeiss 24-70mm f/4 lens is threaded for a 67mm filter! Had I bothered to simply DOUBLE CHECK I would have seen that and could have therefore put a 67mm ND filter in my camera bag. But alas, once I was on location and realized my error, I had to make due without the filter. The result is the image you see below. Shot after sunset, utilizing the in-camera high contrast black and white feature. Make lemonade out of lemons as they say, right?

Black and white high contrast image of the Organ Mountains. Captured with Sony A7RII and Zeiss 24-70mm f/ lens. ISO 100, f/22, Exposure 1.3 seconds @ 57mm.

Zeiss 16-35mm @ 35mm, f/22, ISO 100, Exposure 1/25 seconds.

There weren't many clouds in the sky, which is too bad, on the other hand, it gives me a reason to go back to this spot. Southwestern sunsets with clouds in the sky are often a gorgeous fiery red, orange and purple. Still, I managed to get a couple of decent shots. And as is usually the case, I enjoyed (and needed) the quiet solitude of landscape photography. There was a warm, stiff breeze blowing. Two cows grazed in the distance and I, alone with my thoughts, composed a few nice images, I hope you enjoy.