White Sands National Monument

White Sands National Monument in New Mexico is one of my favorite National Monuments. Wind, water and time create White Sands constantly changing landscape. You can always discover some amazing landscape to photograph. Its fun to know that this may be the only image ever taken that will look like this.

White Sands popularity makes it hard to find untracked sand. Timing and distance from the road make a big difference. Like most places, if you walk out into the sand 1500 feet you can almost imagine you’re the first person to ever visit this place.

I find myself passing White Sands on my semi-regular commutes from Arizona to Arkansas. It is a popular cutoff to connect from I-10 to I-40 bypassing Albuquerque. It passes right by the monument. I usually try and do a quick drive-by and spend a couple of hours there.

Since I pass by fairly often I’ve been picking a pull out in the monument and just exploring that particular area. I’ll spend an hour or two then go on my way. The next time I move to the next stop. This was taken in the far southwest corner of the monument after a big snow and rainstorm. That’s why the tops of the little drifts are so smooth and ropey.

This was taken in December of 2018 on my Nikon D7200 with a Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 Art lens. It is my goto lens and spends 99% of the time on the camera. I like to shoot at ISO 100 as much as possible to get the sharpest image. This lens shoots amazing shots. I even use it for Video.

I’ve been in a black and white mood lately and this one really popped as black and white image. Till Next Time…Peace