"Wild Lights" by Wes Aldridge
I am in El Paso, Texas, right now. A stones throw away from Juarez, Mexico, and right up the road from New Mexico. I thought I would be excited about this one. Now that I am here, I certainly am not. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but I am not feeling El Paso. I have only been here for a day so far, maybe I will give it a little more time before I make a judgement on it.
El Paso is massive. I drove around for hours tonight, trying to get a feel for the area and how to navigate it. The map of the area is basically useless because it is about 3-feet wide and the roads are so small a magnifying glass would help greatly in reading it. Too bad I can't hold a magnifying glass while I am driving. The city is pretty compacted, everything seemingly built tightly around or on top of each other.
I had envisioned vast desert landscapes with cactus growing and tumbleweeds bouncing by. That isn't the case thus far. All those landscapes are interrupted by sprawling city buildings and strip malls. I hope I can get some time to find locations that will make for nice scenic shots.
Don't know if I am tired or worn down or just getting burned out, but my last trip to Indy and this one now, just haven't seemed right for some reason. I wonder what that means to me?
Well I am pretty undecided about this one: Is it really cool or just garbage? Ah, who cares. I think this shot is an illustration of my frustration today. It was made with a 30 second exposure at f/22 with an ISO rating of 100. I threw on the 16-35mm wide angle lens and waved, panned and zoomed the camera during the exposure.
