Revisiting An Old Friend

View from El Paso's Franklin Mountain
El Paso, TX

Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a mountain, the Franklin Mountain. (Sorry Marty Robbins, but its true.) Along with an occasional margarita, not in Rosie's cantina but at Carlos & Mickey's, I spent a greater part of ten years falling in love with the immense spaces and the desert of this town. In fact, I spent so much time traveling there that my children renamed me and called me, AlPaso, a fitting tribute.

The arid town and wide open spaces taught me the romance of the desert lady's plain dress. I frequently found comfort in the bosom of the mountain as I glanced at the distances far below into the twinkling lights of Juarez at nighttime and the peaks near Las Cruces, New Mexico. I knew everything about that mountain and when her skirt would be in full bloom. It was a photographer's love affair.

Judging by the clouds in this shot, I can tell you without my camera's metadata, that it was shot sometime when a storm either hit or just past. Clouds like this simply do not adorn the El Paso sky frequently. For a decade, I never grew tired of visiting this neglected lady. In my eyes, she always wore a different dress for me to photograph. The day I shot this she was dressed to the nines.