The weather was unseasonably warm and dry during my three week trip to New Mexico in December. This was helpful from a photography perspective as there were far less people in some of the resort areas. Communities like Taos count on skiers to visit in December. But, with no snow on the ground, skiers cancelled their trip.

The weather remained dry and warm until I arrived in Alamogordo, New Mexico. I stayed in Alamogordo for a few days while visiting nearby White Sands National Monument. The day I arrived in Alamogordo, there was high winds (in excess of 40 mph) and rain.

Windy conditions were a blessing. The ranger at White Sands told me that it had been several weeks since the area experienced high winds. Without wind, the footprints from visitors remained in the sand. Photographers had to hike great distances in the sand to reach a point where the sand was clear of footprints! After those strong winds (which served as footprint erasers), I was able capture photographs like this one of clean ripples in the sand just a few feet from the road:

Endless sand ripples

However, while it was raining, my opportunity to capture photographs was limited. I ended up looking for things around town that might benefit from the diffused light. One thing that caught my eye while driving through town was this colorful garage door with the three (or is it twelve) screened windows:

Windows on red Another subject that benefited from diffused light was the inside of this rocket engine located outside the New Mexico Museum of Space History:

Engine walls The rocket engine closeup would have been nearly impossible to shoot if bright sunlight was bouncing off the metal.