Perhaps because I have excellent eyesight and subpar hearing, I am fascinated with vision. I even took a neuroscience of vision class during my doctoral program at Indiana.
I also love mountains.
On the drive east from Las Cruces, N.M., on U.S. 70, one travels over San Augustin Pass and descends into the Tularosa Basin. This is a spectacular drive, although it never gets any shorter despite the 75 mph speed limit.
Perhaps the thing I appreciate most about this drive is the layers of mountains. At several points, one can see overlapping layers of mountains, sometimes as many as four.
It fascinates me the way colors change and detail fades over distance.
This evening, I crossed the pass (elevation 5,710 feet) after 6 p.m., and the sun already hung low in the western sky. Shadows loomed large, and the best “layers” shots were all but impossible, as I would have been shooting directly back into the sun.
Never one to leave the mountains empty-handed, I stopped for this shot of the back side of the Organs.
Predictably I love the difference in color and detail between the foreground and background.
Shot: Canon EOS Rebel T1i w/ Sigma 300 mm lens (lens made for film EOS)
1/4000 sec, aperture priority, f/4, ISO 400, focal length: 300 mm (not adjusted)
Photoshop: auto contrast
I'm a cognitive scientist and communication scholar who manages a psychophysiology lab at Texas Tech. I teach courses about the cognitive processing of media messages and research methods.
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