What a fun session this was! Shelby and Kory, love wine and snowboarding, so we began our day at LaVina winery in Anthony, NM just outside El Paso. We later headed to White Sands National monument…one of my absolute favorite places to photograph. The white sand is as close to snow as we could get, because THE DESERT. Kory brought along his snowboard to make his photo visions come to life and they turned out pretty dang cool.
LaVina Winery is a really cool place. The building is kind of that Spanish style with beautiful arches and details. They have a beautiful ivy covered courtyard, complete with a stone fountain and wine barrels. They were kind enough to let us take pictures in the barrel room which was unexpected and awesome of them. The walls were lined with all kinds of aging wines in oak barrels. Shelby and Kory posed between the barrels in the chilled room.
Later, we headed outside to shoot in the beautiful courtyard. Shelby and Kory embraced under the ivy arch way and flirted by the fountain. After we had enough of the heat, we loaded up into our cars and made out way to White Sands. It was a long drive, but I welcomed the A/C for as long as possible!
It was still pretty bright outside when we had finally arrived, so we had to kill some time till sunset. The three of us explored the dunes. The sand was soft and surprisingly cool on our feet despite the 80+ degree temps outside. Kory dragged his snowboard up the giant dunes, but turns out snowboards don’t slide very well on sand. I guess that’s why sandbars are a thing.
As the sun dropped lower, we finally broke out the 3 smoke bombs that I had left over from a wedding I shot back in October. A green, orange and purple that totally popped in the white sand landscape. We tested out the green one first, only to discover that the giant green cloud wafting past everybody caused quite a stir. Surely, the park rangers wouldn’t be too happy about it, so naturally, we ducked behind some dunes that were further away, so at least by the time the purple and orange clouds had blown away, we’d be home free back at the cars. #rebels
{I’m not condoning using smoke bombs and fire works at white sands, not sure if its a rule, because I didn’t check, BUT we did grab all our trash on the way out and left the place cleaner than we found it!}
Anyway, we made some really awesome pictures with those smoke bombs and I hope you enjoy!
Jess Jones Photos Blog 