I started to make my first post a factual post but since this is a photo blog I thought it would be better to start off with an image post. I decided to start with one of my favorites from a recent trip to Death Valley National Park. There were many photo opportunities in DV but I’d like to give you the back story for just one image, the thumbnail for my Death Valley Sand Gallery. There are several sand dune areas is Death Valley. However, only two of them are “easily” accessible. The first, and most visited because it is quite accessible, is Mesquite Flats near Stovepipe Wells. It is accessible right off of the main road that runs through the park, Rt 190. The best time to photograph sand dunes is during the golden hours, just after sunrise and before sunset. The dunes run north-south so when the sun is low one side is lit with warm light while the other is in shadow. And any time the light is at a low angle textures will be accentuated, like ripples in the sand. Most of the images from Mesquite are a study of the highlight and shadow side of individual dunes.
The second dunes, Eureka Dunes, requires some effort to get to, including driving a couple of hours on unimproved gravel roads. These dunes are MUCH taller that those at Mesquite Flats. But after getting there I did not find the location to be particularly photogenic. I think, at least in part, is that the dunes run east-west so the setting sun light hits both sides of each dune evenly resulting in relatively flat light even though the sun was low in the sky. However, I did make one image that I particularly like, the one above. Here the sun was in the process of setting behind the Saline Range. This put the dune I was on in shadow (cool light) while the front side of the main dune, in the background, was bathed in warm light. This only last a few seconds.
Here is the camera shooting metadata for this image:
D200 w/ 24-70 f2.8
24 mm, 1/30 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 100
Matrix Metering, Aperture Priority, Compensation +2/3