People love sand dunes! Artists speak in mystic and romantic terms. Musicians compose the same way. Many photographers I know perceive images in glowing mannerisms that usually involve swaying arms and rolling eyes. It is certainly a popular vision that everyone has their own ideas about. Including me!

The sweeping shapes, the moving sand and the sound it sometimes makes combined with weather and light, can bring breath taking images.

For me these elements usually only last moments. Being prepared means being there previously. Many, many times in most cases and even this discipline I’ve found will bring surprises.  I’ve been photographing the Mesquite Dunes in Death Valley since the late 1960’s in all seasons and time of day and sometimes night. My experience has been that no matter where I drop a tripod every shoot will have something different which I attribute to how I feel at the time about what I’m seeing and then how I choose to render it. For some reason each time I’m on the dunes seems like the first time!

Here at first light on our recent visit I was trying to demonstrate how to see the ridges of the sand and then determine an exposure to hold just this. It is very easy to become overwhelmed with the vast setting and miss what I think is the -sole- of your subject.