Congratulations to Gregg B. for winning Feature Thread of the Week with 7 votes - View Previous Winners
Death Valley is now experiencing some serious wind storms. I went there last weekend to shot Mesquite dunes with couple of my friends. The sunset was mind blowing (or sand blowing rather) with wind speeds reaching over 30 miles an hour. After sunset the speed actually increased, so it was very difficult to hike back to the car (I was shooting 2 miles east of the main parking area, so I hiked at least 2 miles into the dunes). The place looked truly otherworldly, and with so much dust in the air the mountains behind the dunes completely faded away.
As you can see in the image (minuscule but visible) there's a photographer there shooting dunes as well. I left him in for scale so it's easy visible how big those dunes really are. The shot was taken with my Nikon AF-P 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 lens @200mm.
The second shot is a pano of dune formation right next to where I was standing. I liked the waviness of the sand here...
Beautiful photos, incredible color and atmosphere! How nice to be in DV with no footprints in the sand, an ephemeral condition. On my last trip there, we encountered a small sand storm on the way out, necessitating a new windshield. The next time I go, I am renting a car!
