My first exploration of Death Valley's Mesquite Dunes. The first evening in the dunes was fun but had to just accept all the footprints...and avoid the beach sun-bathers.
These are beautiful, you did very well for your first visit! That first image has the feel of an aerial shot, very cool. The amount of people and footprints can be very discouraging, especially if there has not been recent high winds to clean it up. I have been planning to be there in about ten days from now but not sure I will enjoy it if those dunes are really crowded. Everywhere in the Southwest has become massively more busy in the social media/cell phone age compared to when I first explored down here 25 years ago. I’ve been seeing it everywhere the last several weeks on my current photo shoots in Utah.
Dan: Thank you for your comment, especially for the added sentiment. It is very affirming for me.
Douglas: Thank you. Besides all the great DV images posted here on FM, I was getting inspiration from the several educational night webinars hosted by my local photo club over the last several years. The webinars were hosted by high-end photographers emphasizing the concepts of lines, textures and tonality/color contrasts.
Ross: The first picture was hand-held from a standing position of the hardpan scattered through the dunes.
The first evening I was there, the dunes were so disappointingly crowded that I had to force myself to continue if only to do a reconnoiter and prepare for outings over the next couple of days. Happily, a severe thunderstorm blew through the next day so I was able to get out into the dunes to get photos without all the footprints. However, it also seemed to me that the winds and rain beat down the sharp edges to the dunes so the contours were softer than I was looking for.
Daytime temps were reaching about 90° F. With the intensity of the sun, though, I was happy to be inside in my truck traveling to short-duration stops by mid-morning.
Only the California highways were open so there weren't a lot of options for getting outside for extended periods of time. I believe the park roads are opening Nov 1.
