Congratulations to Ross Martin for winning Feature Thread of the Week with 7 votes - View Previous Winners
Death Valley was a recent stop on my long fall trip and I was eager to get back to the Mesquite Flat sand dunes. I first started shooting there about 25 years ago but in the past I struggled to create meaningful images, especially in the film era. But in the last few years especially it feels like I am starting to understand what it is about dunes that strongly appeal to me visually and how I can use the tools available, including RAW image development, to bring about the expression of a vision.
I want to give a huge shoutout to our FM member Gregg B. who is a master of dunes photography - his images have been a great inspiration for me and an example of how to express yourself as an artist while among these shapely hills of sand that I love so much.
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TECH INFO: I use a pair of A7RV bodies each with one of my main two lenses attached, as I don’t want to be changing lenses on dunes where there is usually blowing sand (as seen in image #8). But on this set of images I did not ‘see' wide so only used my telephoto body. Most were shot on the Tamron 50-400mm, with a few later ones on a new-to-me 100-400mm GM I just got (Fred’s own previous lens which is a fantastic copy!), and on the first image I used the wonderful Sigma 500mm.
I shot from a fairly big and heavy Gitzo GT4543XL with a big Feisol CB-70D ball head attached, but during the times of strong wind even this was not enough to quell vibrations, so based on the tip of another FM member I tried keeping lens stabilization and camera IBIS on and that helped.
austinschutz wrote:
I can't stop looking at the last one - all are fabulous, but that one captures the imagination.
I appreciate your comment, Austin! The glow in the sky above the dunes from the setting sun caught my eye, and I have been mesmerized by the finished image, it really speaks to me and makes me want to head right back there immediately and keep trying for more images!
johnahill wrote:
Fantastic images Ross, the colour, light, shadow and texture in the 2nd to last image is spellbinding
Thank you John, ’m so glad you enjoy that one, it’s one of my favorites. To me it has the feel of snow, and the tones almost make it look like White Sands National Park which has the whiter lighter sand color.
Jeffrey wrote:
Looks great, Ross. I love using long lenses there.
Thanks much, Jeffrey! I bet you have some great stuff from there. I’m glad you understand the long lens vision there, I would be lost without that as a tool (and I think my early dunes images suffered when I was shooting 4x5 and had no real tele).
@Fred Miranda I’m trying to tag Gregg B. in my post but after I post it shows a tag for a different member, @GregG and try as I might I can’t get it to work for Gregg B.
Those dune images are so mesmerizing! I was there last fall and wish I had a long telephoto to capture undisturbed dunes without having to endure what would've been a strenuous hike. Sadly, all I had was a standard zoom and lacked the stamina to hike far enough to parts undisturbed by foot traffic.
