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.
_______________________________
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.
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.
_______________________________
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.
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. @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.
_______________________________
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.
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. (@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.
_______________________________
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.
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.
_______________________________
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.
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.
_______________________________
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.
Processing of the RAW files via Lightroom.
[posted to Landscape and Sony]
Dec 01, 2025 at 06:05 PM
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