Great Sand Dunes National Park – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 5

There was a brief sleet storm just after I went to bed the second night of our stay near the Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was going to be a very cold night, so I wondered how the sleet and cold would impact our morning photography.

We arose before daybreak to get into the dunes before sunrise. It was 17 degF, the coldest morning we had experienced during this trip.

The dunes were dusted by the overnight sleet. This added interest to the landscape, but the sleet and cold temperatures preserved footprints from the previous day.

At least the footprints were somewhat muted, but there seemed no way to avoid getting footprints into photographs. I might have removed these in Lightroom, but I’m sure the results would not have been satisfactory.

In a valley between dunes, I found interesting patterns, where there either were no footprints or I could easily exclude those from my photos.

The sleet dusted, frosty sand dunes with snow covered mountains and clouds over them were good for making black and white images.

Snow and Sleet on the Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021

This wraps up the highlights of my March 2021 photography in the Great Sand Dunes.

Thanks for following,

Ken

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 4

We returned to the dunes in the early evening for sunset photography and I struggled to find satisfying compositions. Maybe we were not in the optimal location for this shoot. There were low clouds on the western horizon, which also blocked the sunset light.

As we were giving up and beginning to hike back towards the parking lot, there was a sudden and brief break through of light. My son, being much younger and more fit than I, ran to the west to catch the fleeting light, while I walked as fast as I could, hoping to get to a good vantage point before the light was gone.

I think the image above is the best one the I got during this outing. I was still far from the best vantage point for the best light, but I knew the light was fading fast and I had to stop and shoot now. I got low to catch the dim light in this grassy patch of sand with the fading light on the dune in the background and the interesting clouds over the dune.

After the light faded from that dune and illuminated the mountainside to the east, I pointed my camera in that direction to get this final shot.

Stay tuned for our final morning in the dunes,

Ken

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 3

As promised in the last post, I want to elaborate upon the making of this image:

More precisely, I want to talk about a few of the many possible compositional variations around this scene.

Firstly, I spotted this feature from a distance and I wanted to be careful in approaching it. If I got too close and then decided to back off, I would already have ruined the scene with my footprints in the sand.

So I began to photograph from a distance and slowly worked my way closer to the “driftwood”. I also had some zoom capability with my 14-24mm wide angle lens.

Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021. Driftwood 1.

Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021. Driftwood 2.

Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021. Driftwood 3.

The light changed as I approached and I tried including more sky in my compositions.

Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021. Driftwood 4.

Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021. Driftwood 5

Great Sand Dunes, Colorado, March 2021. Driftwood 6.

I think I’m much too far away in Driftwood 1. So I worked my way closer.

I think I’m still too far away in Driftwood 3 and it’s a little dark. I like the sky in this image and the lack of features at the interface between the sand and sky, giving this image a clean, simple look. Maybe this makes it more dramatic?

I like the closeness and the angle of view in Driftwood 4, but I cut off a small portion of the driftwood’s shadow in this image. Cutting off shadows is something that I try to avoid, whenever possible. So I zoomed out a little and made Driftwood 5. Zooming out here got more sky in the image, which I like.

I got much closer for Driftwood 6, but I do not think this is an optimal angle of view.

I lean towards Driftwood 2 and 5 as my favorites. I’m not sure which is best, but I lean towards 5. I think that I could have made a better image than either of these two. Maybe it is good to never be quite satisfied with our photographs, so that we continue to strive to get better images.

As always, readers’ opinions and critiques are welcome,

Ken

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 2

I continued to wander around in the Great Sand Dunes early the first morning of our March 2021 visit, looking for good compositions.

The icy rim along the ridge in this dune caught my eye. I like the way that icy ridge leads the eye from the left corner of the frame to the long ridge, which in turn leads the eye into the upper part of the image.

I’m always looking for objects with distinct shadows and these chunks of frozen sand, that lie along the edge of a dune, add interest to this image. The edge of the dune acts as a leading line from the lower right towards the upper left. This line is more brightly lighted than other portions of the image and acts as a diagonal dividing line in the image. Notice how the sand details, visible texture and light change as the eye crosses this diagonal. The darkness in the clouds and the shadowy, distant mountains create a strong contrast with the sunlit sand.

A series of circular features breaking the ripple patterns in the sand made me stop to take this photo. I’ve converted the original color image to monochrome, since I think this image with these features is more dramatic in black and white.

This small piece of “driftwood” breaks up and modifies the wind created ripples in a dune. I put quotes on “driftwood”, since I’m not sure that this is the proper term for how this chunk of a tree got here. Maybe it blew in via wind or maybe it was washed here by water?

I’ll have more to say about making this image in a subsequent post.

Until then stay well and safe,

Ken

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 1

We were in the sand dunes before sunrise of the first morning of our March 2021 visit. Hiking in sand requires some effort, but at least during the winter, some of the sand is frozen on the surface, making it a little easier to walk on.

Photographing the dunes in the early morning has the advantage of overnight winds wiping away or muting the footprints of the previous days’ visitors. Still one might have to hunt for places to avoid remaining footprints. Caution is also required in approaching an area to photograph, so one’s own footprints are not ruining the scene.

Those lumpy looking features in the left center of the image above are frozen parts of the sand dunes and make good foreground objects in the vastness of the dunes.

These dunes cover a vast area and we are barely in the edge of the dunes and well below the highest peak.

It was good to have early morning clouds over the mountains to the east of the dunes.

I varied my compositions by moving around slightly or carefully approaching foreground objects, so as not to trample the natural patterns in the sand as the sunrise light progressed over the dunes.

The photo above is nearly the same composition as the first image of this post, but the light has changed with the rising sun and the shadows are longer and more pronounced.

Moving just a few feet can make a dramatic difference in an image in the dunes, as does the changing light conditions.

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Tag: Great Sand Dunes National Park

The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, March 2021, Part 5

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