death valley always seemed like an intriguing place.... so vast and sparse.... it sprawls over 5000 square miles. it is known for the heat in summer and having parts of it below sea level. but there are mountains in the park and during my brief visit, I had rain, snow, hail and wind. the temperatures never got warmer than the 70s.
I decided to explore 2 areas of the park that can be difficult to get to unless you have 4 wheel drive and patience. my first stop was the eureka dunes located in the north end of the park. they are the highest dunes in california reaching more than 700 feet above the valley floor. I arrived in the late afternoon and hoped to find the shadows on the dunes giving some unique shapes and textures. I was not disappointed. the only problem was wind... lots of wind and blowing sand. I spent about 90 minutes on the dunes and probably still have sand in my ears.
blowing sand is not an ideal environment to shoot photographs. keeping your gear clean is a huge concern and shifting sand makes it difficult to keep a stable tripod. I increased ISO a little trying to keep shutter speeds high enough to compensate for any movement.
this is one of my favorites from the trip. the late afternoon shadows were getting very dramatic and the lines were so clean. Nikon D850 24mm ISO 125 f5.6 1/320 sec.processed in Silver Efex for the black and white
