This shot represents my evening of shooting in Death Valley National Park in California.
The park is an amazing and incredibly unique landscape. It is the lowest, hottest, and driest place in the United States. Temperature have reached over 130 F, and a basin named Badwater is the lowest spot in North America at 282 feet below sea-level.
I ran into a scorpion while strolling on a "toothbrush" hike near my camping site, earlier in that day we saw a coyote near the visitor center.
Technique:
I knew I wanted to shoot the dunes for the sunset. After waiting for the heat to subside a bit I walked into the dunes without any idea of where to be when the light started to get good. As I was walking I was careful not to put footprints in the sand where a good composition may be. I got to this ridge and was pleased with the texture of the rippling sand so I decided to stop there and wait for the light to get better. When composing the scene, I wanted to keep a bit of sky in the frame, but I tried to keep the texture and color of the sand the focus of the composition. I used a 3 stop GND to hold the highlights in the sky back.
This is perfect! I love shots of sand like this! Another destination for me! Have you been to Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah?? It's beautiful there! [link]
This looks amazing... quite worth the wait, if I do say so.