Kollodge Gallery

About The Image:

Quite frequently, a scene in Death Valley similar to this not long after sunrise is disappointing because there’s bound to be someone, or worse yet, a group that just had to walk the ridges of the sand and cave it in hopelessly looking for something more beautiful than this.  I happened to luck out on this morning.  I saw a guy coming on a sand ridge off to my side and quickly set up my tripod and made this image with a Canon 20D camera and 70-200mm f2.8 “L” lens.  A couple minutes later he was already tromping in this scene.

Fortunately, there’s usually enough of a breeze at night that the sand shifts and the next morning you theoretically always have another shot at a pristine scene.  At least, that’s the hope that motivates the dedicated to keep getting up at 4:00 AM day after day to get to the Dunes before sunup.  This time it worked.  Enjoy!