Ragged edge
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- Pierre Bonnard.
Our trip to the beautiful Great Sand Dunes National Park was not pre-planned; instead a stopover during our fall road trip through Colorado’s beautiful mountain landscapes. It was quite a change in scenery as we drove from Salida to the National Park as grasslands gave way to the desert. We reached the Park barely before the golden hour started and learned a lesson that an hour is not enough to find good shooting spots at a National park which is essentially a punishing dune.
It took us a solid hour to climb the first dune in our path, and the high dune was still very far away. In all the panic and urgency to find a decent spot, I noticed that the sunset was painting the mountains to the southeast in fabulous colors. I did not want to return empty-handed from such a fantastic location and decided to make lemonade with the situation that I was in. The light was glorious and naturally beautiful, but my contribution mainly being at the wrong place at the right time.
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My second evening in Great Sand Dunes National Park played out much better despite the wind not backing down. I left a couple hours before sunset to...
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I was talking about this place with someone from work who used to live nearby. I visited here in May, 2013 during an amazing 10,000 mile road trip...
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The last light of the day gives a warm glow to the dunes below the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Great Sand Dunes are the result of river/ stream...
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One of my favorite photographers is Edward Weston. He had a wonderful ability to show us grace in nature. It could be a bell pepper or a massive...
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Sand catches the last rays of sunlight in front of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Great Sand Dunes National Park, giving the normally beige sands...
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- Eleanor Roosevelt. | facebook | 500px | ferpectshots |
As a child who grew up in the lush Sahyadri Mountains of India, I believed that deserts looked like the sand dunes that I saw on tv. So, it was a bit jarring to learn that sand dunes exist in relatively green states like Colorado and Michigan. While I haven't yet visited Michigan's famous sand dunes, I took the chance to visit the great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve of Colorado. Unfortunately, it had to be a quick visit as we were rapidly falling behind schedule.
Still, we got to visit an absolute stunning piece of landscape with perfect golden light from the setting sun. While I have been to the mesquite dunes of the Death Valley National Park before, GSDNP was something else. The Size of the dunes was truly staggering, wind an ever-present element at most dunes was also making its presence felt. I was trying to create images that captured these three elements that was on display that day, the play of golden light on the folds of the dunes, the effect of the wind on the dunes, and the size of the mighty dunes making the few climbers by the horizon looks like ants. It was difficult to get all these into a frame and I am not sure if I did a convincing enough job creating picture but this view was one of my favorites from our visit to this wonderful part of the world.
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Here's another shot from Great Sand Dunes National Park. Seeing this view was well worth the effort of getting up here to High Dune. However, once...
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Sunlight kisses the edges of a sand dune edge in the late afternoon. While photography is often described as "chasing the light," I sometimes find...
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Ripples of sand splay across a dune, their forms accentuated by the low afternoon sun. The fascinating patterns are the result of interaction...
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Wind is a magician and artist in the dunes. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
