Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
One of the reasons I wanted to go back to Great Sand Dunes National Park was the desire to create more photos with shapes, curves, and different light on the dunefield. Pretty soon I learned that including something that gives the viewer a sense of scale has a much bigger impact. A curve in the sand might be strong graphically spoken, but including an element we can relate to in size will tell the better story about the vastness of these dunes. In the first image the grass and bushes play this role while in the second picture the people climbing to the top give you the sense of size, distance, and altitude.
A few days before our arrival the sand dunes had obviously a little snow. The dark bands at some of the edges are from melted water. Overall the sand was very firm in most places and much easier to climb than seven years ago. At an altitude of 8900 feet (2700 m) we and our little dog Cooper were happy about every step we didn’t have to make twice on the way up…😉
All images: Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm / f4,