Posted by Jon LaBass on January 30, 2010 at 1:29 PM
This marks the first winter camping trip I've done and I was excited to go on it, but a bit concerned I wouldn't stay warm enough. Despite the cold temperatures (~6F as a low) it was a trip well-worth it.
My housemate and I met Darren Kilgore down there Friday night and the dunes had a lovely white blanket on. We were excited for sunrise, but when the early morning came, there was a lot of cloud cover making the morning light a bit dull. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed the time. As the day went on we played around on the Medano Creek trail (as long as it was open), napped, and climbed the dunes. Sunset came and what a light display! The mixture of sand, snow, clouds, and sun really made for some excellent light conditions - probably one of the best sunsets I've captured to date. Finally, Sunday morning came and we took a few as the light permitted and then hiked up to Zapata Falls. The falls and creek were covered in thick ice and I really took a liking to the falls. On the way back down to the cars, we saw the Sangre de Cristo mountains had some sweet light and clouds so we hussled back in order to make the most of what we saw. All-in-all, it was a very beneficial trip!
Darren was kind enough to let me use his massive 500mm, too!
Nice light! Did you get to go on the dune field? All of your images are from further away and I was wondering if you got some of that patchy light on the sand?
Posted by Jeff Hackett on January 30, 2010 at 10:50 PM
I like the black and whites.
Posted by Rajeev Thomas on January 31, 2010 at 2:26 AM
Jon... some great light you have got when you were down there!! Morning shots from there are so cool too... those cloudy skies really helped you there... but like you said it looks cold! Great job!
Posted by Jack Brauer on January 31, 2010 at 2:27 AM
Wow you got some killer photos from that shoot! The patchy light, snow smothered mountains and dunes... that must have been fun. One suggestion I have would be to edit out some of the lesser and/or nearly-duplicate shots in order to present a tighter collection. Hard to do though, I suppose, with so many sweet shots!
Posted by Jon LaBass on January 31, 2010 at 2:49 AM
Thanks for the comments, guys and gals!
Aleks - No I didn't go up on the dunes this trip. I was actually too exhausted to do any hiking around...next time...
Jack - Thanks for the suggestion about tightening up the collection and will take that into consideration as I see your point.
Posted by D J Kuklinski on January 31, 2010 at 11:09 AM
Nice set of images! I need to get my butt down to the Sand Dunes. I haven't been there since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.
Discussion
10 repliesMy housemate and I met Darren Kilgore down there Friday night and the dunes had a lovely white blanket on. We were excited for sunrise, but when the early morning came, there was a lot of cloud cover making the morning light a bit dull. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed the time. As the day went on we played around on the Medano Creek trail (as long as it was open), napped, and climbed the dunes. Sunset came and what a light display! The mixture of sand, snow, clouds, and sun really made for some excellent light conditions - probably one of the best sunsets I've captured to date. Finally, Sunday morning came and we took a few as the light permitted and then hiked up to Zapata Falls. The falls and creek were covered in thick ice and I really took a liking to the falls. On the way back down to the cars, we saw the Sangre de Cristo mountains had some sweet light and clouds so we hussled back in order to make the most of what we saw. All-in-all, it was a very beneficial trip!
Darren was kind enough to let me use his massive 500mm, too!
More can be seen at http://www.jonlabass.com/trips/sand-dunes-np_20100122.
Aleks - No I didn't go up on the dunes this trip. I was actually too exhausted to do any hiking around...next time...
Jack - Thanks for the suggestion about tightening up the collection and will take that into consideration as I see your point.