Wet White Sands

Catching up some more... My wife and I traveled to White Sands in mid-May. That's not always a good time to visit, as the winds are often brutal there during the Spring. But we were in luck...

There had been quite a bit of rain not too long before we arrived, and the Dunes were damp with moisture. Further, it wasn't too hot, and the winds were very calm. The downside to all of that was, of course, that footprints on the dunes lasted for days - I had to search for less traveled sands. But even though the monument was pretty crowded (in my not so experienced opinion), I was still able to find some good shots. It wasn't really a photo trip, so I didn't live at the dunes for several days, but I think I came out okay for a first try.

This was one of my earlier shots on arriving at the dunes; I like the composition with the background in view, though the lighting isn't the best and the background begins to fuzz out a bit (not sure whether that was focus, or haze/heat distortion).

And finally the "artsy" shot. With the dampness of the sand, the ridges were strongly defined. I happened upon this fortunately oriented dune face as I was looking for a good sunset location - sunset at this point was still 20 minutes off at least.

Les, I like the third most with the golden ridges. For more of an abstract, cropping off the sky would be an option for a different version. My second choice would be #2.

Good idea on the abstract; cropping to 4x5 format should do the trick - I'll have to try it when I get in front of the computer.

I actually like #2 a lot, Les. It's not what we usually think of as the sweetest light, but blue-and-white really defines a lot of the character of White Sands.