Sand dune, White Sands National Monument
One of the great things about white subjects -like this gypsum sand dune- is that they reflect even the slightest amount of light, and take on the color of their surroundings. We were hiking deep in the White Sands National Monument dune fields, and had long left the footprints of other visitors behind us. We usually go to White Sands in summer - it's hot, but the monsoon thunderstorms often result in dramatic skies. This day however was an a-typical White Sands summer day, with clear blue skies and not a cloud in sight. White Sands is a fantastic place to look for shapes and patterns. As the sun dropped, the dune shadows began to take on the color of the steel blue sky. It's surprisingly hard to find the perfect dune, but that day we found it. The S-curve draws in your eye, and the shadowed parts almost blend in with the sky. The result is almost abstract, but the sand patterns in the foreground give you just enough context to recognize this for what it is. We shot many "white sands & blue skies" shots that day, but this is by far our favorite.
