Death Valley Dunes

[RbnDave]

Here are the first of my photos I took in Death Valley this week. I just woke up from sleeping off a redeye flight from Vegas. I have over three hundred photos to dig through. These are just the first ones to really stick out.

http://www.pbase.com/rbndave/image/37579550.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/rbndave/image/37579710.jpg

Let me know what you think. I'm sure to have more pictures to post in the coming days.

Dave

[amitnike]

awesome pics dude

[wintoid]

Both of those are great!

[LAWSON McCULLOCH]

I like both very much, great shots.

[Dimitry]

Wow, great shots! Both look like they belong in magazines. Which lens' and what settings did you use?

[RbnDave]

Thanks. I used my Canon 100-400 L for the first pic and my Tokina 17mm ATX Pro for the second image. Both shots were taken with my camera on a tripod.

I am having a bit of trouble editting these dune photos. It is really hard to make the sand come out the correct color. I like the composittion of these shots, but the color to me looks a wrong. Maybe I have just been looking at them too much.

Here is a different version of the colors. I editted this one a little different than the other two. Let me know if you like these colors better.

http://www.pbase.com/rbndave/image/37596364.jpg

thanks

Dave

PS If you like dune photos, here are two more from my death valley trip
http://www.pbase.com/rbndave/image/37575439
http://www.pbase.com/rbndave/image/37574315

[stoneylonesome]

WOW! Nice shots, Now that's what I call one heck of a SANDBOX :) :) :) :)

[IanD]

Sweet captures Dave. Please tell me that these shots were taken on the ground and not while you were driving the RJhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gifhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gifhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gifhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gifhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gifhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gifhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gifhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gifhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gifhttp://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

[sparker1]

Very nice shots. When I was in DV, my dune shots were whiter than yours. Of course, I was unable to get late sunlight. Did you hike Golden Canyon to Zabriskie point? Should have gotten some great ones there, and at Artist's Point.

[Dimitry]

I think the first one works a bit better imo. Sand is a bit more realistic and not as red. Also, reason for colour distortion is most likely in the monitor and not in the shot itself (as much at least).

[LazyPhotographer]

WOW!!! Fantastic images!

[RbnDave]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Dimitry,

I think it is time to calibrate my monitor again. The dunes did look a bit whiter in reality than they do in my pictures. They looked color correct on my camera's LCD, but when I got them on home they looked like they had a green cast. In my attempt to reduce the green I think I turned them too red. Who knows... with an out of whack monitor I can't figure out what went wrong.

BTW, I climbed up to Zambriski point. http://www.pbase.com/rbndave/image/37590991 The road was closed so the only way up was hiking. I didn't get to take any sunrise pictures up there because I was too lazy to climb the golden canyon trail at 4:00 am. That gives me an excuse to visit DV again.

Ian,

No, I wasn't driving when I took these pics. I don't think Budget Rent a Car would have been pleased if I had called to tell them I left their Toyota Corrola buried to the axil in sand somewhere out in the Mojave Dessert. If only I had an airplane to fly really low over the dunes I could have avoided walking. Maybe US Airways will start service to Badwater, CA.

[boomer1959]

Nice composition on both :)

[PhotosGuy]

Nice shots!

[marie]

I had no idea there were sand dunes like these in death valley

they look like henks shots from Dubai... almost http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif
especially the last pic.

really gorgeous

[Ballen Photo]

Nice work Dave, I like em all, especially the first shot of the dunes.

-Bruce

[RbnDave]

Thanks again everyone. Glad you like my dune pictures. While I was taking these pics I met a photographer from Getty images. It was really cool talking with a pro and seeing he was out trying to capture the same images as me. The entire 3.3 million acre park was devoid of people, and I ran into the one other visitor at 6:00 am three miles off the nearest road or trail.

Marie,

I only wish my dune pictures were as good as Henk's. It's a high compliment to be compared with him.

We do have a lot of dunes in the dessert southwest. Thanks to Bill Clinton a lot of them are now protected from off road vehicles. I suppose Henk wouldn't like that; I always see vehicles in his dune photos. I imagine the dunes in Dubai aren't as fragile as the dunes here in the US. Too much driving on our dunes causes them to get compacted and plants are able to take root. Too many plants turns the dunes into shrub covered hills. At east that's what the environmental propaganda says.