I spent a few days in Death Valley National Park in mid-January. I saw a high wind forecast and jumped at the chance to be on the dunes. Unfortunately the wind was minimal. But I ran into a friend on the dunes and adjusted my plans. He suggested some places that I hadn’t been before.

It usually takes a few visits to a place to get a sense of the landscape and how the light reacts. This was taken on my first visit to the location of the dunes pictured below. The sun had already set on the dunes where I was standing, but cast its last rays on the distant dunes. I had to react quickly.

Well, not all dunes. One morning I drove to this sunrise viewpoint.

To see more from this trip, click here.

In early December I visited Death Valley National Park. There are amazing photo opportunities in the desert. I especially enjoy the sand dunes.

This first photo was taken at Zabrinski Point. I used my zoom to focus on patterns in the landscape. Another photographer with a client walked up behind me. He saw what I was shooting and commented that it looked like a tooth.

This colorful scene was taken in another area of the park, along the Artist’s Palette drive.

The area of the desert that calls to me above others are the dunes. One of the days was overcast and gave way to rain showers. I was walking on the dunes this day in the late afternoon. As I walked across the undulating dunes, I imagined I was walking on a turbulent ocean, frozen in time. It almost made me sea-sick.

The photos below were taken the following day, as the sun rose, casting long shadows in the sand.

I found this clump of green (below) in a shadowy bowl between the crests of dunes.

To see more from this collection, click here.