Sand Dunes of Death Valley — Brittany Colt Photography

I wanted share with you a recent trip to the sand dunes of Death Valley National Park. These photographs are a series that feature four compositions of the same subject, but each one being unique. I did now want to overwhelm my social media with a lot of photographs in one post so I decided that writing a blog post would be a great way to share my art making process.

As I stood upon the sand dunes, my heart racing, trying to catch a breather after the steep ascent; my eyes were greeted with perfectly smooth dunes. Gratitude washed over me as I stared at the soft blanket of sand that was undisturbed and untouched. I knew that this was the perfect time to be photographing the dunes after a wind storm and before the weekender crowds started sprinkling into this diverse National Park.

Waiting for the sun to start dipping below the horizon, I studied the lines, shapes, light and shadow. I really felt my creativity kicking into high gear as silence rung in my ears. There were no birds singing or squirrels chattering. Just the gentle whisper of silence which was occasionally met with fighter jet pilots putting on a performance for us excited on lookers.

The peace and quiet was short lived. The howling of the wind instantly followed, spraying sand everywhere, stinging my eyes and threatening my equipment. As I stood firmly against the wind, I decided to work mainly with my 100-400mm f4.5 lens. When the wind died down, I changed occasionally to my 24-70mm f2.8 to give me a wider perspective. Although with no clouds in the sky, I decided to stick to my 100-400mm so that I can have a longer focal length and avoid including the sky in my compositions.

Using my 100-400mm was quite challenging with the weight of the lens and my tripod acting like a sinking ship. With much patience and perseverance, I managed to focus stack a few of my images, giving me deeper depth of field.

This scene caught my eye with the sharp lines of the dunes adding soft curvatures and beautiful eye flow. This photograph is a focus stack of three with ISO 200, f8, and 1/400 of a second.

Making the decision to convert to black and white was more of a feeling. The deep tones of the shadows gave the greys and blacks a rich elegance and a simplified interpretation of reality. Plus, that strong contrast was perfect for black and white!

I was instantly drawn to this image through the editing process and it definitely is one of my favorites. The starkness of the black and the shape of the sand in the lower portion of the photograph gives the image a striking, yet serene feeling. This is a single photograph with ISO 200, f8, and 1/400 of a second.

Zooming to 250mm, I was delighted to capture this abstract. I really felt that this photograph is a perfect example how design has influenced my art. With its clean, soft shapes and high contrast light; this photograph has a smooth quality. This might not be a crowd pleaser, but I fully enjoyed capturing this image and the ending results work really well for the mood of the photograph.

With this image, I felt that by including the plants in the lower left portion of the photograph added an interesting texture against the smoothness of the sand. This photograph is a three image focus stack with ISO 200, f8 1/400 of a second.

Photographing the sand dunes left me excited and motivated as I truly was in my element. It was so amazing to be standing on the tallest sand dunes of North America, only a hour and a half away from the Sierra and feeling as if I was in another world. Earth is truly a spectacular place full of inspiration and magic.

Please let me know which photograph is your favorite. I would love to hear your thoughts. Cheers!