When it comes to Death Valley, I instantly think of a sea of sand surrounded by rugged mountainous terrain. And while the Mesquite Flats dunes don’t look all that big from the road, once you are standing out in the golden sands, their immense nature quickly engulfs you. It is easy to see why George Lucas chose this landscape to film his scenes of the planet Tatooine for the movie “Star Wars: A New Hope”.
Beautiful ridges and dunes lines stretch across Mesquite Flats to the mountains.
Walking the dunes looking for compositions in the golden light.
The dunes reflecting the hues of a brilliant blue but cloudless sky.
Sweeping dune shapes and textures hemmed in by rugged mountains. For my first time here, this was an iconic image of Death Valley I wanted to capture.
A photographer captures the dune field softened by sunset's shadow, while the far mountains are bathed in alpen glow.
The sun begins to set behind a cloudy sky.
Super moody clouds catch some indirect light during twilight.
A photographer watches a boiling sky floating over the mountains and dunes.
Shadows along the ridge lines of some large dunes.
The different textures of some large dunes stacked one on top of another using a telephoto lens. The scale of the scene is immense...notice the hiker (tiny black figure) on the dune in the top center of the image.
Dune shadows at sunset.
More dune shapes and textures stacked on top of each other.
