I like photographing the dunes near Stove Pipe Wells in Death Valley best in the morning.: It is cooler;  the direction of the light hits the dunes at a better angle;  and, as an added bonus, any overnight wind fills in human footprints with the blowing sand.  On this trip, though, our schedule was tight and we ended up shooting the dunes in the evening.  And, I'm darn glad we did, as we had the best clouds that afternoon.

This is the view of  the dunes as one approaches from the west.  The dunes are in the foreground and the background consists of the range of mountains that makes up the Eastern side of Death Valley.  The shadows from the setting sun were getting long with the setting sun.  The good light was bouncing everywhere!

This next shot shows a ridge of one of the dunes.  It is quite cool how the wind creates the little ridges of sand that, in a way, mimic the larger dunes!  Maybe we should call them pico or giga dunes!  :)

In this next image, the lines of the pico dunes create a visual path for your eye leading you from the foreground to the bush.  It is hard to believe that anything could grow in the middle of a pile of sand without water ... but there it is:

And it is impossible to ignore the Sun and lack of water at Death Valley.  I find myself frequently turning the camera directly into the sun as a means of emphasizing its importance in the "Valley" as I did in the image below.

We timed our visit to Death Valley to correspond with the rise of a full moon just before the setting of the sun.  In the shot below, you can just make it out if you click on the image to get a larger version.

But, here's a better view in this vertical shot taken a tiny bit later:

From Atop one of the ridges, the shadows at sunset make an compelling visual line.  It is way cool:

My favorite shot of the evening is this next one.  Please click on it to get a more detailed look:

And here is a close up when I zoomed in:

Sunset in the Mesquite Dunes of Death Valley ...  I hope you enjoyed the brief look.

Bye for now,

Adam