Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, Death Valley, California
I’ve shot in difficult conditions before but this day was a whole different ballgame. Sitting in our car, we were debating on if we should even head out into this monstrous glowing cloud of sand that had completely engulfed the Mesquite dunes of Death Valley. You couldn’t see a thing. Of course, lacking any sort of suitable gear for constant 40+ mph winds, I pulled my buff over my entire face and put my sunglasses on and wrapped my camera in my plastic rain sleeve and went for it. WOW, not only was I mostly blind from my homemade facemask, the blowing sand and deafening wind was absolutely nuts. We must have looked like blind zombies roaming out into the dunes. It was slow going and we couldn’t hear each other at all. A few times we’d walk into dip in the dune that funneled all the wind right through it and we’d have to turn back. I can’t even guess how fast that wind was. I laughed at the thought of trying to set up my tripod so I just turned into the wind and started firing away with my 70-200mm. Interestingly, the wind was so powerful it had carved up the dunes and you can see some of the deep cuts revealing the deeper wet patterns in the sand from the rains weeks before. In no time the sun crept behind the mountains thanks to our speedy arrival. Literally choking on sand at this point, we headed back. It took a week to get the sand out of our eyes and teeth and lungs. It gave me a weird sinus sound to my voice which was a nice touch. Just the experience alone makes it one of the more memorable photo ops I’ve ever had.
