During a recent road trip, I spent a dusk session and a dawn session at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico.  The unique feature of this national park, as you know, is the large gypsum dunefield.

This is one of my first keepers from my first visit to the park, one dusk.  A very standard shot.  Extremely wide angle lens, close the foreground.  The width of the lens allows for inclusion of the distant peak.  Adjust the lens position every so slightly to see big differences in the composition.  Keep adjusting until you see a perfect composition through the eyepiece, corner to corner.  Focus on the foreground area of the composition, about 1/3rd of the composition from the bottom.  Set the aperture to f/22.  Using the aperture priority exposure mode, auto-bracket several exposures.  Pick the one exposed far to the right (histogram) without blowing the highlights.

During a recent road trip, I spent a dusk session and a dawn session at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

What you see is not snow.  It is white gypsum sand.  Truly one of the world’s natural wonders.  White Sands National Park preserves a major portion of the world’s largest gypsum dunefield.

As I was wrapping up my first visit to this park one dusk, I hung around a little longer to observe the color changes in the sky.  I was rewarded with this pink sky to complement the white sands.