White Sands
National Monument

A Lunar Hat-Trick

It isn‘t often that one gets to score a "hat-trick"when doing landscape photography. On a cold December 2001 morning at WhiteSands National Monument in southern New Mexico I had such a morning.

The dunes cover some 275 square miles and are comprised of a very fine white gypsum sand. Beaware that the park is located in the middle of the US military‘s WhiteSands Missile Range and can be closed at times during test firings. Thisoccurs on average twice a week and can last for one to two hours. It‘s thereforea good idea to check with the park service before planning a shoot.

We stayed in Alamogordo the night before our sunrise shoot and hadarranged with the park rangers to be let in an hour before sunrise. In thewinter the park opens at 7am. This was right at sunrise, making a dawn shootimpossible. An inquiry the day before showed that you can have the rangers openthe gates early for a fee of $50 per additional hour requested.

 Dawn — WhiteSands

Pentax 67II and 55~100mm f/4.5 zoom.Provia 100F. 

(No, the horizon isn‘t tilted. The dune is slopingaway to the right and the mountain range is receding as well).

We left our motel at 5:30am and were at the gates 10 minutes early. Promptlyat 6am the ranger arrived and let us in. It was a 5 minute drive to the place onthe road that we had selected the afternoon before as a likely spot to hike infrom. Ten minutes after that we were in the dunes pretty much away fromfootprints. 

As with other popular dunes areas footprints are the major impediment tophotography, so it‘s necessary to hike far enough from the road to get away fromthem, or be lucky enough to arrive right after a wind storm has swept themclean.

These three images were all taken within an hour of each other. The one abovewas the first in the series, taken just before sunrise. The sun rose to my leftand had just started to illuminate the San Andres Mountains to thewest. The moon was setting as we found this first location. 

We had planned the combined Bosque del Apache andWhite Sands trip to coincide with a full moon — at this pointabout 3 days past full. Though the moon was still fairly high, because I wasdown in the gully of a large dune I was able to look somewhat upwards, makingthe moon appear lower. (This actually was the case with all three of theseimages). The position was a good one because it prevented me from includingsome messy low hills and scrub brush just over this first dune. Fortunately,though the light level was still low there was enough sky glow to provide sometexture to the dunes.

A 2-stop split neutral density filter was needed to bring the exposure forthe sky and especially the moon down enough so that they show detail and aren‘tblown out. Without one this shot would have been impossible. Though thefilter has also caused the upper sky to go very dark, I like the effect — ithelps "frame" the image.

Shadows & Moon — White Sands

Pentax 67II and 200mm f/4 lens.Provia 100F.  

Once the sun crested the horizon the colours changed dramatically for a brieftime. The glow of sunrise suffused the sand with a warm golden light. It onlylasted for a few minutes but I encountered these plants and quickly noticed thatagain, because I was down in a valley looking upwards, I was able to incorporatethe moon. The use of a split ND filter again helped hold detail in the moon.

You may notice, especially in the larger linked version of this frame, thatthere are some small shiny spots, especially noticeable along the ridge line. Atfirst when I was "spotting" the image in Photoshop I couldn‘tfigure out what they were. They I realized that these were sand crystals actingas small but intense reflecting mirrors where the sun was catching them at justthe right angle.

Sand-Moon-Bush — White Sands

Pentax 67II and 55~100mm f/4.5 zoom.Provia 100F.  

About 20 minutes later when the sun was well up I found this last set-up.Unfortunately, as with the other three images, web representation simply can‘tdo justice to the subtly and detail to be seen in a print. There is a delicatewarm mauve glow to this image that regrettably has not survived netreproduction.

All three images were photographed with a Pentax67II and 55~100mm f/4.5 zoom lens. This tripwas my first location shoot with this camera, and its lenses exceeded my expectations.This is an excellent camera for landscape work, combining high image qualitywith ruggedness and portability.

Eggshell White

Our group joked that White Sands should actually becalled Eggshell White Sands, because the colour isn‘t a pure white — more ofan off-white that you might use to paint your bathroom. Regardless, it‘sglaringly white during the day, and wearing sunglass is therefore a must. Thesand is as bright as fresh snow.  Of course since the location is insouthern New Mexico, from April through October the daytime temperatures are incrediblyhot. Bring water, sunglasses, a sun hat and a compass. If you hike a few dunesaway from the road it‘s quite easy to get lost. There are no landmarks. Becareful.

Exposure Compensation

Keep in mind that shooting at White Sands is just likeshooting in snow. This means that between 1 and 2 stops of plus exposure compensationis needed to avoid the sand coming out gray. For more on this see my tutorialon Exposing Snow.

Also keep in mind that because the sand is almost pure white ittakes on whatever colour-cast the sky provides. This makes early morning andlate afternoon the ideal times to capture interesting light effects. Whatever ishappening in the sky in terms of colour is reflected onto the sand.

Finally, though the dunes themselves can be beautiful, only veryearly or late in the day do they have enough texture, due to cross-lighting, fortheir architectural qualities to be evident. The inclusion of some vegetationcan also be very helpful in creating perspective and adding scale to theotherwise featureless dunes.

If you go to White Sands, letme know how you make out.