Kelso Dunes, Mojave 2/16/19

[Johnny Chien]

After meeting and making a new friend, Jim Fox at Joshua Tree, I drove to the Kelso Dunes in Mojave the next day after the wildflower shoot. I love shooting sand dunes! The light on them is constantly changing, and I love shooting "S" curves in nature. The last time I shot dunes were in November at Death Valley, so I was itching to get out to explore, and shoot different dunes. The Kelso Dunes are pretty high. Takes about 1hr to hike to the top, but the views are incredible. I hiked to the top around 3pm, and stayed til sunset. The next morning, I started at the trailhead at 4:45am to get to the top to see the first light. It was super windy at sunset, but very little wind at sunrise. I hope to revisit the Kelso Dunes again in March.



#1 -Picture I took on the trail, it wasn't that windy yet

Video below that I took of the wind up there

#2

Here's a video of the picture above to see the wind blow off the same dune:

#3

video of the picture above:

#4 - You can see the wind off the dune in this pic too

#5 - This was one of my favorite pics at sunset, but I screwed it up. I either missed focus, or the wind shook the tripod too much, and the image isn't sharp, such a shame

The next morning I hiked up the dune in the dark, waiting for the sunrise.

#6 - Here's the picture I took from the video above:

#7 - This one was cool, looks like an erupting volcano as the sun lit up the sky and made it look like it was on fire:

#8 - As the landscape was slowly being lit by the rays of the sun, I got to capture a lot of views. As much as I like to take blue hour pics, light makes all the difference in these pics:

#9 - This is the image I was talking about in @Ben Egbert's picture thread about the 3 powerlines that he took in the snow.

#10 - On the way down from the dune, I found this dune that was frosted over. Highly unusual to see this.

#11 - And finally, I love the little details like this one. I would like to title this "Nature's Barcode"

If you got this far, thanks for following me on my trip and I hope you enjoyed the pictures and video clips!

 

[AlanLichty]

Epic post Johnny - neat story and some nice images. I like the backlit dune scene in the third image. That one has some really interesting textures to it with the blowing sand. Also interesting to see the video of the blowing sand. #7 does almost look like some kind of volcano - nice light.

One nice part about the wind - it obscures footprints quickly.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Johnny,

Very interesting! First off let me say I enjoyed being taken on your journey in this post, and I also enjoyed the little video clips you included. Those are a pretty nice addition, and it's wild hearing the wind howling in them! Most of us have been out in those conditions so we can feel for you as to what it was like.

My favorites are #1, 4, 5, 7 and 10.

In #1, the cloud above the dune is perfect, and I like the blue/gold (brown) contrast of the sky and dunes. (There is a tiny dust bunny in the middle of the sky)

#4 is really sweet with that blowing sand, I am not totally sold on the person on the dunes, but I think they add a needed sense of scale.

#5 is really awesome. It's a drag it's soft. It's a good enough shot you may want to play more with some other sharpening techniques, there may be a way to save it and it would be worth it.

#7 Totally looks like a volcano blowing it's stack! I would auto fill, or crop out that bit of dune cutting across the lower left corner though.

#10 is so cool with that frost on the one side of the ridge. I don't think I have ever seen that before.

Awesome work Johnny, I am sure glad I ran into you out in Joshua Tree, you are a great addition to our community.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Great set Johnny. I see what you meant about the power lines. I spent a lot of time in the Mojave desert back in the 1960's and 70's.

 

[Johnny Chien]

Hey Johnny,

Very interesting! First off let me say I enjoyed being taken on your journey in this post, and I also enjoyed the little video clips you included. Those are a pretty nice addition, and it's wild hearing the wind howling in them! Most of us have been out in those conditions so we can feel for you as to what it was like.

My favorites are #1, 4, 5, 7 and 10.

In #1, the cloud above the dune is perfect, and I like the blue/gold (brown) contrast of the sky and dunes. (There is a tiny dust bunny in the middle of the sky)

#4 is really sweet with that blowing sand, I am not totally sold on the person on the dunes, but I think they add a needed sense of scale.

#5 is really awesome. It's a drag it's soft. It's a good enough shot you may want to play more with some other sharpening techniques, there may be a way to save it and it would be worth it.

#7 Totally looks like a volcano blowing it's stack! I would auto fill, or crop out that bit of dune cutting across the lower left corner though.

#10 is so cool with that frost on the one side of the ridge. I don't think I have ever seen that before.

Awesome work Johnny, I am sure glad I ran into you out in Joshua Tree, you are a great addition to our community.

Jim, thanks for all the tips on improving the pictures!

 

[Timmeh]

Hey Johnny,

I find the light most compelling in 5 and 7, and agree with the suggestions Jim put forth. #8 is a close third place, but although its rare to say it, the little wispy clouds are detracting a little bit. The gold glow is enough I think. In terms of interesting content I think the frozen dune is most interesting, but the shrubs aren't adding anything to the story. I would've liked to see the details a bit more. Overall you got a pretty good overall haul.

I've lost a number of good images to wind shake this winter season, so I've started bumping ISO a bit for insurance. I take 100 ISO images later for cleaner images, but I'll use the 400 or 800 ISO images if the 100s don't work out.

Tim

 

[Leslie Hunter]

This is a great series.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Johnny,

I find the light most compelling in 5 and 7, and agree with the suggestions Jim put forth. #8 is a close third place, but although its rare to say it, the little wispy clouds are detracting a little bit. The gold glow is enough I think. In terms of interesting content I think the frozen dune is most interesting, but the shrubs aren't adding anything to the story. I would've liked to see the details a bit more. Overall you got a pretty good overall haul.

I've lost a number of good images to wind shake this winter season, so I've started bumping ISO a bit for insurance. I take 100 ISO images later for cleaner images, but I'll use the 400 or 800 ISO images if the 100s don't work out.

Tim

Even though my base ISO with the Nikon D810 and 850 is 64, you would be surprised just how often I shoot at ISO 400. The quality today is so good in our DSLR's, it's not like 10 or 15 years ago when there would be a noticeable difference between our base ISO and ISO 400. I am not sure what ISO Johnny was using and what his shutter speed was, but I suspect in this case it was probably the wind that was the major issue here. Watching his video's, that was some crazy wind he had to deal with.

 

[Nilo Photography]

These are awesome set!

 

[Mike Lewis]

Fun set, augmented by the videos that really let one experience the wind a little more too. I especially like #6 - wonderful light in the sky on that one.

ML