o, Every so often, I take some time and analyze the kinds of landscape photos in my portfolio.  I occasionally find gaps.  These gaps might include full-fledged sub-genres like astrophotography.  They might also include subject matter such as ephemeral pools.  Well, lately I discovered another portfolio gap: sand dunes.  I couldn’t let this gap stay, so I made plans to fill it asap.  Here’s how I managed to start closing off that landscape photography gap in my portfolio.

For a few years now, I intended to go visit the St. Anthony sand dunes for some landscape photography.  Well, sadly, I don’t live close by anymore.  So, that’s not so easy to accomplish anymore.  However, I found an excellent way to make up for it.  Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is only about an hour away from me now.  As the name says, there are sand dunes.

I chose to visit the park on a day when there were extra crowds of people.  This made things interesting as I didn’t want people in my photos.  However, there were people driving around in ATVs/UTVs and people sitting atop the highest visible sand dune.  They didn’t move the entire time I was there.  Also, there were people snapping away at every possible conceivable angle for those selfies and family group photos.  Top that off with people sand surfing.  I certainly had my hands full capturing the kind of photos I wanted.

So, I wandered around for a bit and even hiked up on top of the tallest sand dune.  I wanted to see what kind of photography I could expect.  However, I found my best shots long before arriving at the dune.  Even a surprisingly protected but oil-filled pool of water didn’t yield what I hoped.  My shot was of the sand dune, not on it.

When sunset arrived, I took the chance and hurried back to my planned spot.  I took several shots in the hopes of removing the people from the overall image later.  Sadly, those people sitting atop the sand dune still didn’t move.  But, because they remained seated, I could remove them with Photoshop.  Using a few shots stacked together, I managed to remove most of the people while keeping the proper scenery in place.  For those who didn’t move, I ended up using other Photoshop tools to remove them.  When it came time to look at removing foot prints, I decided that there were way too many prints to try removing them all.

During my trek up to the top of the sand dune, I noticed there were a few places in the sand untouched by humanity.  The wind and other elements created these interesting ripples.  If I stood in the right place, the sun lit up flecks of sand making them glow and sparkle.  The shadows created by the ripples added extra depth to the scene.  I couldn’t let that opportunity pass, so I took some time and captured that scene too.

So, what do you think of these new landscape photos of sand dunes?  Do you like them?  How soon do you think I should return for another attempt?  Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.