Anticipating Optimal Dune Lighting Via Sun Position

In the absence of interesting weather, are there optimum lighting conditions on certain dates and times to photograph some sand dunes? One of the advantages of going to the same place over and over again over time is that you can see how the light can change in a seasonal way, and you also run across unique lighting associated with a specific angle of the sun. As photographers, we have a detailed record of those experiences that we can refer to.

Winter light, with the lower angle of the sun, can be like having an extended golden hour. It was like that in late November in Bodie when I went in to support a film crew shooting for FranceTV2. The California desert can be stunning in that light as well. Sand dunes can be particularly good canvases for this warm, low elevation lighting.

Dunes often form in parallel ridges, and while low angle light in general is nice, it gets even better when the compass direction of the sun is a particular range of degrees off of the orientation of the dune ridges. I noticed in 2015 that the compass direction of the dropping sun dipped south enough to shine up the south side of the Mesquite Flat dunes while low in the sky. It turns out that we can enjoy a similar angle in October 2019 when we’re in the park to pursue evening Milky Way images.

The sun will be even lower in the sky when it crosses that compass direction when we’re in Death Valley this December 2018 to also capture the best meteor shower for the next few years, and Comet 46P/Wirtanen, the best known (and possibly naked eye visible) comet in the coming years.

The undulations of the sand ridges and the texture of ripples will be highlighted by the low sun and long shadows. I’ve caught these from the road side of the dunes; it would be interesting to also see and capture the back side as the sun crosses over to the north of the dune ridge line as it sets.

The same compass angles of the sun will also be available during our February 7 – 11 workshop, but with the sun at a slightly higher elevation. Even more so in March, when the sun is higher and sets further north, and I don’t recall running across a similar lighting effect. It will be interesting to determine how far from the winter solstice we can be and still get the compelling light!

For Yosemite I’ve populated a spreadsheet with the sun or moon position required for various shots (including rainbows), then I search forward in apps TPE (The Photographers Ephemeris) and PhotoPills to see when similar shots will available again. Many of the opportunities involving the moon rising next to something at sunset require years to happen again, but the seasonal position of the sun repeats itself every year.

How cool will the dune lighting be this mid-December, so close to the winter solstice, with the sun so low and setting so far south? I’ll be spending a lot of time in TPE in the next couple of weeks, determining where we should be when, to catch the best light when and where it happens.

I have five different sets of dune ridge lines identified, in four separate areas, and I see three general groupings of dune orientation. Some dunes may not be convenient for a workshop based in the Furnace Creek to Stovepipe Wells area, but there are still many dunes with distinct parallel orientations that we can photograph from many vantage points. We should be able to efficiently shoot these in a specific order, to catch each of them with optimal lighting.

This sort of planning doesn’t take the mystery and discovery out of landscape photography at all, there is still plenty of room for enhanced conditions due to weather, and the discovery of unexpected new sites, subjects and compositions, it simply “stacks the deck” to increase the odds of going home with great photographs, even without getting extra lucky on the weather, and without having to be super creative in heavy-handed post-processing to make something unique.

I’ll be showing photographers around Death Valley this coming December, February, March, and I see great opportunities to return for with photographers in fall 2019.

I’m working on draft dates for 2019, prices and registration coming soon. Sign up for availability notification for your best chance to get the session you want!

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