Iron Creek Photography®: White Sands National Monument Part II

Monday, April 9, 2012

White Sands National Monument Part II

43mm f/11 1/200 ISO50

24mm f/11 1/200 ISO50

25mm f/11 1/200 ISO50

Don laying down on the job

24mm f/11 1/200 ISO50

We want to share the images Sandy took on our return trip to White Sands. Sandy decided to use just one lens on both days and these are samples of what the Canon 1DsIII along with the EF 24-70 f/2.8 is capable of producing.

70mm f/11 1/320 ISO50

58mm f/11 1/320 ISO50

As noted earlier we enjoyed ourselves so much in White Sands we decided to stop there again on our return home. We arrived late Sunday morning to find great skies and shoot for several hours before leaving to check into our hotel.

White Sands is unique in that in visiting, you're likely to see kids of all ages using a plastic disk to slide down the hard packed sand. We noticed this during our first visit and again this time. We had also seen an area set aside for those who might want to bring their horses. What we weren't expecting was to see a camel.

Matilda and her fans

Posing

70mm f/11 1/320 ISO50

We met a very nice couple who brought their 2-dogs and camel to the dunes for exercise. This is truly a sight you don't see everyday. Matilda, is a 10-year old female camel the couple has had since it was born. As you might expect Matilda quickly drew a crowd with the owners being kind enough to share their knowledge. It also turns out that camel hair feels very similar to that of buffalo. Go figure...

70mm f/11 1/320 ISO50

55mm f/11 1/320 ISO50

70mm f/11 1/320 ISO50

We think Matilda enjoyed seeing herself in the camera lens.

70mm f/11 1/320 ISO50

We left the park shortly after meeting Matilda to check-into our hotel. Checking the weather forecast for the following day we found the morning should be a repeat of the day with mostly cloudy yet way less wind. Perfect conditions for a sunrise shot.

Sunrise

55mm f/8 1/200 ISO125

Sunrise

40mm f/8 1/200 ISO100

Sunrise

28mm f/8 1/200 ISO50

Sandpit

28mm f/8 1/200

24mm f/8 1/200 ISO100

50mm f/8 1/200 ISO100

Waking up the next day we drove the 14-miles to the park entrance to wait for the opening. We entered the park shortly after 7 a.m. with sunrise expected close to 7:30. While not certain what to expect we nevertheless weren't disappointed.