In March, I was visiting the Eastern Sierras including the desert at Death Valley. At Mesquite Dunes, I was fascinated by the textures and the intricate interplay of shadows and highlights in the sand. But what caught my attention, and in my opinion resulted in a shot that tells a story aligned with the theme of this category, was a hiker standing in an awe on the edge of a sand dune. His shadow curved on the smooth sandy surface with background in the form of multiple layers of mountains disappearing towards the horizon complemented by smooth filaments of clouds. The small white cloud at upper left creates a counterpart that balances the hiker. The picture communicates both the emotions of experiencing the dunes and the dunes themselves in a minimalistic way that emphasizes the unity between human and nature.
tagged: death valley sand dune hiker hiking desert
