In December 2015 I joined a small group of keen photographers like myself on a Photo Workshop with Gordon and Cathy Illg, a husband and wife professional photographer team. The trip, which lasted 6 days, entailed visiting two sites of photographic interest, both were some miles south of Albuquerque in New Mexico. The first place was White Sands National Monument, a desert of pure white gypsum dunes. The second, the subject of the next blog, was at a place called Bosque del Apache about 50 miles south of Albuquerque.
 

Strictly speaking, the 'sand' at White Sands is actually a material called gypsum - the dried out remains of a former huge lakebed in the area - but we'll call it sand just for convenience.
 

The photo on the left, taken early one very cold morning, shows the red glow of the rising sun on the horizon. Plant adaptability in the area was quite amazing as indicated by this Sumac (I believe) plant which seemed to just sprout from the sand. The ripples in the sand is caused by the blowing wind over the surface. The dawns and dusks in this place of extreme solitude are often spectacular. We visited for three dawns and two dusks - with beautiful lighting on each occasion. The sand dunes would be constantly, though imperceptibly,  on the move due to wind forces.
 

To the west of White Sands lay the San Andres mountain range, captured in this long shot of the sand dunes and mountains in the distance (right) . (To the north of White Sands lays the famous White Sands Missile Testing range. Apparently, at test firing times the White Sands area is shut down and visitors prohibited from entering the area). The gently undulating sand dunes - and the shadows they create - are clearly seen in this photo on the right. The early morning sunlight moving across the mountains is clearly seen and brought out the ruggedness of the mountain range very well. The range itself was about 20 miles from where the photo was taken.
 

As mentioned earlier, the sunsets and sunrises at White Sands are often beautiful. This photo on the left captured one especially beautiful dawn with the shades of pinks, blues, oranges, contrasting very nicely with the shades of gray in the dunes below. I love both color in and curves in nature - and here we have both in one photo! Incidentally, the best time to get good sunrise or sunset photos is when the there are some, but not too many, clouds and there are no clouds on the horizon. This combination happens surprisingly often if one looks out for it.
 

One other advantage of visiting a desert like White Sands is the total solitude. The nearest town is 16 miles away (Alamogordo, not far from where the first nuclear weapon was tested back in July 1945). One night we stayed late and were able to photograph the milky way - the lack of light pollution made this quite feasible. Just imagine looking up into the inky black night sky absolutely full of stars! (No wonder the Psalmist could say that "The heavens declare the glory of God..." (Ps 19:1). Indeed!