In the early 1930’s Edward Weston visited the Sand Dunes in Oceano and made some amazing photographs with his son Brett. Weston was amazed at this beautiful place… never ending compositions everywhere. The landscape was always changing due to wind and weather conditions. The only issue with photographing dunes was finding areas where there were no footprints. This photograph was made when the sun was lower and the light scraped across the sand creating dramatic shadows.

To me photographing dunes is an exercise is composition. Simple and complex compositions in the sand everywhere! My job is to make a photograph that makes sense and that has a visual rhythm all its own. I often get photographically overwhelmed when there is too much chaos going on… especially in a dense forest. Not so with sand dunes. Though there is ample chaos in the sand patterns there seem to be many good compositions embedded in that chaos. Finding them is not always easy but is usually rewarding. On the afternoon I made the photograph above I was hoping for sunshine so I’d see the sun rake across the sand creating beautiful sensual designs and great contrast. Luckily I had no fog on this day.