White Sands in New Mexico is world’s largest - 275 sq miles of rare Gypsum sand dunefield. During the day, there is a lot of play with light-n-shadow, contours, lines, .. It’s all about discovering these artforms in this vast area nature created over the last 10,000+ years. It is humanly impossible to reach/capture all of them, but here is a glimpse of a few.

Once you enter the dunes, it is easy to get ‘greedy’, or get lost - both in space and time.. so make sure to pay attention, keep a GPS device with you, and most importantly Water!

Sunsets

Sunsets and Sunrises are simply Magical here.. with the backdrop of dark-rocked San Andres (West) and Sacramanto Mountains (East) lining the bed of these white Gypsum sand dunes.. It’s all about being there, finding the right dunes, that have not been walked on.. and nature unfolds the magic right in front of your eyes! As the sun sinks behind the mountains basking the sky in that glorious golden glow, the blue hour follows, turning the dunes purple! And you just keep clicking...

Again, caution + gps + water. I didn't realize how far I went inside the dunefield to find a good spot.. It's only when I started walking back, I realized how many dunes I had to cross while it was getting darker by the minute!

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Night with Bortle 3 skies

If you apply for a Special permit to be in the park at night / if you are camping, you are all set to get a different type of experience!

The darkness here, is 'Blinding'! You better know where you are going, so plan ahead when there is light, pay attention, and be safe.. An app like Stellarium or Photopills can help plan your shot. The reward is up there for grabs.. the glorious starry sky! You can see the Milky way with your naked eye, and your camera sensor kept open for 20-30 seconds can see it even better! From here on, it is your imagination as to how you compose your foreground and the Milky Way..

As the dawn tiptoes in, the sunlight breaks through, birds start chirping, and the cycle repeats.

My 2024 Solar Eclipse Story

Date: Apr 8, 2024 * Start Time: 1:55pm * Totality: @3:15pm for 3 mins 45 sec * Place: Radisson Hotel, Akron, Ohio

After carefully considering different places for shooting the eclipse, I chose Akron near Cleveland, OH which was in the band of totality. And after experimenting with various options, I settled on the following gear as the most workable solution -

• Nikon Z7 Rii Mirrorless Camera
• Sigma 150-600mm with a 2x Teleconverter (effective focal length 1100mm)
• Orion 5.25" ID Safety Film Solar Filter
• K&F Concept 3-Way Geared Tripod Head
• Induro Carbon Fiber Tripod

All packed in the trunk of our car, my friend and I drove to Akron, OH.. a 7hr drive. The day of the Eclipse arrived - Breakfast, followed by a quick lunch as we started seeing 1pm on the clock. An open space, just outside the hotel and very few people gathered there to see the Eclipse, I think it was perfect. But, the weather predictions were not good.. It-was-cloudy!

Contemplating driving to another nearby city till 1pm, and finally just trusting our gut feeling that the clouds might disperse, we stayed on.

Indeed, the clouds slowly moved away making way for the Sun and Moon to put on this spectacular show.

People were quite amused by the gear I had and started taking pictures of the eclipse on the Camera screen using their Mobile Phones. I was clicking with a Remote Shutter Release every few seconds and adjusting for the Earth’s rotation using the 3-way geared tripod head to keep “the actors” in the center of the screen.

Was prepared for totality - or at least I thought I was.. 3:15pm - TOTALITY! And everything just went B-L-A-N-K for me in the camera!!! PANIC! After all the tutorials videos and articles leading up to this event, I had forgotten to do the one step I was supposed to do at Totality - which was to REMOVE THE DAMN SOLAR FILTER! One full minute of frantic debugging, bumping up ISO, slowing down shutter speed, open Aperture.. nothing. I was seeing a spectacular view with my eyes, but nothing in the camera! Removed the camera from the Tripod, tried searching for the Sun as if it had gone out of the frame.. still, nothing.

And suddenly it dawned on me!!! I quickly removed the solar filter and threw it in the trunk of our car, and started shooting just handheld.. the camera and the crazy 150-600mm lens with the Teleconverter were together quite a weight, but I just had a minute of totality left.. My exposure was off by a bit.. got overexposed corona in most of those shots.. And just as it had started 3 mins back the spectacle started to end….

With the hope that I will have at least one or two shots of totality with me, I shot the remaining stages of Eclipse.. It was exhausting.. both mentally and physically. And that’s when it bit me….

THE ECLIPSE BUG !

Looking forward to the next one in 2027 from Egypt.. if my stars align!