White Sands National Monument - Sparser Vegetation

I've often seen photos of one piece of life growing in a setting that seems very sparse and wondered where the photographer managed to find such scenery.  Well, I don't know if all of those photos I've seen over the years were taken at White Sands, but it certainly is a place where one can capture some breathtakingly beautiful images of some very sparse vegetation!  Take a look - 

One of the things I really like about this image are the different lines throughout the image.  There are the obvious lines of the desert grass, the 2 horizontal lines formed by the different levels of dunes and the lines created by the wind against the sand (in the very foreground of the image).  From my description, it sounds like this would be a very "busy" image, but, as you can see, it's incredibly soothing and peaceful.

Here's another image of that same little clump of desert grass, shifted over a bit.  In this image, the foreground texture is still visible, but you can see a bit more of the landscape of the dunes and the soft lines the dunes create.  They almost look like waves, don't they.  The mountains in the distance are, I believe, the San Andreas.

In this last image of my little desert grass, I've backed off a bit from the first image to give you a sense of the vastness of this incredibly white sandy desert.  This sounds a bit odd, I know, but White Sands reminds me a bit of Antarctica in terms of the stark beauty of it.

I thought this image created a little bit busier feel because in addition to the dried grass in the foreground, you can see some more gentle slopes of the dunes in the middle of the image, and a soft little sand eddy up top.  This was all created by the wind as it shifts the sand around.  I can see visiting here again and again, because it will always be subtly different each visit due to the shifting of the sand.

A bit more vegetation in this image, but I included it in this post because my focus is always drawn to the dried grass in the foreground, with the long shadow it casts due to the early morning light.  Also, I love the more pronounced ripple of the sand in this shot.

 

Enjoy!