One of the best locations I have ever been to for photography, that enabled me to show the color of light, is the beautiful white (Gypsum) sand of White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.

I worked this location on two different trips to that state, for a total of I believe, three days. I would love to be there right now.

Both the color of light and the angle of that light affect not only the color of the scene, but the texture. The overnight winds develop sand furrows.

The first two images below show some very white sand. The overnight winds have given us two very different designs and patterns. The whiteness says that I created the photos neither at sunrise or sunset. but when the light from the sun was not at a low angle where it would collect the atmosphere from skimming along the earth.

In this image, a little more shade if you will, makes for a different mood.

We begin to see some color in this late afternoon image. Notice how different the patterns are as well. No furrows.

Yes there is a “sand road” for a short distance into the park. Me thinks it is early in the day with this shot.

When the sun is low and gold, that warm feeling rules the sand.

Whenever I could, I captured any given location under every form of light and mood, as possible.

Below, two different moods arrived at with fog.

This first one was made on a foggy morning in the Colorado Rockies. As you can see that fog lived in the canyons below the peaks.

This last one was made at Bong State Recreation Area in Wisconsin. Early in the morning this small Birch forest held a blanket of fog at its feet.

Exposure in foggy scenes can be tricky. If you meter off the fog, most of the time the image will be somewhat underexposed.

Under those circumstances, I always used a hand held incident meter rather than an in camera reflected meter.

In other words, meter the light falling in your subject not what is being reflected from it.

In many ways, as photography has advanced in this digital world, it has made us lazy.

I will close below with two posters which remind us what faith and only faith can do for us.

Faith of course only works when it is applied to the proper source. God is surely the best source.

Notice that only God’s Grace, and our faith in what Jesus did on the cross, will bring is to Heaven. Not our works.

We are each allotted only a small amount of time here on this earth. It would seem best not only to use that time wisely, certainly better than I have, but to plan where we will spend eternity. We have a choice.

May God Bless each of you,
Wayne