Landscape nominee

I captured these images in White Sands National Park, USA in April 2024. White Sands National Park covers 145,762 acres of white sands dunes composed of gypsum crystals. It is the largest gypsum dunefield in the world with a depth of ~30 feet and dunes as tall as 60 feet. The pure white gypsum crystals are highly reflective, making it almost blinding in the midday sun but also create amazing scenes at sunrise and sunset. The reflective dunes combined with the dust in the air can create endless patterns in pastels. There are very few marked trails in the park and to capture my images I hiked through the dunes using a GPS-based app on my phone.

Jim Guerard moved to Savannah, Georgia in 2014 when he retired from Adobe Systems, Inc. as Vice President and General Manager of Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Jim began exploring photography in 2007 as entertainment on weekends during long business trips. Jim ventured deeper into photography after retiring and continues to hone his craft on the local area's scenic vistas and through an active travel schedule. When venturing away from Savannah, Jim’s priority is collecting images from around the world, intended to stir awareness and offer glimpses of elements in nature and distant cultures that are rapidly changing, and in some cases at risk of disappearing entirely.