Yep...what James said. Starkness is the beauty of the dunes, to add the grassy area is to remove that focal point.

Good first run, good practice, I think you can take this new info with you to the next outing there and come back with some REALLY nice tigheter shots. One of the thing I do with Panos is I try and find my first horizontal shot that ebmodys the subject as I see it. Then I tilt my camera to portrait mode and limit myself to no more than 7 shots with about 1/4 overlap. I shoot just a bit outside my origonal horizontal single shot compostion.

I look forward to seeing what you get on the next trip.

Roman