The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This composition was love at first sight. I took a break at the right spot and saw this beautiful alignment. For me, the photo is all about layers and framing. When I was setting up the shot, there was some dappled light and a “breeze”, so I had an idea of what I wanted. I aimed to have the right amount of wind on the front dune and enough wind in the background to hide distractions. Additionally, I wanted to capture the dappled light that was happening at the time. My main goal was to highlight the big dune like a spotlight, but I realized it seemed too formulaic. I liked it when the light touched the front and middle dunes, but a spotlight was on the main dune. It took 379 frames and almost 2 hours to finally get the shot I wanted.
Fun Story: About a week after capturing this image, I flew to Colorado with my camera bag. Passing through airport security, the sniffer dog walking around the airport took interest in me, and I got a thorough inspection by TSA. Everything, including singular SD cards, had to be swabbed for traces of black powder. The sand I’d been getting hammered by for 6 or 7 hours on the windy dunes left enough iron from the sand in my camera bag to trigger a TSA security dog a week later. Lesson learned: always shake out your backpack before traveling.
WOW! I love the composition, light and blowing sand. For me, this certainly catches my attention, even after an oversaturation of dune images. Your perseverance certainly paid off. I’m also impressed with the TSA security dog!
I assume this is a single image, or did you focus stack?
Wonderful!! Your persistence paid off! For me, the composition is perfect and I love the progression to cooler tones in the distance. My only very small nit is that the detail at the very top of the frame draws my attention a bit. I would lower the contrast there as much as I could without changing the color or exposure. A crop would also work but then I’d want to do the same thing to the lighter detail sloping up toward the UL corner – to make it fade away.
OH. MY. Trevor, this is epic! I know we see a lot of dune images here - and for good reason, there is such tremendous potential in the dunes for spectacular images. This one has to be near the top of the best dune images posted here.
My initial thought, even from the thumbnail, is that for some reason I envisioned Mt. Everest, McKinnley or Kilamanjaro to be the mountain peak rising in the background. And subtle, but cool and gorgeous backdrop up top further elevates this to epic status.
Ok, I could go on with superlatives… but wait, there’s more. The actual dunes and the dark foreground ridge anchoring the scene. Absolutely stunning scene. Congratulations.
Wow, Trevor. This is what the Mac OS Mojave wallpaper should have been. Totally worth the time and effort. It is majestic and although there is movement in the photograph, it is very subtle. The colors, the contrast, the haze in the background. It is like a painting to the point I can hardly believe this is real. A well deserved editor’s pick. Thank you for sharing!
Trevor, a beauty. Beyond the many and deserved compliments received I add that I love the trend of the image: from the bottom to the top, the strong increasing of light, the lowering of the saturation of colors, the softening of the contrast of lights and colors. Wonderful photo.
This has to be one of the most unique and, quite frankly, most beautiful images I’ve seen from these dunes. Exceptional work in every way. Well worth the effort and the TSA sniff, er…swab.
