Tranquility

This one is a big departure from the look of my other posts. Evening was coming on and it was looking like the sky was setting up to go off in a big way. The color never developed, but the sense of peace and calm in the desert was wonderful. I hope this understated image conveys even a slight sense of that mood and feeling.

D850, 24-70mm

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A very pleasant color take from this area, Harley. The sky and cloud cover are a real plus… :sunglasses:
I might add some more punch to the sky and lighten the center dune a bit more. I don’t think those changes would lose the calm feeling you’re conveying overall… :thinking:

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Wow, this is a really nice image. I actually prefer this to the b&w abstractions. There’s a lot of sky in this composition but I really like that aspect of it. You could bring out more definition in the sky by playing with levels and contrast. But the light on the land is just superb.

Wow, this is excellent, Harley. Peace and tranquility indeed. I love the low horizon line that accentuates the clouds and sky. Wonderful.

It does for me, this is a very “quiet” image, which fits the mood you wanted to convey.

For the mood and emotion that you want to convey with this image, I would leave the sky exactly as presented. In my opinion adding more contrast to the sky would alter the mood away from your intent. I am debating whether the darkness of the center dune (and the dune tops in general) affects the tranquil mood. I could see some very slight dodging of the darker tones at the top of the dunes.

You had an incredible trip to Death Valley Harley. Wow, you got some great images. I love the amount of sky you’ve included in the image as well as the soft nature of the clouds. You were not rewarded with the color in the sky that you wanted but you were rewarded with a tremendous radial swirl effect. The light on the dunes is amazing. Like the others have pointed out, I might add just a smidgen of light to that center dune but I don’t think it needs much and I really like it the way it is so it may be better left as is.

This is beautiful.
It’s about tranquility. I like it.

Beautiful!! You have presented a wonderful expanse of “pure” dunes. I also thing lightening the tops would be a good idea. It has the look of a graduated filter that went down too far.