A total mystery...

Crop or no crop, this is a pleasant scene Stan. Has a very soft and velvety feel to it. Not the cheese mind you...the soft fluffy stuff.

Onto critique. The footprints are distracting on the ridge up there...seems weird as they sort of disappear..cloning mistake or wind effect on the dune..not sure? And you have dust spots everywhere.

Altogether another promising dune shot from you. Nice work.

Composition as posted is just great IMO. This scene as presented has such a pleasing color and smooth texture, Especially nice is the lip edge on some of the dunes.

Great lines and contours. I like the fg texture too. Good tonal variations
between light and dark. Whatever you would gain by cropping on the
left, I believe that you would lose by whacking off some of the good diagonal
lines and tonal ranges.

Very nice quiet scene. love the mixture of textured fg and velvety soft dunes. The left footprints are a little distraction, but I'd rather have them than lose the left.

This is great Stan! I love color and the feel and texture is wonderful. Great comp with all the interesting lines. I would not crop imo. The diagonal foreground looks like corduroy! Nice work Stan.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

I think a slight crop to eliminate the little dune line/triangle at the very top left would improve this Stan, that aside this looks good. I like all the lines and curves and your processing is top notch as usual.

Gary.

This looks great and I'm not inclined to suggest a crop or any other edits for that matter (aside from some dust spot cleanup, though only a couple are noticeable to me). Perfect as-is.

I agree with Gary on cropping off the triangle in the UL corner. Other than that I wouldn't crop any of it. It works nicely just as it is. Great flowing texture and color. The footprints don't bother me at all.

Dunes, I luv 'em, they're so... well... sandy! Nice lines in 'em Stan!

The texture, lines and shadows are very good. The thing I like about the image most is the color. It is a nice variation of the orange. red dunes that are usually posted. Great image.

Stan I think this is really cool!

I would clone the small distracting elements and try to come up with a worse title.

Fine abstract, Stan. Great lines and shadows. I really like it. It also might be fun to try B&W and go high contrast and see what you get.

Yep, crop it! But, this is pure art, Stan!

Thanks folks! I didnt even notice the dust specks until now--those things are hard to avoid in 40 mph winds when your changing lenses--sorry bout that.
No footprints here though This is looking out over sand that probably hasn't been walked on in weeks--if not longer--and everything would have been clear by now. There's a bunch of little ripples/waves along and under the dune-crest if that's what you are referring to.
Mark, i changed the title for you.

OK--i went back to the RAW and i think i found what Nicolaus was referring to. The stuff on the lhs is definitely not prints--just ripples--but the center stuff sure looks like prints, but they dont look human to me. Dont really look like deer/elk or coyote either--so im stumped! Any ideas???
100% crop, straight from the RAW:

I like this dune abstract alot!

Awesome Stan! Great lines, I wouldn't crop a thing.

I vote no crop. This is like rich chocolate or silk...too decadent for a mere photo. wonderful abstract

I like the lines and texture. Maybe some darkening of UL corner will do. Cropping will make the S-curve too close to the upper boarder.

Footprints. You should have gone out there and smoothed those by hand!

Excellent photograph

I like it as is, Stan, though a hand crop of the left looks good too. Wonderful textures and forms.

I like it as is Stan with the multiple multiple diagonal lines. Love the textures and lines. I also like Harley's comment on trying a high contrast B&W as well.

Stan, I think that the proposed crop to eliminate the ulc and darker wedge 1/3 down the left side would work well to simplify the image, it would eliminate most of the disturbed sand middle left edge, and thus enhance the abstract.

Thanks, folks--dont crop is in the lead but i might do it anyways...
Mark--youre probably right, since theyre too big for coyote and not spaced enough for deer, but the close spacing is odd. Looks like the dune crest sheltered it from the wind so it might have been there a while. The sand was a lot looser than usual because it was such a dry Spring.

The sensual detail in this is fabulous. I wouldn't crop it a bit. I like the diagonal eye movement from LRC to ULC across the sunlit ridges.

Really nice lines, texture, and form. Sounds redundant, but it is what it is. Wish I could offer some new and articulate comments, but I think that sums it up. I WILL come and see these dunes one day. hope we can get together then.

Chris

Beautiful lines Stan. I vote to leave as is. (The prints were obviously made by a rabbit missing forelimbs.)

this is great

wonderful light Stan

Looks like Cat tracks as in Caterpillar. Lets hope not. Love the lines, love the lines. I vote no crop. Great job Stan!