I've been meddling with this photo for so long... trying to make it look right. I made a first pass at it earlier this year, and ended up really hating it. I've revisited this thing 4 or 5 times trying to get it where I want it, and I think it's finally there. But I've spent so much time looking at it it's hard to have fresh eyes with it. Seeking your input!
This is the mesquite dunes last february. A storm had passed through the day before and left some pretty high winds in it's place. I knew I wanted a shot on the dunes with high winds. This didn't disappoint! It was very difficult to shoot here. The sand stung any part of my body that was exposed, and I was covered in head to toe with clothing except for my face and hands. Any time I turned to face the wind, it was a full on sand attack on my face. This hiker came up and perched himself perfectly in my shot. When I saw him approaching I was getting frustrated at first because I figured it was just going to ruin the shot with foot prints everywhere, but it ended up being a good opportunity. I don't include people in my shots, pretty much ever... but this seemed to work. Especially since he seemed so in awe of the view. It was awe-worthy that's for sure.
The problem I've had is color. There was a LOT of dust flying around in the air, which made the colors very brown and muddy. The sky was blue at this point, and the ONLY way I've been able to get the nice golden glow to the image is to go slightly magenta on the sky. I've tried over and over to bring the sky back to blue, but never end up liking it because the nice golden color just turns brown. This is the closest I can get with out losing the magic of the shot, in my opinion.
Anyway, happy to hear your thoughts!
LARGE VERSION here.
Comments
21 commentsTodd
I will need to move this over to M&N gallery due to the presence of the person. Hope you understand..
Peter, I'm not sure what spots you are talking about. I tried looking but couldnt really see exactly what you were referring to. Care to elaborate?
Eva, its a bummer this has to be put into a separate place because there is a person in the shot. To me, this is a landscape photo. The M&N thread obviously doesn't get much traffic, and I post my work here to get feedback, so I'm fully expecting to not really get much more commentary on this image, which upsets me. But whatever.
Re : M&N. There are clear categories for posting. If you had wanted this in the landscape gallery, I would have been fine with you cloning out the figure.
As to it belonging in the Man and Nature gallery, the posting guidelines are very clear. This is from the guidelines listed in the green header at the top of the page. And, man is the quintessential "hand of man" :
Landscape Gallery - Landscapes, seascapes and celestial images with no recognizable "hand of man."
I do agree that it is a shame that M&N doesn't get the views and comments that Landscape gallery does. But, that is all up to us as members to correct by our participation over here isn't it?
Peter, I see what you are talking about. Those very well may have been foot prints from several hours before, I'm not sure. I'm not going to attempt to clone them out, they are too close to camera, and you are the only person who has mentioned anything about them so I think it's safe to say most don't even notice. But I agree, they are a little odd.
Glad the colors are not that big a deal to you all. I'm so over trying to dial it in! I think it's a wrap on this image.
How do you protect your camera gear while working in such conditions?
I was ill prepared the last time I hit the windy dunes. I can still hear and feel the grit when turning the zoom ring on my 16-35MM.
Thanks for the weekly pick!