Dunes after Dark

Had to maintain tradition--ive visited the Dunes the last couple years either on Christmas or a day or so away. Had some fun with a flashlight last night. It was pretty chilly--probably below zero windchills. Anyone who saw me up on the dunes waving around a flashlight must have thought i was nuts...and they would be correct!

#2 guess i should bring a large floodlamp and generator next time...

#3 Not quite what i envisioned, but it was an interesting shoot. I'll spare you the pretty sunset shots

These are very, very unique and all are successful IMHO, Stan. Spooky, even. Congrats on some killer images!

You are crazy, and these are insane! #2 is beautiful.

i really like #1. nice!

No, let's have the pretty sunset shots, too! You are crazy, and these are crazy good! More fodder for the book.

Stan, #2 is a killer image...outstanding concept.
Joe Rogers

More unique stuff from Mr. Stan Dunes!

First two are just outstanding!

Nicely done Stan, good job of painting with light. I also like the first two posts the most, enjoy the warm & cool tones together.

Very nice work, Stan. Like your creativity and composition.

Bill Brennan

More great stuff Stan but number 3 is my #1.

These are all great and very unique. You seriously own that place!

Stan, while you've created a unique vision here, in my opinion, the images have an artificial quality to them. What I mean is the light-painting effect is a bit overdone. If you do this again, I'd like to see the results of a diffuse lightpaint pattern (and maybe a color gel?), possibly from the sides and not from the viewer's perspective. Not that this makes a huge difference, but there are footprints in the sand in #2. Thanks for posting.

Interesting and unique!
Christopher raises a good point which also caught my eye before seeing his comment.
#2 is my favorite. If you could 'erase' the footprints and tone down that hotspot on the one ridge, I think this would be worthy of your book.

Christopher, the whole point here was to be 'artificial', It's meant to be a view of the dunes with a flashlight, not necessarily some creative setup. That being said, this was definitely an experiment, and i would have liked to get more even lighting (note my own comment in #2). If you have an idea for achieving that kind of lighting--please fill me in!

Stan, do you have an older film camera? Forgo the artificial light and setup a film camera (or a digital with low noise - you have a MK2, so no issues there) under the full moon for 5-10 minutes at f/16 or greater and ISO 100 or 200. You'll soak up so much cooltone light and you won't have the hard edges you get from shining a flashlight across the sand. Havent you done this already? I'm certain I recall a post from you mentioning you were doing DunesnMoons. Anyway, this is what I would love to do if I could get some time down there under a full moon.

EDIT: That post you did on ESS is more in the style I'm looking for.

Cool stuff Stan! I really like the lines and comp of #1. I wonder what it would look like if the light painted part of it were toned down. Right now it looks like headlights; perhaps if you took your raw file and pulled the exposure way down and blended it with the same sky it would look more mysterious. ?

Thanks, guys--yeah ive done that too Chris, im still hoping for a full moon and some snow (and a day off!) but that's a rare combo...

You really picked some nice texture in the sand Stan. I think it would be interesting to crop some chunks out of the photo and make some abstracts. Nice work!

Stan, these are stupendous! Love every one of them....would not and could not pick a favorite....and yes....your are nuts!!!

I had a bunch of exposures to work with, so heres a reworked version of #1 per Jack's advice. Better?

These immediately made me think you were shooting in front of your car. I'm impressed that you managed to stay consistent with the look across the series, with just a flashlight. Interesting series. Great foreground selections.