Medano Creek

Near sunrise ... late April 2009
Medano Creek, Great Sand Dunes
Nikon D2x + 12-24mm + f/11

Working on new stuff. I welcome your feedback on this one. (The dark mood is intentional.)

I've seen some pretty fabulous dunes images, Jesse, and this is right up there with the best of them. I'm drooling over the foreground and the toning method you're using. There's a wonderful depth and clarity to this. And to top it off, I love the square format. So, I guess I kinda like this.

I wouldn't say this is an easy scene to make look good in bw, but this one's real nice. I wonder if I passed you when I was there in April.

The dark mood works very well...I like this one alot!!

Another excellent comp from you and your skill at duotoning is unsurpassed. Even your eye to know which shots work best with it. As Paul said, the depth is wonderful.

I love the leading lines. This is more like a photo I could take, meaning it's of a lesser quality than your best, but it's still really nice.

I like the dark mood of this B&W conversion a lot.

When I scroll down and crop a bit off the bottom, I feel the composition improves.
For me the divergent ripples in the foreground disrupt the nice rhythmic pattern. Of course, that may be your intention.

Just to clarify, the slight crop that I was considering would be just above your signature.

Jesse... foreground is excellent and it makes this photograph...wonderful lines ...and yes!! your toning works are amazing...

i feel that the foreground may be just a hair dark. i like the strong contrasts, but i find the dark foreground distracting. it might just be the polarizer bringing out the detail in the water. i really like the composition on this image. the contrasting thirds up top, compliment the detailed foreground.

Looks like selenium toning to me and I like it very much. The comp works well for me - the ripples lead the eye right through the scene nicely. I see the other comp also, cropping off the bottom half - which also works well, but results in a totally different image (but that's sacrificing alot of pixels!)

Great feedback everyone. Bill, I really like your crop suggestion.

Beautiful image Jesse, love the toning. I like the crop suggestion as well.

Great comp Jesse. I really like all the layers.

Really nicely composed Jesse. I like all the tones and the patterns in the various elements of the scene.

The lines and textures are excellent in this. They really grab your attention. As always, your b&w conversion is stellar.

A classically beautiful b&w image! One of the best I've seen in a long, long while.
There's not a bit of wasted space in this image. The crop suggestion makes a subtle, but large improvement on an already stellar shot.

Thanks fellas. This may be my favorite image from 2009. Certainly one of the most rewarding personally.

I appreciate the notes on the toning, as I've finally settled on something after fiddling with various formulas for years now. SilverEfex is a wonderful tool.

I think Pelzman is on to something. That crack becomes more prominent with that crop and pushed the eye through the image well.

Looks like im late to the party--but this is sweet!
looks like the pass has gotten a bit more snow, and with another dose on the way sunday maybe we'll get some decent flow this spring!

Love the BW and the detail in the foreground. Do you have a color version?

I don't. This was b/w when I found it ... in my head anyway. The richness of line, texture and layering - brought to life in an otherwise ordinary color scene. If I can find some Lightroom time soon, I'll dig up the RAW file for comparison.