What a great trip to the Sand Dunes this past weekend!
I have three kiddos, (two girls 14 & 12 and a boy 9) and all three invited a friend and we stayed in the best site in Pinyon Flats Campground, the completely shaded site 53. We stayed three days and had fantastic conditions. The kids played their hearts out on the sandy flats with Medano Creek flowing through their every move.
BTW, Medano Creek is peaking in flow thanks to heavy moisture over Memorial Weekend.
Every year we do this trip, every year my patient wife sees me leave at dinner time to shoot the dunes and get back after dark. I left two out of three nights because the conditions were ripe for photography. On day two I did a morning recon hike of all the dunes east of High Dune with the idea of shooting west into the sun. That night conditions set up well for that shot, shown here.
The following image will not rightfully convey the totality of the excellent conditions but I think its a good starter image of what I picked up on day one. Day two was even better. More to come.
Comments and Heavy Critique welcome
Tech stuff:
Canon 6D & 24mm tse
1/60 f14
ISO 800
Three image vertical shift stitch. Bottom image is an easy 2 image focus blend.
WB is 6000k
Lovely renditions of the Dunes, with excellent post processing, particularly shooting into the sun and stitching. The colors of each one are fantastic. The tone of that orange and the blue is really well done. Ya know, you must be in a blue phase of your photography as you have posted a few with unique blue perspectives this year.
Well, I'm anxiously awaiting the image with the good light if this was the not-as-good light. Great comp with the pattern in the sand leading the eye into the image and I like how the darker band of dunes separates the lighter areas of the image. I have to say as nice as the first image is I probably like the second even more - gorgeous color, nice forms and the white highlights at the top of each dune help separate the dunes and give the image great depth.
Very nice images Kane. The first one is as good as it gets as far as I am concerned. I like the second shot, but the first is the cats meow! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Ken, my blue phase likely has something to do with my growing affection for cooler white balance vs the warmer scenes I've always loved. Funny thing is I'm thinking I shot #2 at about 5600k which we all know is a very natural kelvin.
Scott, I'll work on another scene with good lighting tonight. I have never shot the iconic view if the Dunes from the grocery store area. It's the vantage where Star Dune soars towards the Crestone summits. I think it's gonna look pretty good, it better...I hiked 2 miles from the road towards the Star Dune to compress the dunes summit just under the 14ers summits.
Excellent, that first one is a classic dune shot, love the colors and the leading lines. I wish I could control the sun's brightness half as well as you do.
Sweet!! To be super picky, the blue sat is pushed slightly beyond my comfort zone in the first shot (ironically, not in the second, cause I know how blue those dunes get!) and there appears to be a very slight CW tilt. That dune field is the one place im religious about getting my level perfect, cause the dunes naturally rise to the right (north) which can be very deceiving unless you level it perfectly.
Kane, I must say that I personally prefer the second image. The first one is fabulous but has perhaps more saturation than I personally like. The second one is absolutely delightful and keeps my eyes dancing from place to place and enjoying the journey.
Something about the first one is bothering me. The comp is fine, I really like the leading lines in the foreground. Nice light and sky to work with. The overall look though, seems... diffused? I know there are a bunch of guys from the PNW that are all doing some sort of "glow" effect in their shots, I don't know if this is what you have done to it, but it "feels" similar.
I like the many layers in the second shot. As Erik mentioned, it keeps the eye moving around within the frame. Nice work.
Posted by Doug Koepsel on June 15, 2014 at 12:08 PM
In the first, I like the ripple coming from the lower left. My personal tastes would lead to less saturation, especially for the blue sky, but I remember you saying you like the bold colors in your images I too sense a cw tilt, and see that Stan has already mentioned it.
Of the two, the second is my favorite. It is much mellower and relaxing with the colors and soft curves. My only suggestion would be to crop maybe the top 10% to just above where the dune line of the top bigger dune reaches the left edge of the frame. I think the crop would eliminate the couple of darker areas and lines that pull the eye to the top edge and keep focus on the gentle middle. I like this one Kane.
Discussion
13 repliesWhat a great trip to the Sand Dunes this past weekend!
I have three kiddos, (two girls 14 & 12 and a boy 9) and all three invited a friend and we stayed in the best site in Pinyon Flats Campground, the completely shaded site 53. We stayed three days and had fantastic conditions. The kids played their hearts out on the sandy flats with Medano Creek flowing through their every move.
BTW, Medano Creek is peaking in flow thanks to heavy moisture over Memorial Weekend.
Every year we do this trip, every year my patient wife sees me leave at dinner time to shoot the dunes and get back after dark. I left two out of three nights because the conditions were ripe for photography. On day two I did a morning recon hike of all the dunes east of High Dune with the idea of shooting west into the sun. That night conditions set up well for that shot, shown here.
The following image will not rightfully convey the totality of the excellent conditions but I think its a good starter image of what I picked up on day one. Day two was even better. More to come.
Comments and Heavy Critique welcome
Tech stuff:
Canon 6D & 24mm tse
1/60 f14
ISO 800
Three image vertical shift stitch. Bottom image is an easy 2 image focus blend.
WB is 6000k
Hi Ken, my blue phase likely has something to do with my growing affection for cooler white balance vs the warmer scenes I've always loved. Funny thing is I'm thinking I shot #2 at about 5600k which we all know is a very natural kelvin.
Scott, I'll work on another scene with good lighting tonight. I have never shot the iconic view if the Dunes from the grocery store area. It's the vantage where Star Dune soars towards the Crestone summits. I think it's gonna look pretty good, it better...I hiked 2 miles from the road towards the Star Dune to compress the dunes summit just under the 14ers summits.
I like the many layers in the second shot. As Erik mentioned, it keeps the eye moving around within the frame. Nice work.
Of the two, the second is my favorite. It is much mellower and relaxing with the colors and soft curves. My only suggestion would be to crop maybe the top 10% to just above where the dune line of the top bigger dune reaches the left edge of the frame. I think the crop would eliminate the couple of darker areas and lines that pull the eye to the top edge and keep focus on the gentle middle. I like this one Kane.