Taken in Sossusvlei in Namibia in August 2012. Water remained in the actual Sossusvlei Pan despite that it was the height of the dry season. The winds had been very stong from the northeast for a few days so the thought was that the flamingo had been blown off course on its way to the coast.
Canon 7D
70-200 II @ 85mm
1/320
f7.1
ISO 100
HH, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, Hougaard Malan action and sharpened in CS5.
Hi Rachel,
A wonderful experience you had with water in the Sossusvlei, which was well captured. The light appears harsh, so you managed well and it would have been so nice to have captured this image with the setting sun. It has been too long since my last visit so your image brings back some wonderful memories with my wife and my first son at my last visit.
TFS and best wishes,
Mark.
If you don't stop and really study this image, you might miss all of the elements. Love the way the wind is moving the sand off of the dunes and the subtle layers in the water. If it were mine, I would crop from the bottom and left. I don't find the tree on the left is adding anything to the image and find it stronger when it's a big tighter.
I agree cropping from the bottom is good, for me almost up to the the Yellow layer of water. Sort of puts the bird in the LR third also. The LH tree does not bother me so much and I would be happy to leave it...I think it balances with the RHS. Love the Sand blowing of the hill and the solitary bird.
Hi Rachel, you got this very well. I remember the harsh light, not easy to manage. You did it ver well. I love the Flamingo in the water. I heard very rare to get this with the Flamingo. I had the luck that a Flamingo was there too
Love the wind on top of the dune blowing the sand. I might would get a bit shadow out of the right hand side tree and maybe would have added a tad more space over the dune. But over all I like it as it is.
But is always different when being on the spot, we see lots and forget this and that
This is quite a sight...good job in including the blowing sand and the flamingo.
I know you probably wanted to show the "amount" of water, but I support Marina's crop suggestion.
Harsh desert light well handled.
Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. Morkel, you know my thought process too well. I did want to show the amount of water. I have others that are framed with the suggested crop.
I agree with Marina. The blowing sand is the treat and deserves to be more prominent. And the flamingo too, it took me a while to notice it. I would like it more with 1/3 cropped off the left and 1/4 off the bottom.
W/o looking at any other comments I would recommend cropping out much of the water. I would say taking the distance of the bird to shore, multiply that by four and crop that amount below it.
Horizontally, I would have panned right to remove the intrusion of the green bush on left and better place the larger tree on right further from the right edge.
The sand drifting off the top of the dune is perfect and I like the small bushes in the sand providing visual interest in the middle ground.
It is indeed an amazing site to see this section flooded........Amazing that the barren dead vlei is only a few short KM away , bone dry with no trace of water :) Great suggestions
Sossusvlei with Water
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