Sand Dunes in the Empty Quarter IV

[David Steele]

Have just returned from the United Arab Emirates section of the Empty Quarter and this is one of my favourite images of the weekend.

Camera: Canon 1Ds Mk II.
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 L @ 125mm.
1/160 sec, f/16, ISO 100, mirror lock-up enabled.
.

[David Kennedy]

David,
The textures in this image are incredible! I might consider cropping out the sky and make it a story just about texture in the dunes. Maybe something along the lines of this:

[David Kennedy]

And the color difference between my suggestion and your original is not intentional--I think I mixed something up in my color management workflow!!!

[David Steele]

Thanks for your comments David. I had time to work this area and have got plenty of abstracts. Will post some soon.

[Robert Amoruso]

David,

David K's suggestion provides a nice interpretation of this scene. I like the sky's inclusion and would just crop a bit off so it is not so prominent.

The colors and lines int he sand are wonderful. Nicely scene.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi All,
I think the amount of sky may be OK...........just darkened a bit on it's own to make it a little darker. Maybe a little noise reduction/blurring in it also? I think I would like overall composition as is if sky was a little darker.
Roman

[David Steele]

Roman, I agree with you about the sky. I think it could be darker and I should have let Noise Ninja breathe on it (shooting in the desert is **** as far as sensor dust is concerned and I may not have noticed one or two specks). A bit more could also have been cropped off the top. David, I've had a look and this new abstract image was the one taken immediately after the landscape. . . . (Hey I've just seen BPN automatically censoring my copy! For the record, that wasn't a bad word I used. Just the opposite of 'heaven'.)

[Harold Davis]

sweet job on both images, david. love the textures!!

[Douglas Bolt]

Hi David,

Love it. Makes me want to go to Namibia even more.

Another crop that appeals to me is to leave the sky as is, but crop from the bottom so the bottom of the image stops to make a V with the dark sand to the left and the light sand on the right.

[David Steele]

Douglas this is very much like the sand dunes of the Namib but you don't get all the different colours there. However, this image was taken in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. I guess there must be endless variations of this shot.

[David Kennedy]

David,
That second image you posted is absolutely smokin'!!!

[John Cooper]

Hi David - some really stunning reposts here - Just makes me wish I had taken you up on the offer to join you on that trip!!!!! :(:(