Gharagab Sunrise

[Morkel Erasmus]

During our recent trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park we were privileged to stay in a quaint wilderness camp called "Gharagab". The camp basically consists of 4 rustic chalets atop a dune overlooking an endless vista of dunes and Kalahari landscape (with a waterhole in front of the chalets to make sure you get a chance at some close wildlife encounters).

The camp has no fences, so I was able to walk around a bit during sunrise and sunset, albeit carefully as we had roaring lions close by one morning.

I wished for some cloud cover but that is a thing of rarity in the winter in this semi-desert landscape.

Techs:
Canon 7D with 10-22mm USM @ 12mm
f16 @ ISO-125
Circular Polariser

3 exposures blended using Luminosity Masks

I couldn't save at a high quality level here due to all the fine details. :(

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Morkel,
In this case, I don't mind the central sun placement....everything is funneling my eyes towards it.....I do think this would make a much stronger pano....all crop from the bottom...say about an inch below the grassy hill line on the right (browser crop to see). In many instances like this.....I think pano......so you may want to try the same thing with a stitch of 2 or 3 horizontals.....for more pixels......but I've never been afraid of the crop tool:D. I think you handled the blend very nicely also! Just some food for thought next time out and it sounds like quite the place to visit!

[Dave Mills]

Hi Morkel, good job with the blend of exposures. After applying the suggested pano crop I feel it definately helps the image. There isn't much in the immediate foreground to hold interest so nothing much is being given up.
The pano crop also has a way of accentuating the nicely lit grasses.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the constructive feedback as always Dave and Roman...

did you mean this kind of crop? (I actually did take a few vertical panos this morning but haven't gotten round to stitching them yet :))

[Dave Mills]

Hi Morkel, thats close enough. Looks better IMO.

[Arthur Morris]

Mork-man, You did a good job--as noted above--of blending the exposures. The sun in the center bugs me. The scene for me is less than inspiring though I do like the starburst. It might have been stronger at f/22.

[Mark Dumbleton]

I prefer the pano crop here as there is no interest for me on the bottome section of the image. I would even crop more from the bottom on the repost. Not much more but a little.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Morkel,
What Mark said...about 1/2 the space on right hill......Will be interesting to see the stitch as a comparison!

[Fabs Forns]

Repost as pan looks better to me, i felt too much blah foreground was on the first one. Sun to either side would have been stronger.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the feedback everyone...will recrop from the original large size and see how it turns out...