Shooting the Shooter - Dunes Edition

Ann and I spent a couple of hours at the Ibex Dunes.  As I said in my post of the trip, I had a blast.  Ann had less of one given that it was harder for her to avoid the footprints that tracked throughout the dunes than it was for me because of her wider, landscape approach to image making.  So she continued to photograph anyway and wound up doing what she often does, which is to start including me in her landscape photographs.  Which always leads to the inevitable shooting the shooter question - what in the world was Dan making a photograph of?

Ann’s image was taken fairly late in our photography session, as the color of the light started to change as the sun settled towards the horizon.  Everything on the ground was starting to take on that golden glow, which made the perfect contrast for the still blue skies.  Plus the setting sun resulted in elongated shadows which not only gives some texture to the landscape, but forms a lovely sweeping form that points to the subject of the image - the old guy standing by the tripod on the right hand side of the frame.  That same low-sun helps accentuate the textures of the sand (to include the footsteps) on the dunes. 

Some of the footsteps are mine, but others were there when we arrived so it’s not all my fault.

Ann’s image was made looking towards the south-east.  My image, was made looking northward, which exaggerated not only the color of the light, but the effects of the shadows.  There is not much more I can say than that the image is the result of trying to capture in a photograph, the visual excitement I felt when seeing the complex forms and tones created by the interplay of light and the sand dunes.  When I get like that it simply becomes a question of trying to frame an image in a manner that seems “right”.  In this case, it was finding a tenuous balance between dynamic energy and stillness, within the same frame. 

And, in case you were wondering, no I did not manage to avoid footprints in my image.  Along the ridgeline of the foreground dune, you can see tracks on the right as they lead down into the shadows to the center and left.  I tried, but could not find a satisfying composition that avoided the footprints.