Blessed with clear skies and tender daylight, photographer Michael Shainblum visited Loss of life Valley Nationwide Park the place he captured the fascinating sand dunes from early dawn into the night.
Throughout spring of 2021, Shainblum visited the Loss of life Valley Nationwide Park that straddles the California–Nevada border. On the time, the sunshine situations introduced him harsh daylight and distinction — a exact opposite to the newest go to throughout the early hours of a softly-lit dawn and equally as tender night gentle, utilizing the identical Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 lens.
Gentle Morning Daylight
The primary location had significantly interesting pastel colours because the dunes mirrored the pre-sunrise gentle, leaving shadows with a slight purple hue. In post-processing, Shainblum added some distinction and used dodging and burning to carry out a wide range of colours — a mixture of hotter and cooler tones.
Extremely-Vast Panorama
Because the solar made its approach up within the sky, Shainblum patiently waited for it to hit simply the suitable spot. Though he doesn’t normally do lengthy horizontal panoramas, on this case, he opted to sew 4 horizontal photographs to make a really broad perspective of the dunes, illuminated by direct however nonetheless pretty tender daylight.
Summary Patterns and Shapes within the Sand
In anticipation of sundown later within the day, Shainblum began searching for shapes and patterns that may be discovered within the sand — a theme his telephoto lens is nicely suited to capturing because of its compression.
One in every of Shainblum’s favourite photographs from the journey was of a rolling dune that dips within the center creating an optical phantasm of a mirrored or cut up picture, additional emphasised by the sq. crop.
Dramatic Edge Gentle at Sundown
Proper earlier than the solar dipped on the horizon, Shainblum caught the sunshine flare got here on the scene and illuminated a criss-cross of dune shapes. Not solely did the flare soften the photograph but in addition gave a pure gradient that goes from the highest of the picture in direction of the underside.
Utilizing the identical location however by merely adjusting the angle of view away from the sundown, Shainblum captured a close-up of the dunes because the night gentle created a delicate transition from gentle to darkish.
For Shainblum, sand dune is a location that all the time has one thing new and intriguing to supply irrespective of what number of occasions he visits it. Whether or not the sunshine is harsh or tender, the panorama presents potential for broad compositions in addition to close-ups stuffed with patterns and distinctive sand formations.
Extra of Shainblum’s work could be discovered on his web site, Instagram, and YouTube Channel.
Picture credit: Pictures by Michael Shainblum.
