Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments! I'm so thrilled to have won another ribbon. Each one is as exciting as the first. Thanks again to everyone!
My husband and I went to the Sand Dunes on Sunday, I was hoping to find a picture for the Beach Challenge. Usually, there is a shallow river that runs through the dunes which makes it just like a beach and people do all the same things they do at an ocean beach - build sand castles, play volleyball, sun themselves, etc. Well, the river was all dried up and the sand was hot and hard to walk in. We slogged through miles of it until I was so tired I could barely move.
Some big, dark thunderstorms built up and made for some dramatic lighting. I was hoping to maybe catch some lightning but just got some interesting sun rays. I really like how this turned out - it's kind of dark but I love how the light looks. You can really see the lines of the rays; also, the lines of the dunes where the light is hitting them.
Editing:Crop; Adjustment layers at 67% for levels, curves, saturation and contrast. I worked a lot with curves - since I'm not really sure how it works I pull the line around a lot and then start over a lot when it gets yucky looking. After flattening: Noise Removal with Helicon Filter; resize, smart sharpen and save for web.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 447 Avg (all users): 7.1355 Avg (commenters): 9.0000 Avg (participants): 7.0094 Avg (non-participants): 7.2593 Views since voting: 10678 Views during voting: 313 Votes: 214 Comments: 57 Favorites: 34 (view)
Sammie,
Great shot. Wonderful balance in tones. Very bold, mystic, I love the light, very expressive. Very exceptional work. Keep shooting, we want to see more. Congradulations on winning, well deserved.
Byron Gates, Jr.
Great example of being in the right place at the right time.
Times like this, one could just sit and admire and forget one has a camera in their hand! Well done and congrats.
Sammie - I am thrilled for you. You make magic with your photos of the dunes. I am always so impressed with them and each time you use the dunes as your subject, the results are spectacular. Awesome!!!
I have to say...WOW...Heaven, Earth...and it also looks like an underwater image too, like how water filters the sun's rays...I love how this image just undulates and moves...so beautiful.
amazing, 10. It feels like the sand is underwater with the light shining from under the sea. My only critique would be to have a larger file size. The max is 150 kb and yours is 91 kb. This would have the edges even smother as some highlights on the hills are alittle bit jagged, very little bit :). Here is a link to the photoshop tutorial for preparing images for submission. I hope it helps this si simply stunning.
Heaven and Earth
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