Empty, a photo from New Mexico, West

Photographer's Note

White gypsum sands in southern New Mexico. All colour is removed from everything below the sky. I will post the original full colour version to WS. Happy 4th of July to 'merkins, and enjoy the expected frenzy of nationalistic masturbation. About White Sands:

Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico.

Here, great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and have created the world's largest gypsum dune field. The brilliant white dunes are ever changing: growing, cresting, then slumping, but always advancing. Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path. Within the extremely harsh environment of the dune field, even plants and animals adapted to desert conditions struggle to survive. Only a few species of plants grow rapidly enough to survive burial by moving dunes, but several types of small animals have evolved a white coloration that camouflages them in the gypsum sand.

White Sands National Monument preserves a major portion of this gypsum dune field, along with the plants and animals that have successfully adapted to this constantly changing environment.

Albrecht, Vagabond, Paolo, huynt, with_cheese_plz, AmiBe, Tue, leonorkuhn, jpages, maphoto, sayzey, sarju, skeelerik, Roly, rajhema, carper, jafadabret has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Albrecht (11283) 2005-07-04 10:31

Hi Tan
Great shot with two colours and real amptiness indeed. Great contrast. Well captured, greetings Albrecht

Luan (12971) 2005-07-04 10:32

Waht a strange landscape, it is the first time I saw white sandunes...splendid...this picture is beautiful, thanks to have share it with us.
Well done
Luan

Vagabond (5848) 2005-07-04 10:32

Fantastic view in terms of composition, colours and definition. Congratulations ..

Paolo (41258) 2005-07-04 10:35

White Sands...it is a place that i want visit from many years. i saw it the first time on the omonymous movie with William Dafoe!
excellent image, with all that "waves" made by the wind on the gypsum that are fantastic.
the contrast between the blue sky and the white dunes is really amazing.
thanks Tan.
ciao.

namaste_oti (705) 2005-07-04 10:35

Very nice compo.
This white sand is very strange, and we can see a nice graphical scene in foreground.
Olivier

Galmeida (12559) 2005-07-04 11:01

Hello Tan,
I allways like your pictures and world sceneries that you voyage and travel. Allways also your excelent guidelines and introductory notes. This a great capture of a nature artwork with their composing elements. You capture by your experience, great creativity and originality very well landscapes that I like also.

Perfect, Fantastic Composition, quality picture and a great graphic result by nature and YOUR Vision!

Excelent!
Fernando

CliffW (2381) 2005-07-04 11:18

Wow, very nice Tan. Very much about textures with this shot, isn't it? For that reason, I think desaturating the ground was a very good call. It came out well.

huynt (5081) 2005-07-04 11:19

Hi Tan
Wonderful White gypsum sands. A great shot. well composition. thanks

coco (30439) 2005-07-04 11:51

Hi Tan.
More espectacular than the other. Is magnific, is a strange and wonderful place.
I love this one.

with_cheese_plz (166) 2005-07-04 12:34

what a fantastic shot and nice work on the color of this picture!

Nina (5099) 2005-07-04 12:51

White sands! This must have been tricky to expose properly, but you succeded. Thanks for the interesting note too. For some reason I prefer the original you posted in the WS, it looks more natural to me. Good work Tan!

toni_al (15875) 2005-07-04 13:39

Salut Tan
C'est vraiment vide, le cadrage est superbe blanc avec cette bande très bleu, on dire presque du sel
Nice shot
Toni

fixed (3836) 2005-07-04 14:18

Hi Tan,
nice white & blue ;) !!
i like the contast ...
Strange place !!
Thank you
Arnaud

ndb1958 (9289) 2005-07-04 14:26

Great composition ... beautiful picture. Nino

AmiBe (6042) 2005-07-04 14:46

Hi Tan,
I'm not a martian, but I never heard spoken about this place...
Incredible place, but I prefer the color version (maybe because I don't know how it is in reality).
I tried a WS to reduce blue effect on the color version, but I don't know if it's good.

[workshop] [compare]

Tue (91574) 2005-07-04 15:47

Hi Tan,
This great landscape looks very special to someone like me from the Dutch polders. Beautiful shapes. Wonderfully done!
Groetjes,
Lars

jeanfrancois (1260) 2005-07-04 15:48

Fab landscape. this is a great view. I want to be there and run down the dune.
Thks !

tontonjc (6623) 2005-07-04 15:58

Splendide image et les couleurs sont superbes ... le cadrage est magnifique .

Bravo

leonorkuhn (16237) 2005-07-04 19:35

Hi Tan,
Very impressive composition. I don't know why, but I remembered sands of Egypt. Good POV, contrast and colors. Well done.
Leonor

jpages (1670) 2005-07-04 20:37

Hi Tan,
I like both photos, maybe the one in color, a little more, the brown touch of the sand and plants, does not bother me. This one, with only the white sand, seems the surface of a very far unknown planet!
I specially appreciate the hard light you had there, but you did the shot controlling it very well. In this conditions it is not easy to take good photos, but you did it.
The blue sky is a perfect contrast with the white sand dunes.
Great shot!
Best regards
Jaume

maphoto (8082) 2005-07-04 21:42

Very nice image Tan, most of the time we need a subject to make the photo even more interesting, but here I think it's not necessary, it is quite beautiful like this. Great contrast and colors, I prefer this one over the one in the workshop, the workshop done by Amibe is also interesting, very beautiful presentation, thanks for sharing.

nerve (10231) 2005-07-05 5:19

Selam Captain,
i think you made a very good decision by removing that bluish colour cast on the sands.. its much better like this imo..
very minimalistic, very Zen-y feeling here.. composition and colours are just gorgeous too..
Great image overall..
cheers

sayzey (2358) 2005-07-05 8:51

Well done Tan, but firstly not on the photo, firstly congratulations for coining another phrase that made me laugh.
"Happy 4th of July to 'merkins, and enjoy the expected frenzy of nationalistic masturbation."

Just brilliant!!

And now onto the photo unique sand indeed, much nicer than the sand in the UK, which is mostly incrusted with broken glass and rubbish! But then again we dnt have deserts here!

Beautiful photo with a very pleasing ripple effect!

sergecross (3438) 2005-07-05 10:51

Hi Tan:
Veru nice picture. I think that the contrast is too high, but i like the name and the theme. The sky looks very natural and the focus is clear. Well Done!
Sergio

betogrein (2232) 2005-07-05 11:55

Excelente foto, bela composição e contraste da areia com o céu. Parabéns...

sarju (5324) 2005-07-05 13:05

This is definitely one of those photos that goes to my favourites colletion ... very unusual landscape and brilliant contrast
cheers ... sarju

skeelerik (763) 2005-07-05 16:08

Hi Tan,
How emptiness can be beautifull. The lines and shadows form an extreme artistic picture. The blue sky and white sand are very strong counterpoles. 10 points! CU, Erik

poulinp (4528) 2005-07-05 20:33

Hi Tan. Indeed, I think you should have not remove all the color in the sand. I think your fist post-processing step was the best, but this one is nice too. An impressive place.

Roly (2024) 2005-07-05 20:34

Quite a beauty, both the image and the landscape. I love the fine pattern of the dune in the foreground and the color contrast is great.

rajhema (1873) 2005-07-07 19:22

Fantastic formation. What a natural wonder you have captured. You are very artistic!

carper (96) 2005-07-10 12:45

this one I had miss also, Tan,
the contrast between the sky is fantastic, good point of view, very nice shot, I like it,
great job,
gr. Jaap

mumek (20226) 2005-07-29 15:38

Good afternoon Tan!
The colours of the sand are wonderful. Beautiful view at the sea of the sand. Good contrast between the blue sky and another parts of the picture. Thanks for the note
regards
ziggy

jramos (507) 2005-10-04 20:53

I like the lack of color in the sand dunes -- it gives an impression of emptinessl the untouched grooves in the sand give the photograph an sense of fragility. The scene feels cool yet dry.

The blue sky looks out of place in contrast with the landscape, however, I think that makes this a very interesting photograph (it looks unreal).

tsangclare (130) 2006-01-18 14:20

I love the composition of the photo! I didn't know anything about this place and your photo and your notes have definitely taught me through a lot about the photo! Superb!

jafadabret (56501) 2006-01-30 3:48

Tan, ces dunes sont superbes et tu as eu les mêmes difficultés qu'avec la neige pour rendre ces grandes surfaces blanches. J'aime les ligne en courbes des crêtes mais ce qui est le plus beau c'est ces vaguelettes de la dune du premier plan sculptées par le vent.

elmec (12210) 2006-03-12 12:36

Helo Tan!
It's simply and beutifu!
Great composed and very nice colours!
Great done!
Best greetings!