Dunes and deserts

It's an example of a great photo where everything just falls into place. Look at those weird trees in the foreground, the fight between sun and shadow, yellow sand and blue sky. To me a great picture is actually the one that makes you think, wonder and has a certain mood in itself. This photograph leaves me with a feeling of uncertainty, loneliness, weirdness. Now I want to know where the place is, how to get there etc. I want to explore the location further and would like to know the story behind it – and that's the first sign of an amazing image. Plus I cannot stress enough how important simplicity is – and we can see it here in its fullest glory.

I like the general "flow" of this image, its complex texture. There is this caravan in the distance moving which makes us see how small we are as creatures in comparison to the mighty natural surroundings. I would love to see this picture printed huge – then it would really look impressive. I think it could benefit from a little desaturation in yellows plus a haze filter on the lens when the photo was taken – it would eliminate that bluish haze that you can see on the upper dunes.

When somebody mentions a desert you don't necessarily think of a night in a desert and this photo stood out exactly because of this – the night time in a desert. The night mood of a desert was amazingly captured by the artist here and the whole photo looks so much different from the rest of the photos which is great and means that the author has a unique vision. The only thing I would suggest doing for other night photos like this – I would be more careful with the artificial light that the author used here to light the cactus – it also made some light spots in the foreground and to the left of the plant and the picture would look even better without those little distractions.

What I think is really important in photography is simplicity. Looking at this picture I can't help but think how simple and beautiful it is. The colours are really soft and we have a gradient here varying from yellow at the bottom to blue at the top. You can also notice a car there in the distance which adds to the story. Maybe somebody is camping out in the desert and they are watching the sunset – who knows. An endless desert and some kind of a lonely feeling here.

While I'm not a huge fan of a totally black sky, I kept coming back to this photograph because of the geometry and contrasts going on here. A very important part of any desert is its dunes, and dunes are all about geometry that constantly changes and never stays the same. This subtle but constant change was captured here by those contrasts that we see in the sand and the sky. The composition is definitely strange but I would give it a go anyway because in general this image works.

Great shapes and textures here. Something that you wouldn't otherwise notice in a desert. It's so important when a photographer looks for different things and finds them in the most regular objects. This photo still keeps me wondering what kind of shape this dune had and what it looked like in a real life because I can't tell it from this picture. And it is great – because every single photo should have a certain little secret in it. Oh, and it also looks like a flag of a country, doesn't it?

Why I chose this photo? Because it's different and stands out. Two jeeps going on an amazing adventure among endless and most importantly – huge desert dunes. Usually it is very hard to reflect true dimensions such as height on photos. But here the artist obviously succeeded in conveying the height of this dune. You can even feel it – the speed, the height, everything. I also like how this photo was cropped – the composition leads us from the nearest jeep to the furthest one and back.

I like that this isn't just another photo of a desert or dunes – the artist went deeper and explored the topic further. When you think about a certain theme try not to think about things that are on the surface only – think about something that lies beneath and isn't open to your eyes. In addition to a great photo of a desert canyon the artist skillfully captured movement and that's exactly what sets this photo apart. It makes you feel present there at that exact moment in time.

The author did a great job showing us depth here. In many photos it is of a huge importance to show the foreground and the background – that way the picture starts looking deep and three dimensional. In addition to that the photographer did an amazing job capturing the moment of time and the mood of a sunset – the sun beams are just superb! However the composition itself and the placement of the lady are questionable – I would play around with that until a perfect frame is found.

The idea by itself is great here and you can instantly feel the mood. You don't need to see sand or dunes here to feel the spirit of a desert. Those shadows of a man and a camel are more than enough to let us know that the pictured event is taking place somewhere in a desert. The movement is also perfectly captured here by the author – the only thing that kept me from choosing this photo was the technical aspect and the general quality of this picture. It looks pretty grainy with lots of colour noise in the darks which wouldn't look so good when printed. Regardless of that the image is great.

Now this picture confused me in the beginning and I'm still confused by it – in a good sense. I keep coming back to it – something in this picture attracts me and it's hard for me to say exactly what it is. It looks like a quick snap but when you look at it you realize that it's absolutely surreal. That stunning texture of sand, those footprints of a barefoot guy who is walking away – and we can only see his shadow. There's such a depth to this picture – it could have been taken by some well known photographer even. And there's also a trail of some kind of animal or insect on the sand too if you haven't noticed.

What I like here is this photo's simplicity and really soft and natural colours. In the era of computers and Photoshop you tend to appreciate that "natural" look of photos. You don't want to see how skillful the author is in his ability to alter a photo but rather you would like to see how a certain photographer sees and what he sees – in its natural and unaltered beauty. Without that person standing there on top of a dune it would have been a different and not so great photo. But thanks to that little addition of a person in the distance you can feel his or her loneliness, how far he or she may be from civilisation...

I'm not even sure if this was taken in a desert but this sand does its work and conveys a "desert like" mood. I like how you can't see people's faces and how it is captured from the bottom. Who are those people and where are they going? What is this beautiful thing in front of them – is this some kind of wedding or what? And honestly I don't want to know the answer – I like mysteries in photos like this.