The Desert

This is a fabulous photo in many ways.

First of all, when I think of a desert, this is pretty much the exact type of image that comes to mind. Sunny, lots of sand dunes soaking up the sun, and maybe some camels. So that part of it alone made me really like this image.

I love that you used the edge of the sand dune as a leading line into the rest of the image as you pointed out in your story behind the image. It has so many twists and turns and slightly moves upwards, perfectly leading to the camels, sun, and all of the other main things in the image.

The sun is very bright and makes this photo have a bit of mystery and wonder to it as in that whole area, you can't exactly see properly due to all of the light. There's something really fascinating about the effect that this created for the image.

I also love that the camels are all walking towards the sun because it makes everything fit together even better. The sun is a powerful part of the image, and it even seems like the camels know that, also like you pointed out in your story.

Looking at this photo more now as I review it, I realize that it reminds me of a typical art depiction of the Three Wise Men (magi) following the star towards Jesus. The only main difference is that this photo is in the day. There are three camels, in a desert area, following a bright thing in the sky. Just add some riders on them and you'd be all set! :)

Back to the review, another thing that makes this image great is that it was shot around the golden hour time of the day. The sun is very bright but yet casts a softer light than it does earlier in the day which created a beautiful effect on the sand dunes with some parts shimmering, other parts in slight shadow.

Fabulous job on every aspect of this photo. It's a perfect desert image and was perfect to be first place!!!

This is a great photo contains the rule of thirds, minimalism, and lots of light.

Looking at this photo, I wouldn't ever know that it was taken in Death Valley! The tree looks full of life, and the dunes look sort of cool (temperature cool), and bright, but not that hot.

Using the rule of thirds for this image was an excellent choice. This is a perfect example of a minimalistic photograph and so by using the rule of thirds, it made it more interesting than if the tree was right in the middle.

Even though the dunes are bright everywhere throughout this image, there is a little bit of contrast between them which formed some faint lines and shapes throughout the image.

This is a very minimalistic image, that despite that, still requires the viewer to take a little bit to be able to see everything that is here.

This is a very interesting, minimalistic, black and white desert photo.

The sharpness is fabulous and allows you to see so much detail.

The striking contrast between the light and shadow across the sand dune is fabulous and highlights both sides of the dune very well.

By you making the photo black and white, it merged everything together, but it also made the contrasting elements pop even more. Great job on creating this effect!

This photo seems at first to be a normal desert scene, but taking a closer look, you notice the hang glider. Not a very common scene in a desert area. Maybe it's more common than I realize, but throughout this entire contest I don't believe I saw even one other photo of this. Another thing that is unique is that the camel rider is not just taking a ride through the desert, he/she is a photographer and was actually taking a picture (or several) of the hang glider and the people on it while you photographed them! So after looking at this photo for a bit, you realize that you really managed to capture a very cool and unique scene in this seemingly desolate area.

Congratulations on taking such a wonderful and incredible capture! It's definitely like nothing I've ever seen before for a desert shot.

What a gorgeous photograph this is. Every part of it is beautiful.

There are many different colors and shades throughout this image, but yet they all seem to blend together somehow. This created a peaceful atmosphere with how nothing pops out too much.

The sun has been placed at an angle towards the bottom of the photograph a bit, which was ideal as it draws your eyes towards the bottom of the photograph which is great because there is so much to look at with all of the dunes.

Congratulations on such a simplistic, peaceful, and beautiful photograph!!!

This is a very beautiful, smooth-textured photo with a cheerful atmosphere.

Just the uniqueness alone of this photo made it great with the white sand, all of those lanes/channels from the wind, and how open the entire landscape is. The whole landscape is still sort of a sand dune, but it's very open compared to a lot of desert photos where there are sand dunes, cacti, etc. all over the place.

I really like the brightness of the photo. Everything here looks pretty, so it definitely fit to have a (as I said earlier) cheerful atmosphere to go along with everything else.

The angle from which you took this photo at was a great choice because by there still being a slight uphill, all of the lines in the sand draw your eyes to look towards the horizon, making you notice everything here.

Well done on a great image!

This is a super pretty desert nighttime photo with some amazing elements.

The milky way of course is the best part of the image. It's so bright, beautiful, and very easy to see! It's hard to get milky way photos to be properly exposed I'm sure, and quite a few seem to be, resulting in a lot of the details being gone, but this one is exactly right which allows the viewer to see so many details of it!

The sand dunes are really pretty and have unique colors. They are a burnt umber color sort of. Not a color that you usually see in sand dunes, especially at night!

There is a lot of surprising shadow in this photo for it having been taken at night. This actually gives it the illusion for me that there is more here than there really is. Every spot where there is a shadow looks a bit like there is another sand dune there which makes this photo feel like it has more to it. Very cool for sure!

Well done on this very unique and beautiful desert nighttime photograph!

This photo has a sense of peacefulness with the water stretching to the horizon, the little sort of pathway leading to the water, and the holes in the sand along the path. It also has minimalism with it being photographed vertically, there only being a small amount of land visible, and also that the water is tucked into a very small portion of the photograph. It's a giant ocean/sea, but yet it's only visible in one little area which still gives it that nice minimalistic/peaceful feel.

Contrasting to its peacefulness and simplicity, there are a good amount of things still here. The land being a desert and connecting to an ocean/sea gives it contrast and shows that this was photographed in a unique area, there are a good amount of plants growing in this small area, and there is some light and shadow throughout it.

I also like the color throughout this image. I can't really tell if the color was natural or if you added it in editing but if you did, you probably turned the temperature up a bit or something. It sort of gave it a vintage feel and added to the peacefulness of it.

Well done on a simple, yet beautiful image!

What a beautiful, simple, but extraordinary photo this is!

Your use of taking this photo from a very low angle gave it a great minimalistic effect and lets the viewer take in each element a lot more such as the sun, sky, elephants, etc.

Elephants are such wonderful animals, and the fact that you captured this beautiful moment and connection between this elephant and its baby is wonderful. It's nice how they are silhouetted, but not completely. You can still see some detail which blends them in with the rest of the image, but also still lets you see them good enough at the same time.

The sun and sky couldn't be any more beautiful. African sunset photos like this one are always fabulous. All of the dust and sand particles that are constantly in the air in those desert areas over there must be what makes the sunsets so beautiful.

It's nice how this photo is minimalistic with how it has hardly any objects along the landscape but yet off in the distance there are some trees, evident of more life being around besides the elephants and bird.

Speaking of the bird, that somehow kind of adds the cherry on the cake for me. Lots of African plains pictures have little birds flying along the ground just ready to land like this one is here, and so that in a sense makes this image complete for me. It has all the elements it needs to be a typical, beautiful, African sunset image with some nice minimalism added in as well!

Congratulations on taking such a stunning photograph!

I wanted to make sure that at least one of my top ten photos had cacti in it since somehow none of the others did. This wound up being it and what makes it even better is that is has some things that most desert photos don't have.

First of all, I love the main cactus with how its many arms are all over the place and at different lengths. The cactus is definitely the subject and your use of the rule of thirds technique was a good choice because by having it to the side, it makes us look around the photo more, while also allowing us to view the mountains much easier. If the cactus was right in the center, it would definitely be in the way of the mountains and not let us take in the beautiful scenery as much.

One of the main unique things about this photo is the landscape. Desert landscapes are typically torrid, but this photo captured quite the opposite! The entire landscape is moist, and full of green plant life. The fact that it had snowed the day before as you wrote makes perfect sense for why it looked like this.

Another unique thing is the mountains. The only mountains you normally see in a desert are sand dunes, but the mountains here are normal, blue ones. Very cool!

Well done on your use of techniques, angling, timing, and overall composition!

Photos that have natural frames are always nice, but this one is a bit different. About half of the photo is the walls and doorway which incapsulates the view of the mountains and desert into one small area, forcing the viewer to try to take in as much as they can get out of the small viewing area. This also adds mystery to it in a way as you might wonder what else is around for the rest of the surrounding scenery? This is a bit different of a photo than the regular natural frame photo because it's actually a manmade frame, but one that was still photographed at the same time, not a frame added in in retouching. Another thing that's great is that the walls and doorway blend in fabulously with the mountains! Even though you can't see more of the mountains and scenery, it still feels like you are looking at a regular photo for a second.

Great job with your angling and framing!

This is a cool, almost minimalistic, sort of eerie photograph with a hint of vintage to it as well.

The woman is definitely the subject and she fits into the photograph well in many ways. Her dress, along with the mist throughout the photograph, gives it a vintage feel and the slight amount of noise adds to that too. The black color really pops in the photograph, but yet also blends her in because all of the colors in this photograph are pretty muted. Since she is looking on with a serious expression, it adds to the eeriness of this photo. Minimalistic, foggy photos like this one seem to usually have that feel.

I really like that there is a group of people off in the distance. It sort of adds to the mysteriousness of this photo. This photo is minimalistic, but by having one more thing in the photograph, it made it kind of in between. There is still a good amount of things to view here.

Last, the sand dune is nice because besides it making this photo fit the brief, there is also a lot to look at across it. Mainly because of all the footprints but also because of the way it twists and turns.

Well done on an awesome photo! I've never seen anything quite like it.

This is a great photo that captured a very rare location, from a unique angle.

Talk about contrast! You can't get much more of a location with two completely different elements than a place where a desert meets a big body of water, such as an ocean or the sea like here. Photographs of these unique locations are always fabulous to look at and the fact that you were able to capture it from an aerial view gives it another plus!

I love the bright colors here. The desert sand has a nice tan color to it, while the sea has a beautiful contrasting blue color along with some whites mixed in.

Another contrasting thing between the desert and sea is the textures they have. The desert is somewhat bumpy and rough with all of its dunes, whereas the sea is smooth throughout although there are lots of waves which somewhat breaks up that smoothness. Very interesting!

Another thing that's great here is the blurred horizon. As you look further and further into the landscape, it fades consistently until the horizon is just a faint line. This gives it a nice, misty atmosphere. Whether it really was misty or not, it made the picture look nice.

Fabulous job on such a cool and beautiful image!

This is a great, action packed, desert shot! I love that you caught the zebra completely still in the air with all of the dust around it. And then in the background there are more zebras and an elephant that adds to the intensity of the photograph. Besides that, the entire landscape and everything else is bathed in the golden hour sunlight which besides this photo just having lots of action, makes it beautiful as well!

Very well done on this fabulous photograph!

This is a fantastic image that has lots of unique and beautiful elements to it.

I love most of all the layers of mountains. They seem to never stop. As you look into the photograph, you see more, and more, and more! I have always loved these types of mountain photos where there are multiple layers of mountains and as you look into the distance they fade more and more and are all different color shades

Another great thing about this image is all of the shapes that are in it! The sand has lots of cool swirls in it, and the mountains have so many jagged edges and are in lots of different shapes. There is so much to look at here!

There isn't a lot of color in this photo and the colors that are here, are muted which makes the entire photo blend together and have consistent feelings throughout it such as waiting, gloominess, beauty, etc. It's very interesting! I have never seen a photo with this exact atmosphere before.

Congratulations on taking such a great image. Every aspect of it is fabulous.

This is a beautiful desert image with a very peaceful atmosphere to it.

The beautiful golden light that is constant throughout this image gives it a great effect and makes everything look a bit misty.

The contrast between light and shade is pretty subtle and there are only a few different things throughout which gives it a nice simplistic effect.

The girl is an interesting aspect of the image. A lot of times, a person is the subject in an image if they are fairly close to the camera, but here, she is way off in the distance and silhouetted. She isn't much bigger than the other two black things on the same dune. She blends into the image this way, but being silhouetted and black, still does pop - just a bit.

Reading that you only added basic adjustments to this photo was kind of surprising to read. This photo is so beautiful that I figured you would have had to do a lot of saturation, adding filters to it, etc. to give it the look and feel that it has. Very cool to know that it really was this gorgeous there!

It was interesting to read your back story on the image and the challenges you had to face with how you had to search for a spot with hardly any people, take the photo at the right time, and also, try to photograph a scene of the area that hasn't been photographed by many before. This area isn't familiar with me, so no matter where you would have photographed it, it still would have looked great to me!

Congratulations on overcoming those challenges and getting such a great shot!