Byron O'Neal
West Mitten in Monument Valley
I have this love/hate relationship with sand dunes. I really detest sand. No not just sand in my shoes, I can’t stand it anywhere on me. This has not gotten better since moving to Florida. My son comes home everyday with half the Sahara in his shoes and proceeds to take his socks and shoes off on the couch. Yuck. However, I absolutely love images of sand. Sand dunes are one of my favorite photographic subjects. They are nature as a sculpture and have the ability to erase the footprints of mankind as if to say “You may pass this way chum, but I’ll be here forever.” So what can I say, I’m a complicated guy.
This image of the West Mitten in Monument Valley should be recognizable to most of you. We arrived before sunset to catch the lengthening shadows across the dunes to use as a foreground. What you may not have seen (and I sure didn’t) was the sign that said no trespassing. It actually goes something like “Warning: Trespassing is not allowed. Travel off main loop road by vehicle or foot to enter areas such as sand dunes, mesas, buttes residences and other restricted areas is not allowed and considered TRESPASSING.” Yep, it was in caps. Oops. I really wish I could claim total ignorance here. No, I didn’t see the sign prior to heading out but perhaps someone else might have seen it even if they didn’t get a chance to read it. Those who know me well know exactly where this is going. The conversation went something like:
Barbie: “Hey, did you see that sign back there?” me: “What did it say?” Barbie: “I’m not sure.” me: “Don’t tell me. I can claim ignorance and I’m not going back to look.”
Hey, nobody’s perfect and tell me you’ve never broken the speed limit. Anyway, covered with my righteous armor of benightedness I set out to find a good spot. Honestly, nowhere looked bad. This is a rarity man. Still, my advice when shooting in sand dunes is to shoot a lot. Surprisingly, usually where I shoot first often ends up being the better image too. Being me, I always keep looking for that special scene so I understand if you ignore my advice and slog across miles of dunes in search of that special something. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. In this case, the better composition for me had the nice leading lines of the dunes broken up by a little native shrubbery. That way out there spot had no vegetation and although it looked awesome from afar, it just didn’t have enough of a visual anchor to it when I looked at the grouping in Lightroom.
When you process images from the Four Corners area, you might want to set your white balance at 4600. I never bother with setting it in camera but if you are a chimper, you might be happier setting it prior to shooting. I just do it in post. Definitely set it prior if you aren’t shooting in RAW. By the way, why aren’t you shooting in RAW? While we were in Antelope Canyon, our Navajo guide suggested this setting. Trust them. These cats know more about cameras than the Canon/Nikon developers do. Their knowledge of gear is astounding, just don’t ask them post production related questions.
One other suggestion. Get in a habit of shooting the sky while you are out. Try to maintain specific settings on your camera that you return to all the time. For me, it is ISO 200 at f/11 in Aperture Priority Mode. This gives you a good baseline without having to deal with much noise every time you pick up the camera. The sky was a nice shade of blue on this particular day but lacked any cloud cover. I went forward and backward a few days until I found a decent replacement option from the sky shots I had accumulated. The time of day was easy enough to replicate and by keeping those settings in place it was easy to blend in the more interesting image without lots of annoying variability between them. It’s blended in at about forty percent opacity, not too much to look unnatural or fake. Sky meld I call it and no I don’t feel at all bad about it. I’m over the real or not real debate. I’m not a journalist and am open and honest about my process. I certainly understand and respect the purist mentality but for me it isn’t necessary to completely conform to reality. As long as everyone stays honest, I’m fine with whatever someone’s interpretation is.
Peace.
Byron O'Neal Photography | Facebook | Blog | Google+ | Field Workshops
West Mitten in Monument Valley
I have this love/hate relationship with sand dunes. I really detest sand. No not just sand in my shoes, I can’t stand it anywhere on me. This has not gotten better since moving to Florida. My son comes home everyday with half the Sahara in his shoes and proceeds to take his socks and shoes off on the couch. Yuck. However, I absolutely love images of sand. Sand dunes are one of my favorite photographic subjects. They are nature as a sculpture and have the ability to erase the footprints of mankind as if to say “You may pass this way chum, but I’ll be here forever.” So what can I say, I’m a complicated guy.
This image of the West Mitten in Monument Valley should be recognizable to most of you. We arrived before sunset to catch the lengthening shadows across the dunes to use as a foreground. What you may not have seen (and I sure didn’t) was the sign that said no trespassing. It actually goes something like “Warning: Trespassing is not allowed. Travel off main loop road by vehicle or foot to enter areas such as sand dunes, mesas, buttes residences and other restricted areas is not allowed and considered TRESPASSING.” Yep, it was in caps. Oops. I really wish I could claim total ignorance here. No, I didn’t see the sign prior to heading out but perhaps someone else might have seen it even if they didn’t get a chance to read it. Those who know me well know exactly where this is going. The conversation went something like:
Barbie: “Hey, did you see that sign back there?” me: “What did it say?” Barbie: “I’m not sure.” me: “Don’t tell me. I can claim ignorance and I’m not going back to look.”
Hey, nobody’s perfect and tell me you’ve never broken the speed limit. Anyway, covered with my righteous armor of benightedness I set out to find a good spot. Honestly, nowhere looked bad. This is a rarity man. Still, my advice when shooting in sand dunes is to shoot a lot. Surprisingly, usually where I shoot first often ends up being the better image too. Being me, I always keep looking for that special scene so I understand if you ignore my advice and slog across miles of dunes in search of that special something. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. In this case, the better composition for me had the nice leading lines of the dunes broken up by a little native shrubbery. That way out there spot had no vegetation and although it looked awesome from afar, it just didn’t have enough of a visual anchor to it when I looked at the grouping in Lightroom.
When you process images from the Four Corners area, you might want to set your white balance at 4600. I never bother with setting it in camera but if you are a chimper, you might be happier setting it prior to shooting. I just do it in post. Definitely set it prior if you aren’t shooting in RAW. By the way, why aren’t you shooting in RAW? While we were in Antelope Canyon, our Navajo guide suggested this setting. Trust them. These cats know more about cameras than the Canon/Nikon developers do. Their knowledge of gear is astounding, just don’t ask them post production related questions.
One other suggestion. Get in a habit of shooting the sky while you are out. Try to maintain specific settings on your camera that you return to all the time. For me, it is ISO 200 at f/11 in Aperture Priority Mode. This gives you a good baseline without having to deal with much noise every time you pick up the camera. The sky was a nice shade of blue on this particular day but lacked any cloud cover. I went forward and backward a few days until I found a decent replacement option from the sky shots I had accumulated. The time of day was easy enough to replicate and by keeping those settings in place it was easy to blend in the more interesting image without lots of annoying variability between them. It’s blended in at about forty percent opacity, not too much to look unnatural or fake. Sky meld I call it and no I don’t feel at all bad about it. I’m over the real or not real debate. I’m not a journalist and am open and honest about my process. I certainly understand and respect the purist mentality but for me it isn’t necessary to completely conform to reality. As long as everyone stays honest, I’m fine with whatever someone’s interpretation is.
Peace.
Byron O'Neal Photography | Facebook | Blog | Google+ | Field Workshops