Long Shadow
Jun, 2017Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo in early November 2013 at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Mosca, Colorado.Time
The photo was taken in late afternoon, around 4:20 pm local time.Lighting
The late afternoon lighting at the Great Sand Dunes causes dramatic shadows. It really lends itself nicely to black and white edits because they show the contrasting light so well.Equipment
For this photo, I used an old Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT I had with a kit lens. At this time, I didn't know much about photography, so I always kept the camera in Auto Mode. In this instance, I used auto mode with flash selected to be off. The photo was taken as a JPEG.Inspiration
I was taking vacation photos that day, I really liked the way light and shadow play on the sand dunes, especially in the late afternoon light. There were two hikers in the distance walking up the dunes that help to give the photo perspective of how large the landscape is.Editing
For this photo, I couldn't do much editing since it was taken as a JPEG, but I did convert it to black and white, did a little cropping, and enhanced it for greater contrast.In my camera bag
I normally carry a Nikon D750 with three different lenses in order to be prepared for different situations, but on this trip, I only had an old Canon EOS Rebel XT, my first interchangeable lens camera, which I never bought a different lens for other than the kit lens it came with.Feedback
Getting to an interesting location and "seeing" your shot is important. I liked how the light contrasted between light and dark in this scene and I composed it to show that contrast. The gear isn't as important, but I have learned as I've grown my photography skills that it is very important to shoot in RAW if your camera is capable. It will allow for much greater flexibility of editing after you get home from your vacation and begin reviewing your photos. I had many photos on this trip that I could have saved if I had captured them in RAW, but because I did not have enough experience and knowledge to do that, I saved them all in JPEG. The result was many photos that couldn't be "rescued" due to the loss of data in the JPEG format.
