Desert Scapes

Our camera club had this assignment about shooting desert scapes , so i thought it would be a good occasion to talk a lil about that . Its a pretty tricky area this desert scape or scenery thing in general , cause :

a) Just like still life , its really hard to compose and put a sense of life in .
b) Its been done over and over , so topping whats been done is hard .
c) U find urself standing in the middle of the desert wandering , with no particular theme or idea in mind .

So here are a few ideas u can use when ure stuck in the middle of no where and expected to take competition quality pics of a barren landscape ... Just some things ive noticed by experience ..


a) Keep an open eye for shapes and patterns created by the sand and rocks , like the patterns created by the wind when it blows on sand dunes , shaddows , light .
b) Look for strange shaped rocks , or lonely trees , or dead tree trunks , to put in the foreground.
c) Try to have a foreground and background to give a sense of distance in ur picture , the foreground like i said in b , can be a rock or a tree or a person , or an animal , which brings us to d .
d) Look for desert life , small lizards , even insects , those always make for interesting shots , and give a strong sense of life in the pics .
e) Shooting at the magical times (sunrise , sunset) always works for scenery , they bring out texture and distance , and shaddows, but dont limit urself .
f) Always try something different , crazy , be creative , dont worry about rules for a while ,dont even worry about shooting the best pic or a good pic for that matter , sometimes loosening up may be ur best way out of a mental block .
g) Move around a lot , scout the place from different angles ,views .
h) Infrared . Shoot in infrared or convert it to infrared on photoshop . Infrared can turn the most normal of pics into very impressive shots , esp if there are trees or bushes or interestings clouds in the scene .
i) Panoramics . A panoramic is always interesting to the eye , it could be a good way to escape hours of searching for the perfect composition . And photo stitching software has made it much easier to make those now . Below is a panoramic i took a coupla days ago .
j) The sky can sometimes make all the difference in ur desert life pics esp if there are interesting cloud patterns .

The pics in this post i just took a couple of days ago on a trip to a mountain/ beach area , best thing about beaches is that sometimes when u give ur back to the sea , u have ur desert scape waiting right for ya ... :)