So I decided today to go out and take some images for exercise 4.2 . I was supposed to get up for dawn but I slept in.
Managing to get in the car for 8.30am, I drove for 20mins out of Dubai past the E611. My aim was to find some clean high dunes with ripples of sands.
Remembering Edward Weston’s images of ‘the Dunes of Oceano’ and ‘Sand fence near Keller’ by Ansel Adams I decided I would like to do some of my own dune images. Using the desert dunes for exercise 4.2 I was hoping that I would be able to highlight the properties of daylight because of the shape, colour and texture of the dunes as well as show the difference between daylight and artificial light.
The spot I first chose ( photospot 1) had a few bushes in, which is typical of the desert in Dubai. Its not like the movies with dunes and dunes of orange sand and a bright blue sky ( you have to drive past Sharjah or out towards the empty quarter for movie style dunes) . Its concrete dust and a hazy grey sky. That is why converting to black and white is a good idea, the sky is grey anyway!
I took a few images at 9-10 am then went off, planning to come back at midday to the same spot. I didn’t make it back till 1:30pm. I had sunscreen on and a sunhat but I stupidly wore sandals.
I climbed over the road barrier ok and made it past the camel fence ( these fences are to stop the camels getting onto the road and causing havoc). I only managed to walk 3 metres and I had to turn back as my feet were burning with the heat off the sand. I was shaking and I nearly started crying because it was so hot on my poor feet !
I went home and regrouped, changed my sandals to sturdy boots and brought an assistant with the promise to her of ice-cream for after’s. I visited all three of my photospots I had in mind and collected the images for the exercise 4.2. After looking through my images I realised I need to revisit the photospots for dawn images, hopefully the sky will be better for them.
Being out in the desert I noticed it is teaming with live. Not as obvious as a rainforest but definitely more than what you would expect. Insects, birds, cats and foxes there were lots of track prints everywhere.
Here are some black and white conversions I have done for my written log.
'Expressing your vision' by Virginia - OCA learning blog 