"Propagation of Light"

James! Very cool indeed. I really like your abstract approach.

This is very nice James. The colors and lighting are exceptional. I really like those tiny ripples in the sand which are visible in the larger version. I bet this would look great as a large print.

Adam, I appreciate the comment, especially coming from you who has exceptional abstract images in your portfolio.

Scott, I would agree, I have a 30" display, and it looks clear, with great detail. I am looking forward to printing it BIG when my printer arrives in early June

Thanks guys

James, this is truly one phenomenal image. The sharp lines, the textures, the shadows and that gorgeous color make this a stunning dune image. That one ridge looks as though it disappears into infinity. Amazing.

I like the abstract quality.....love the lines and texture and the warm tones. Awesome

Shadows and lines and texture, oh my! Looks great to me

The details and colors in this one are superb. great image

Wonderfull composition, details and colours. Gotta love sand dunes!

This is just great James but I find the saturation a bit too much.

This is simply mesmerizing!! Too cool The flow of the lines,the ethereal qualities, the mood, the light... This one REALLY grabs my attention. Superb

Vance, your description of my image is exactly how I see this abstract, I am glad you like it :)

Des Ong
In regards to saturation, my guess is that you are using Micosoft Explorer, or Google Chrome as a web browser. I use MAC Safari, which uses the embedded color profiles from any image. I see this image exactly as it looked in PS, while using "MS windows jpg viewer", or Safari. But some other web browsers and jpg viewing tools, do not use the profiles, and in the case with images like this one that has red in it, the reds get saturated. I have learned recently that it is better to process an image with the calibrated monitor profile for web images, and save them with out a color profile for web, this way everyone will see the same image

It is unfortunate that all browsers are not using the embedded color profile like Safari does, it would be better for all of us on NPN!

This is incredible! I love your interpretation of the dunes. Did you get sand in your gear?

Spectacular image James. The lines, awesome color and the way the dunes fade to infinity make this one very special. Absolute magic.

Beautiful lines and gorgeous light- Great eye, Fabio

Paul - the wind had died out by morning for this opportunity, so sand in my gear was not to much of an issue

Thanks for the comments !

Absolutely stunning! Amazing glow and I love the very graphic and effective composition. Excellent work!

This is really impressive James! The light, the shapes, the tones, colors, everything just comes together perfectly. One of the strongest images I've seen in a good while! True art!

Wonderful shot James, stunning light and composition. The distant dunes had me fooled; I thought it was the sky with some crazy colors. Great work!

Lines, tones,detail. Love it!

This is pure magic! Fantastic shot.

Thanks again for all the positive feedback!! I expected some nits or cropping advice!

The color and light here are almost surreal. The texureless lighter yellow areas are hard for me to understand, but their color works perfectly with the rest of the scene. I really like the abstract quality of this punctuated by just the dune edges.

Tony - . As for the lack detail in the light yellow sections of the dunes where the rising sun was directly hitting the dunes, I pushed the highlights to accentuate these sections of the image. If you look at this image at full size, there is detail everywhere I knew that this capture was going to be unusual and in abstract in nature. So I decided to take this image into the realm of the surreal. I guess I applied my own interpretation of what I had seen that day with a digital canvas at my disposal. I am hoping to print this image really BIG for my gallery.

Thanks for the comment.

Incredible image, James. One of the best dune renditions I have seen. Excellent composition and processing.

Guy

James - the light and curves are beautiful. I also like the processing a lot. The golden color of the sand and the darker shadows add a lot of depth to the image. Did you take any that excluded the shadow on the lower right? If so, I would like to see that composition, too. Very nice!

Beautiful color and lines.

I love those golden areas

WOW!

Simply one of the best sand dune images I've ever seen, James! Who are you kidding when you say your 'development' skills are subpar?
I look forward to seeing more from what appears to be an epic journey!

Fabulous image James. Loved the curves and the play of golden light and shadows! Larger version rocks!!

Sarah - There was a large dune to the right that casted the shadow at sunrise. I do not have any versions without the shadow. Are you asking me for a cropped version of this composition? In order to eliminate the shadow, I would have had to wait until the sun was much higher in the sky, and the color would have been gone.

John - I am not joking around, I just started using PS 2 months ago, and still just learning more everyday. I just got the hang of using luminosity masking 1 week ago!! I am attempting my first B&W conversion using PS over the next few days!! I hope it comes out good! I also have images that require blending, and I am moving to a MAC in the next few weeks, so I will wait until I am running PS 5 to work on these images.


To everyone who has commented on this image; Thank you. I personally loved the image, but like any artist, one hopes that others feel the same

Gorgeous shapes and lighting. The composition is exquisite.

This one is very well composed and the power created by the harsh contrast and intense colors is lovely. Great job, James.

Hi James - I was not suggesting a crop as much as wondering if you had any other comps of this beautiful scene. My favorite part is left/middle part and I was curious if you had any compositions that isolated that part of the scene.

Sarah - I see what you mean. I do have different compositions of this scene from different angles, I will check them out and post them, or email them to you directly :)

abstract and beatiful image

Simply a gorgeous dunes image..

Sarah - Here is a different image of the same dune from a different angle, that focuses on the section you asked about. What are your thoughts?

I prefer the first posted composition, but I like this as well.

Please all comments are always welcome. Thank you for taking the time to have a look

James, This is incredible! Light, color, comp, all fantastic. Beautiful work. The new post looks very nice James, but I much prefer the original.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Hey James - Thanks for sharing the alternative view. I like the simplicity of the second image a lot, but think I agree that I like the first one more now that I have seen the alternative composition. Either way, the first one is a beautiful image! I hope everything is progressing for your gallery project!

This turned out great James. As you know, I love this composition, wonderful abstract. The processing looks great too, you must have an amazing teacher to have learned PS so fast

Aloha from Kailua Kona

gorgeous glowing sand. i find the top a little empty and would be tempted to play with cropping some of it off - towards a pano?

I love these kinds of photos that subtly blur the distinction between reality and artistic interpretation. The dune edge lines lead me right into the amorphous background which I can't identify, but I don't care because the colors and tones add all the more to the mystery of what I'm looking at. I really like this!

Beautiful lines, James. The play of shadow and light is brilliantly captured here. A very elegant and engaging image with stunning detail.

Stunning shot!

Great shot, love those lines. The image looks very oversaturated though, in all my 3 browsers.

Thanks again everyone

Marcel, It looks great using Safari. I have a new way of posting for the web that will eliminate the issue of saturation with reds. Processing in PS for the web with the calibrated monitor setting as the profile, and then striping the color profile when saving for web. This way everyone with any browser will see the same thing if there monitor is calibrated. Not sure, maybe everyone but me has already learned this!