Desertscapes....is that even a word ?

Stanley
Jan 28, 2017
1 min read

A few days ago, I grabbed at the opportunity to meet up a few other photographer friends deep in the desert and capture landscapes of the dunes and faraway hills with the red fiery sunset sky - I like to call them "desertscapes".

We reached a bit early and gave ourselves some time to get our bearings right and calculate the spot where the sun would set on the horizon. We then scouted the area nearby for different vantage points. Finally we decided to climb up to the peak of an hill nearby and get a helicopter view of our surroundings.

I can now wholeheartedly appreciate the challenges of shooting a sunset in the desert on a windy day, completely exposed to the elements:

1. you're shooting directly into the sun (no choice),

2. compensating for the ever changing light conditions to ensure that the foreground is not under exposed at each shot,

3. stabilizing the tripod in the high desert winds,

4. all this - within a very limited bracket of time.

Making use of the last few minutes of sunlight left for the day, I shot a few panoramic images of the surroundings and then the sunset. It was an amazing view watching the sun set on the horizon. I am glad that I went to the desert that day !