[Music] [Music] Hello everyone, Michael Shane Bloom here. You might notice I'm on some sand dunes, which is one of my favorite places to be in one of my favorite national parks, Death Valley National Park. And, uh, got my 100 to 400 here and my Nikon D850. And as I walk through these dunes, just kind of looking for some different shapes and patterns. If you remember my last vlog on the dunes with Nick Page, you remember. Well, I'll link it above if you haven't seen it. We got some pretty spectacular conditions on that trip. I mean, it was truly surreal. You know, light rays, billowing storm clouds, beautiful pastel colors. But of course, if you're a photographer, you know that doesn't happen often. That was a lucky, lucky, lucky day. Today is more what I usually get, which is just complete blue, blue skies. I mean, not a single cloud in sight, really. But it's fine because, you know, I've shot some of my favorite images of dunes under conditions like this, just blue sky.

images. It's really just about making the best out of these conditions and being creative, focusing on the shapes and patterns, the contrast between the light and shadow, and just kind of having fun on the sand dunes. It's hard to have a bad time when you're exploring sand dunes, so really hope you all enjoy the video. So, you know, funny enough, I've already found a few images that I liked on the way out. I kind of was walking about a mile in that direction, and I was just finding little patterns and shapes, smaller scenes to focus on. So, actually really love the way this image came out, and I think some of these intimate shots of the dunes ended up being some of my favorites of the day. I really like how in this photograph there's that split straight through the middle with the two mirrored patterns on both the top and bottom of the photograph, and it kind of reminds me of the patterns you'd see on a tiger, and specifically this kind of just reminds me of a tiger's

back, and I did have to focus stack this one. So, I shot an image where that front pattern towards the bottom is in focus. Then, I shifted my focus towards the background to shoot the background pattern, and then stitch them both using Photoshop. After I shot this composition, I found something quite interesting. So, this is certainly not the most striking composition I've ever come up with, but I just loved this little weevil or beetle cruising through the dunes. I mean, this image to me represented a lot more than just, you know, compositions and patterns and shapes. It's really just life finding a way through some of the most inhospitable conditions in one of the most inhospitable places. I mean, I was about two miles out on the dunes at this point, and, uh, you know, just seeing this little guy cruising through right underneath my feet. I hope this little beetle or weevil made it on their journey through the dune safely to wherever they were trying to go. I just never know if I'm getting

anything good on the dunes until I really get back to Lightroom and look at the images. A lot of the times, I just have no clue, and sometimes it's deceiving where I think I'm getting an interesting shape, and I get back to Lightroom and realize it's not that interesting of a shape, and I should have focused on something else. I think it's really easy to get a photo of sand dunes, like a good photo of sand dunes. It's really tough to get a great photo of sand dunes, just a really great organized, well-constructed composition, well thought out, well-placed. Because, I mean, you could get out here, step on one of the dunes, and just fire off images in every direction, and it looks nice, looks beautiful, but it's really just making sense of those patterns and those shapes. That's the tough part. I just stumbled upon this. I have no idea if it's going to be interesting or not. I really wish there was a little bit of sand.

just kind of blowing and dusting across the edges, but you know, we unfortunately don't have that. So let's see what this looks like. It's not bad, actually. Let me shoot this. Let's see. [Music] I love how photographing sand dunes really just allows you to fully express your creativity and create images that go just beyond the obvious, you know, creating interesting abstract scenes. I love how the edges of the dunes here and the light and the shadow almost transform this into golden ribbons just kind of streaking across this abstract scene. Wow, look at the contrast here, just all these shadows, surreal. You know what, I think I found a composition in this direction that I kind of like with some different shapes. That wind's picking up a little bit. I wonder if we're going to get a windy sunset tonight. It honestly wouldn't surprise me. And I'm just going to set this on a timer. I think that'll be the easiest thing to do. Yeah, that's nice. I might try a few different variations here, getting a

little bit more of that this point right here on the right side. [Music] I think one of my favorite parts about shooting sand dunes is the fact that you always have somewhere soft to sit. Not bad on a day like this where it's not too windy. It's really comfortable, but then as soon as the wind picks up and starts gusting over these ridges, it's going to become a lot less comfortable, and I'm hoping for that. I hope that happens because that means we're going to get some really, really great images. I think I see a composition out there I want to try. I see a sand dune out in the distance with a really nice swirly pattern that I want to try out. It's getting this nice edge lighting on the right side, shadow on the left. I can see a little bit of sand blowing up on the top. All right, definitely some interesting shapes in here to play with. Not bad. Oh, there's another photographer out there. Let me take a picture of him.

he's going beyond the dune. Let me try and zoom in, see if I know that person. They have a way cooler hat than I do, the brim hat, cowboy hat, better. I think I'm gonna head towards the sun, go explore for a little bit. I still have some time, probably about 40 minutes before the sun sets. So, after stumbling around the dunes for a little while and scouting around, I shot a few images right before sunset that I thought turned out really nice. Here's what I shot. I loved this image specifically for just all those textures in there on the dune. I love the little ridges matched with the high contrast and that nice golden light striking the dunes with the cooler tones in the shadow. Just a really fun composition to play around with overall. After shooting this image, I scattered around for a little bit longer, and I found one of my favorite scenes of the day. I had my camera pointed at the scene for quite a while, looking for the right moment with the people walking around in the background.

the beautiful dusting of sand across the edges of the dunes. After shooting maybe 50 to 100 images, this bird started to fly across the scene, and it just could not have been a more perfect situation here. So, I grabbed this shot, and I love the bird's position here, where you can see that long shadow towards the bottom right. I thought the bird's shadow was probably my favorite element in this composition. Now, I actually played around with cloning those people out in the background. Part of me likes that they're in there because they add this really nice sense of scale, and they add this human element where it's almost like these people are out on this crazy adventure, and they're out exploring. But I'd be curious to know your thoughts on having the people out there in the background or cloning them out. So, here is a version with the people out of the frame. Let me know your thoughts on that in the [Music] comments. So, this is definitely one of my favorite days out shooting sand dunes. I captured some images that I was

really happy with so much so that I actually decided to split this up into two separate videos. In that video, I shoot some of my favorite sand dune images that I've ever shot over the years. As always, I really hope you enjoyed this video. Please give it a thumbs up if you did, and subscribe to the channel for more. And yeah, I'll catch you in the next one. [Music] You

WHY the 100-400MM is my FAVORITE Lens for Landscape Photography

WHY the 100-400MM is my FAVORITE Lens for Landscape Photography