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Maspalomas Sand Dune Detail #1

Sand dune details at Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

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The story behind this image

One of the most fascinating places Liz and I visited during our week long stay on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands was the Dunas de Maspalomas nature reserve, sandwiched btween the two holiday resoprts of Maspalomas and Playa des Ingles.

In fact, we liked it so much that we returned four times at different times of the day to promenade and photograph both the grand views and the more intimate details of this extensive dune system.

I was particularly taken with the beautifully wind sculpted forms of the dunes, with larger features catching bands of light and shadow, complimented by smaller ripples adding form and definition to the scenes.

I must have spent around an hour photographing these mini abstract compositions of pattern, light, shadow and texture, as everywhere I looked I found fresh possibilities for a pleasing final image.

Once back home, in the cold light of a welsh winter's day, a severe culling of the files left me with four images that stood out from the crowd.

These I then cleaned up by cloning out footprints, odd stones and other minor distractions, before significantly boosting colours and contrast in Lightroom to give the images the mood of desert mystery that I wanted to acheive.

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Image data

Filename - gran canaria maspalomas dunes 01.jpg

Camera - Canon 6D

Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 105mm

Exposure - 1/30 sec @ f11, ISO100

Location - Dunas de Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

This image - 800x490px JPEG

Conversion - Adobe Lightroom

Comments - Polarising filter used to remove glare