Low resolution GIF file which shows a series of layer adjustments. See below to open up a spectacular full resolution file on our website.
Landscape photography is straightforward on the one hand and highly complex on another. Our cameras can easily capture the landscape in front of us, but it is the 'ideas' we have that make the final photograph.
On this occasion, I was in the Pilbara, Western Australia on one of the early ND5 excursions with Tony Hewitt, Christian Fletcher, Michael Fletcher and Les Walkling. We were on our way to Marble Bar, known as the hottest town in Australia. That day, or maybe it was the day after, we found a large orange road marker (plastic witch's hat) which had melted like wax into an igneous blob! The locals told us to say it was 48C because, if it got over 50C, there was usually a television report. So, 48C was a safe bet!
Either way, it was hot and in the mid afternoon, I was quite comfortably cocooned in our 4WD with the air conditioning unit running full blast.
As we drove towards the Marble Bar turn-off, we watched a wet season thunderstorm grow and develop. The road seemed to be skirting around the edge of the weather cell and in the distance we could see some willy-willies forming – small tornados of red dust climbing into the black sky above. It was a photographic feast we could not resist.
We found a side road that led to a slightly raised vantage point above the Pilbara plain. Thunder rolled ominously as we walked around the flanks of a small hill in the stifling heat, but heat was the furthest thing from our minds as we watched Nature unfurl a remarkable display of fury.
Lightning ripped through the cloud mass, starting spot fires on the grassy plain, and the willy-willies merged into a minor dust storm, picking up red earth in its path. It felt like we were on the edge of a huge amphitheatre. They say that travelling in the North West during the wet season isn’t necessarily a good idea because of the heat and the wet, but after this experience, that little gem of advice has been relegated to the dust bin.
As amazing as that experience was, I didn't feel the straight captures adequately recorded our experience. After stitching together seven or eight frames, I went to work in Photoshop, using layers to interpret the image - and this is what I mean about 'ideas'. You can find all the techniques to do what I have done in many places - they are not complicated. The trick is using those techniques to implement your ideas - and this is where instruction like my Landscape Photography MasterClass can help. For this image, not only do I show the techniques, rather how the techniques work together to create the final image.
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