Picture Story

I worked for two weeks in Perth and was lucky enough to have some free time over the weekend. I decided to drive two hours north to a place called Lancelin. I spent the very hot and extremely windy afternoon in the sand dunes. I was wandering around, looking for compelling compositions. This was not so easy. Not only was it difficult to walk in the soft sand with a heavy backpack, but every time I would frame a potential scene, the sand was marked by the tyres of the buggies and four-wheel drives that frequent the area. Sometimes, there were footprints, and on occasion, even my own.

After a few hours, I could tell I was losing energy and needed to consider the trek back to the car. I finally stumbled onto this scene and knew I found something good. The sand is incredibly white, almost resembling snow and very fine. The strong wind made it difficult to work. The sand was in my eyes, ears and hair. I composed the scene and kept the lens cap on until the light was at its best. I used a circular polariser to remove glare and deepen the blue of the sky. The image is focus-staked (using the fantastic automatic feature of the Nikon D850). The last of the light brimmed the ridge of the sand dune, and almost instantly, the weather started to get cold. I like the simplicity of this image.