Lara at Wadi Rum.
The author at Wadi Rum.
Last year I was on an assignment shooting Uluru in Central Australia at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. It was a late afternoon and I had two cameras set up on tripods shooting different perspectives of the massive rock. The light changes so much in the half hour before sunset and the half hour after sunset. The funny thing is most photographers leave at sunset and the best images quite often come in the half hour after sunset.
The light that falls on the rock is brilliant and I‘ve always wondered why more people don’t take advantage of this filtered light when making portraits, instead of using a flash and overpowering the late afternoon natural light to make the somewhat clichéd sunset portrait. Well, last week as everyone was watching the brilliant sunset at Wadi Rum in Jordan, I turned the camera in the other direction as Lara was walking off back to our Bedouin camp. Initially, I just wanted footprints in the sand, but the light really leant itself to a warm portrait. We loved the look so much I had Lara take a shot of me as well.
I love the vignette; it’s natural due to using the ‘wrong’ lens for my Nikon D700. Using the 17-55mm Nikon (meant for Nikon’s DX format) at a wide angle produces this effect when mounted on a FF (Full-Frame) camera. I also really like the highlights in the grass and the rippled texture of the sand.
Fashion, glamour and wedding photographers would be facing the camera towards the sunset using the sunset as backdrop and backlight, but sometimes you have to do something that’s 180 degrees from what’s expected.
And on that note, more on that subject soon…
4 Comments
Ooooo…the portraits are stunning! The light couldn’t be more perfect.
I especially like Lara’s portrait (sorry T). The blue and orange (complementary colors) work so well together.
Beautiful! Jordan is definitely on my list for next year.
Hey Lola, of course Lara’s photo is better, I AM the photographer
She says that this is the only time of day I’m allowed to make a picture of her now.
Jordan has some magic places to visit. It should be on everyone’s list!
Thanks for still reading my infrequent posts…
Wow, your photography is just incredible. We were at Uluru about a month and a half ago and I was so so so angry that we couldn’t stay after the sunset because we were on a guided bus (or first guided trip ever and one that we wouldn’t repeat). I literally started crying about an hour after the sunset because the entire world changed from red to yellow to bright blue to dark blue. I have never seen such colors in the sky.
I love the idea of turning around and away from the sunset. Lara’s face and pants are simply gorgeous against the red and blue. We are going to have to try this in our next desert – in fact, we’ll probably be in Jordan in seven months, so we’ll have to try this then.
Akila, thanks for your kind words. We never take guided trips like that because of that very reason! After sunset I would crack a beer for the best part — the next half hour. You’re right about the colours there, amazing! It’s a shame I can’t post some photos of that part of the trip because the book I was working on then is still not published!
You’ll love Jordan, Wadi Rum & Petra are some of the best sights in the world for me, almost overwhelming in their beauty, you feel humbled to be given teh opportunity to photograph it.
Thanks for stopping by!
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[...] And Terence Carter makes a 180-degree turn at Wadi Rum in Jordan. [...]