Honorable Mention
Shiny Shapes
DESCRIPTION
Maybe the best daytime panorama 360° I've ever had, I really like it.Tunisian Sahara Desert, area of Jebil National Park, April 2019
Well, it must be said that the desert really offers a lot of interesting ideas: from the solitary trees, to the immense dunes with the most varied shapes, a pleasure for the eyes, a continuous creative stimulus, at every step.
Around the golden hour we all walked barefoot on the dunes (no, there are no animals of any kind in this area), literally getting lost in that orange smoothed by the wind, with a sky full of white and high stratified cirrus, an extraordinary and exhausting moment of research.
The great difficulty of making 360 degrees panoramas in locations where the ground is soft is to leave your footsteps everywhere, to get to the point of shooting and around the tripod when you turn, you would need a helicopter to get there without leaving footprints that compromise the composition.
The best way to avoid the problem is to arrive exactly from behind, so as to play with the overlapping of the external shots and neutralize these disturbing elements; it is not at all simple, it becomes a continuous forward/back, until you reach the most interesting scene.
Once I found the point that inspired me the most, I decided to shoot with the sun still high enough to create my shadow inside the dune, a choice that compromised my figure a bit, surrounded by strong light, but that gave a sense to the midground of the photo, making everything more balanced .
AUTHOR
In 2008 I approached Photography buying a small camera to capture the first landscapes, the first trips. Six years later I started to study deeply the techniques of planning, shooting and editing while i started to think about my own style, experimenting with the first wide field photographs. Today, after these years of research i finally have found my way to represent the strong connection i have with nature, with the landscape; the extreme panoramas are the language that I have sewn to myself, a choice sometimes uncomfortable (you have to consider the elements in front of, on the side and behind the point of shooting, often you can not shoot), but that gives me a way to express the immense beauty of what surrounds us, trying to inspire those who follow me to travel, to be curious, to respect and appreciate every scenario that nature, generous, gives us.