When I was sixteen I used to visit friends of my parents to watch TV – we didn’t have one at that time. I remember seeing one of David Attenborough’s early BBC series about Namibia; it was the start of my life long fascination with sand dunes - it was also the time when I started taking photographs.
Those TV images had a profound effect of the way I observe light on a landscape, and later, potential images for printing. The way the light and shadow performs magic on the undulating contours of dunes, for me, is almost sensual. The times, for me, when the dunes come to life is early morning and late afternoon when the suns rays are most oblique.
I recently posted a series of images on Facebook from my trip to the Skeleton Coast; my trip was guided (compulsory) and I had very little time to stop and really capture the essence of that remarkable place.
However we in the Cape are blessed with many dune-fields along the coast and with a little exploration and effort (hiking through dunes is not easy!) one can find really spectacular scenes.
The images here were shot between 07:15 – 09:00 then in the evening for only 30 minutes from 6:00pm – 6:30pm. I made two visits each for sunup and down. The first shots were to get an idea of the light and location. The light changes very quickly and one must try to envisage how the contours will look then set up and wait, a recce, in my view is essential, if possible of course.