Guest Photo of the Day: Monument Two

Monument Two, originally uploaded by Wolfgang Staudt.

My wife and I are just back from a 15th anniversary vacation to Death Valley, so I'm particularly keen on desert landscape photography right now, having just experienced the challenges myself. The desert is beautiful, but capturing that extraordinary moment when the light, the clouds, the air, and the color are all just right takes patience and skill.

Wolfgang Staudt is a landscape photographer. He has other things in his photostream, sure, but what he really excels at are the landscapes; and in my opinion, his desertscapes are the best. There's a simplicity about the desert, all sagebrush overwhelmed by rock and sky, that works well for Staudt and his preference for HDR photographs.

I'm ambivalent about HDR as a general rule, but find that the simpler the image, the more it works for me, without overwhelming the eye with unnatural levels of detail.

While you're checking out Staudt's photostream, here's another one to enjoy--not technically gorgeous, but very creative and well-thought-out.