Pic(k) of the week 21: Desert moonrise, Dubai

Over the last 10 days, I've been very busy reviewing a new Fujifilm camera (X-T10, review here) and a brand-new Fujinon prime lens (XF 90mm f2, review here). 

With the Summer slowly kicking in through the Gulf region, it is time to do that last bit of outdoor photography before the increase in humidity starts making it unbearable!

The image below, shot in the Dubai desert, is inspired by Ansel Adams' probably most famous photograph: "Moonrise". 

When I discovered three trees in the desert West of Fossil Rock, (40' East of Dubai) I knew there was some potential to make a photograph...

The image was carefully planned, as I wanted to capture the moon rising in a small valley of the mountain range. PhotoPills; an amazing app for the iPhone (and iPad, but not native), played a big role in the planning stage of this image.

Moonrise over fossil rock, Dubai

Image details:
Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF 50-140mm f2.8 lens
ISO 200, 54mm (81mm full frame equivalent), f11, 1/5s
RAW development in Iridient Developer 3
Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 for Black and White conversion

Notice that the RAW conversion has been done in for me a new software; Iridient Developer 3. Just bought it a few days ago, in order to handle some of the more demanding RAW files. At times, processing Fujifilm RAF files with Lightroom or ACR, one looses some of the amazing sharpness of the X-Trans files, Iridient seems to be doing a better job so far. I'm not dumping Lightroom at all, just experimenting with new stuff for the best image quality!

I went back to the same place to do some more exciting night-photography a few days ago. Expect at least one of the images in an upcoming Pic(k) of the week...

Meanwhile, more of my "Nature of the UAE" images can be found here.

Remember: "Aim for the moon, if you miss, you may hit a star" - W Clement Stone


BJORN


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