Quick Shot: Martian
I am fairly certain I boarded a plane for Tel Aviv, Israel and a bus for Jordan. The in-camera GPS says I was still on planet Earth, but I'm still not convinced.....
Wadi Rum, Jordan, is arguably the only place I've ever travelled that left me wondering if I had taken a trip to someplace else in our solar system. The sand is neon orange, the rocks are florescent red, and the sky even had an orange shimmer with the dust in the sky. The result is an environment that is what most of us imagine Mars looks like, just with atmosphere and lifeforms!
If you have seen movies like the Martian, then you have seen Wadi Rum - it's unique bright orange look has attracted numerous filmmakers who want the extraterrestrial look. Of all the photos I took in Wadi Rum, this one is the most "Mars-like" to me - I was shooting up at this big sand dune and liked how the two rocks framed the sand pile. As knelt down to get the photograph, I could see a little bit of orange sand tinting the color of the sky. I shot from super low to the ground so that lots of the orange sand was in the view - the result is that you can barely make out a blue sky behind the overall orange-y look.
This photo is probably the most emotional landscape photograph I have taken; I have discussed how certain people touched me as a photographer, but rocks don't tend to have that effect. In this case, I remember reviewing the image through the Leica SL's electronic viewfinder and thinking "this is totally bananas" - I couldn't believe that I was standing at the base of this orange sand dune taking this photograph. The experience leaves me thirsting for more opportunities to explore bizarre and surreal sites, but also grateful for the opportunities I have had!
Shot with the Leica SL and 24-90mm SL lens. Adjustments in Adobe Lightroom.