This is the Skeleton Coast of Namibia. The last time it rained here was 1942! I shot this from a small plane with the door removed, and I used a 70-200mm in which the lens was set to 70mm. I am happiest when I'm standing on the ground, so sitting next to an open door at 500 feet in altitude is a bit terrifying. But, I have to get the pictures, and I often go outside my comfort zone to get them. My shutter speed was 1/1600. This was fast enough to render sharp pictures despite the vibration and movement of the plane. I used a large aperture, f/4 in this case, because depth of field was irrelevant at this distance. The large aperture, in turn, allowed me to use 200 ISO. I told the pilot I didn't want to see any vegetation. Some areas of the dunes were sparsely covered by plants, and to me that diminished the perfection and beauty of the contours of sand. If there is too much wind, the planes won't fly; I got lucky on this day because the air was very still.
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