While the recent post was dedicated more to the award itself, I thought of adding a few words on the image.
The Dead Sea is a beautiful but sad place. The salt formations on its shores are a treat for every landscape photographer. They constantly change, which adds to the uniqueness of the place: you never know what you're going to find. But with the water level receding around 1m per year - I just can't avoid that sad feeling of seeing the place I've photographed the year before so far from the waterline.
On this particular morning, after scouting the beach before sunrise, I focused on a different salt formation - sort of a dragon's tail - which I estimated should work with the azimuth of the sunrise. It took some time and work, and when I finished - the sun was almost up.
I didn't get the red sunrise I was hoping for, but was still quite satisfied with what I got. I managed to take an additional image before the sun was already high, but then came across a beautiful patch of salt textures I could not resist to photograph.
This patch was exceptionally white compared to the other salt formations near it. It featured lace-like patterns, which reminded me of a beautiful white wedding dress. While the vision I had for the image was pretty clear, technically it was a challenging image to take: the sun was high and very bright, and the camera had to be placed very close to the salt. Keeping this image natural in post-processing, however, was an easy task... The contrast from the high sun was beautiful, and it emphasized the texture and brightness of the salt.
Even though it was taken against the sun with the sun already high over the horizon, this is probably one of my favorite images from the Dead Sea. By chance, it was also printed and framed the same week I got the news on the award.
