Happy Sunday! John is the hosting this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and this week, the challenge’s all about being in the shadow.

I decided to have a bit of fun re-editing this photo. I previously edited a similar photo taken with my phone, this photo was taken with the DSLR, which, even though the resolution is about half of my phone’s, somehow, the color resolution of the photos are still better than the phone.

This was taken at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The park is located in southern Utah, about 20 minutes from Kanab. I wanted to go there because of the name “Coral Pink Sand Dunes”, is the sand really that color, unfortunately, not when I was there. I later asked the guy why “Coral Pink Sand Dunes” when I was checking out my souvenir purchase, he told me it was around sunset when the park was named and the sun gave off this pinkish hue in the sand, thus “Coral Pink Sand Dunes”.

I was there at around 9 AM, the sand looked like regular sand color to me. Still, the sand dunes were very cool and I love the contrast of colors in this photo.

Believe it or not, this is one of my failed photos. I took this at Goblin Valley State Park last summer. I didn’t know it was backlit until I loaded into Lightroom. It was so backlit that no matter what I did, it didn’t work. This challenge has inspired me to have a second look at this picture, turn it into black and white and made me remember why I took this photo in the first place.

Do you see a princess on the left side of the picture like I do?

Apologies if this photo seem like a mess. I’ve been trying to figure it out myself and it was probably a snapshot I took at the spur of the moment as I stood at Le Fevre Overlook in Kaibab National Forest looking at the vast expanse of land that, according to a sign at the viewpoint, are multiple national parks and monuments in the distance. I think it makes a fine black and white photo, though, the light really made the tree on the right stand out.

Finally, this is one of my favorite sunset shots of all time. It’s taken at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. I love sunsets after a storm, especially when the sun peeks through the clouds, a little at first and then a burst of light comes through as if the sun has been pushing and pushing and finally won. When it comes to photography, you can only choose one or the other – the sun or everything else. In my photos, the sun always takes precedent, it will always be the main focus while everything else can be in the shadows. After all, sunsets are the sun’s daily last hurrah before it wraps another day of work.