Originally posted by mymaiseygirl If anyone has suggestions about composing pictures with sand dunes
Is that EXIF information correct: ISO 5000? Why are you shooting at such high ISO? You'll get much better dynamic range at lower ISO. Maybe blowing sand was a concern but even at ISO 1600 you'll get a very fast shutter speed in daylight.
There's not much color interest to sand so consider converting your photos into black and white. Those dunes are too small for wide angle with sky included for color. Experiment with zooming into fewer dunes so the photo becomes more abstract. With respect to your 3 sample photos:
#1: I like the way reflections and shadows change across the frame. Dunes to the left side have bright edges from sun reflections, dunes to the right have dark edges from shadows. I would try cropping out the dead plants at the top edge and the dark shadow along the bottom edge.
#2: I like the repeating shadow patterns. You took this one at a different angle from the sun than #1 and you can experiment with that to get the look you want. I would try cropping out the background at the top edge because it's uninteresting.
3: Just my opinion but I don't like this because it seems like random clutter. The grass and rocks don't form interesting patterns. Zooming in close on a patch of grass, or a grouping of one to three rocks, might work for this scene.