Photo of the Day

a tree in the Namib desert
September 18, 2015

A Slight Trick of the Eye

“Truly, nature is the best painter,” says Stas Bartnikas, a Your Shot community member. Bartnikas had flown over the Namib Desert during sunrise and sunset and noticed that the color of the dunes heavily depended on the angle of the sunlight and the point of view, with colors changing and unusual pictures and patterns emerging. As it turned out, he writes, the effect can also be observed from the ground. He took this photo while riding through Namib-Naukluft National Park one morning. “The dune behind the tree looked very unreal,” he writes, “like clouds or something else, because of [the] special angle of the sunlight.” He had only five minutes to photograph—after that, the effect disappeared.

Bartnikas’s photo was submitted to the Undiscovered assignment on Your Shot. Your Shot is our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now »

Photograph by Stas Bartnikas, National Geographic Your Shot

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