About the Image(s)

This is a really special place in Namibia, where a “forestâ€� died almost 1000 years ago after what I understand was a rapid climate shift to desert. There was so little moisture in the air and ground that the trees never decomposed, or are doing so extremely slowly. They are still wood and could burn, so are not petrified as is sometimes stated. To get there early in the morning, you have to stay in one of the lodges in the park ($$$) or camp in the park, and you are not allowed to drive in the park before around 5AM – I can’t recall exactly. You then need to drive about 50km, park and walk another 3 or so KM over sand dunes, to get to this valley that is a couple of km across. Then find a spot and set up before the moon sets! There are only two days of the year when you get a full moon over the dunes, and only one day when it can be photographed with detail visible and not blown out. I didn’t even know I would be there on that day, but realized the night before so made sure I “sprinted.â€� God distracted photographing an oryx on the way (I was first that morning) but still found this tree as well as a few other compositions while the moon was over the dunes.

I have been working on my monochrome conversions, so I’d appreciate feedback both on which you prefer, but also on the monochrome conversion technique. I feel like it’s a good subject for mono, but the moon may have worked against me since I really wanted to preserve it and otherwise I might have let the sky go white. My edit flow involved DXO Pure Raw, CR and Topaz.

Sony a1
Shutter speed: 1/400 sec (not really sure why I had it that fast, I was on a tripod and bracketing)
Aperture: 18
Exposure mode: Manual
Exposure compensation: +1/2
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 800
Lens: FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS
Focal length: 24mm