Gold

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be courage that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

Slightly modified version following Bilbo’s poem about Aragorn,
in: JRR Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.

| Rub Al Khali, referred to as the Empty Quarter, is the world’s largest continuous sand desert with uninterrupted sand dunes. The whole desert covers more than 650’000 km2 and stretches over the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen.

These ever-changing endless dunes are sculpted by the wind and form shapes of eternal beauty. While sun, glow and the wind are shielding one’s view over day, they paint the slopes and peaks through light into a beauty of golden blues and reds. In this empty quarter, I met great hospitality of people with long traditions. Grateful.

This photograph happily received some international recognition:
• Gold Metal & Top 50 Award, The Epson Pano Award, 2018.
• TOP 101 Award, The International Landscape Photographer of the Year, 2018.
• Nominee, The Spider Award, 2018 (bw version).

| Click on the image to see the full-sized panoramic photograph.

January 2018