I love to photograph Cracked Mud like this. I might even be obsessed! The patterns and textures and details are very fascinating and I think it makes great subjects for the camera. I even wrote an article once for Pro Nature Photographer on The Art of Photographing Mud.

There is so much of it around in the outdoors where it was wet and is now dry. I am not a cracked mud expert, but I have noticed as I shoot these details that the mud dries differently and cracks differently, so there is something in the geological makeup of each sediment that I guess contributes to how it dries. Any mud experts out there? 🙂

Having spent most of the winter wandering around the deserts of the USA Southwest, I have shot a lot drying mud and its cracks. This image was from a slot canyon in Utah. What makes this cracked mud different is the layer is thin so it curled up. And…this was cool for the photo: the topside was Red, from the red sandstone I am sure, and the underside was white’ish. 
I shot with a Canon 5D and 28-70 mm lens. Then in Photoshop I set a B&W point to stretch or extend the dynamic range of a very flat RAW file. Then added a little punch with a slight Curves adj layer, and finally a tiny bit of Saturation. 

May your photo journeys take you to some awesome cracked mud, but by all means, dont step in it and get your shoes dirty! 🙂

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