Air Sand Sculptures

I enjoy making sand sculptures in the air. Throwing dry fine white sand into the air while standing on a sand dune waving my arms and twisting my body can create fantastic forms against a blue sky. A second later they are gone.

An iPhone was positioned down the side of the dune sitting on a tripod. In these photos I removed most or all of my body in post-production edits.

The photos were taken using OSnap! Pro on an iPhone with a frame rate of 0.5 seconds.

The right hand sand sculpture in the above photo was taken 0.5 seconds after the left hand one. Two seconds later all the sand had fallen back to Earth. All the sand except for some in my hair and ears - and eyes if I forget to close them.

I usually throw sand for a few minutes and then have to wait until getting home to see if I’ve created any sculptures I like.

Inevitably this means deleting several hundred photos that show nothing interesting. Often these deleted photos show me picking up more sand for the next throw.

Learning a body movement to create new sand sculptures involves play and patience. It can also be frustrating if I later discover I wasn’t actually in the frame.

Some sand sculptures look like sand creatures which can ride away in a strong sea breeze.

The sand in this last image was animated using Plotagraph on an iPad.