Hills and Sunrise Haze. Death Valley National Park, California. March 31, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Sunrise light shines through morning haze to silhouette low hills in central Death Valley.
On the last morning of my late-March Death Valley shoot, I was on top of a low hill in roughly the middle of the Valley, not far from the “Devils Cornfield” area, mainly to photograph the Mesquite Dunes and the nearby transverse dunes against the backdrop of the Cottonwood Mountains. But this spot gave me a 360 degree panoramic view of a huge section of the central Valley, so while I waited for “just right” light on my intended subjects I also had time to see and photograph other subjects.
These low hills, mostly bare but sprinkled here and there with a few small plants or even a creosote bush or possibly a mesquite tree, were in the morning haze that sometimes settles in the bottom of the Valley before the daytime winds clear it out. The sun had just come over the Funeral Mountains to the east and was shining at a very low angle through this haze, so I pointed the camera (with a 400mm focal length lens!) almost straight into the sun (shading the lens with my hand) and made a few shots of these hills receding into the hazy distance across the Valley
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Thanks. Yes, that haze was something – and quite bright on the scene! I could barely look into it, had to shield the lens with my hand, and found that the further ridges were almost entirely invisible in the light and haze.
Dan
This is another fine image, that was one productive trip! I really like how the haze gets thicker with each hill and ridge line. It really adds depth!
I’ve become more fond of shooting landscapes with long lenses – not always, but there are times when they are just the right tool. For some reason – most likely the iconic landscape images featuring foreground plants and stuff with monumental features beyond – an idea that “landscape lens” equals “wide angle lens” became prevalent to the point that many now accept is a truth and miss out on what the longer lenses can do.
Long lenses let us compress distance and bring separate elements of the landscape into a closer relationship with one another. They increase the effects of haze and atmosphere. They let us isolate small elements from the larger landscape, thus “editing out” distractions. And they allow us to make photographs of things that we cannot otherwise photograph – the very distant feature that is inaccessible, the subject that would otherwise need to be photographed from mid-air, and so forth.
I wrote more about this here: Photographic Myths and Platitudes – ‘Landscape Photography Lenses’ (Part 1).
Dan
I want that lens too, if I can ever find my way to afford it. And by the way Dan, great picture. I love it!
Two observations. First, I’ve just got to get around to photographing in DV soon. Second, I’m becoming more and more interested in the 100-400mm.
David, I’ve continually been surprised by how useful and how good that 100-400 lens is.
Dan