Trees and Boulder, Morning. Yosemite National Park, California. August 6, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Morning light on a boulder and a small group of trees growing on a granite slab in the Yosemite high country.
I suppose this sort of shot is turning up with a great deal of frequency among my photographs. I can’t help myself – I’m crazy about the combination of back (or side) lit trees, granite slabs and boulders, and haze obscured mountains, forests, and domes. I suppose this may be because such views, especially early and late in the day, seem to me to characterize the high country of Yosemite as much as just about any other feature.
This group of trees grows in a well-known location, and I drove to it before sunrise so that I could be out and about and looking for light from the get-go. This is a location that I have shot quite a few times in the past, so I feel like I’m getting more of a handle on what some of the possibilities and potentials are. On this morning I began nearby in a spot where there were lots of long shadows still, and after the sun rose a bit higher I moved on to this area of granite slabs and glacial erratic boulders, looking for trees that could stand against the more distant background of the glaciated granite forms with sparse trees growing here and there – in fact, on that far ridge they grow much the same way as the trees that are the central focus of this image.. There is almost always some haze here at this time of day, but it may have been just a bit thicker than usual due to a fire on the east side of the Sierra.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
I agree that the use of atmospheric haze and, even more, the use of backlight is probably an element of my style, and one that is probably easier to see than some other stylistic consistencies. It isn’t in all of my photographs, by any stretch of the imagination, but it does show up a lot.
As to post-processing, there is a lot that I could say if I went into more detail than I’ll go into here. In some cases, there is more done in post than might be apparent to a casual view – at least partly because objectives of this work often include working with what was there rather than adding things and usually has an objective of balancing or highlighting more than inventing.
In this sort of scene, one important goal is to try to enhance the feeling that the scene is filled with light – since it is! When I consider a scene like this I often think about how incredibly bright it was “in the flesh,” to the point that it was hard to look in the direction of the main subject. This is due to the very low position of the sun, the fact that the light is traveling roughly toward the camera position, and the way that this hazy atmosphere can glow when lit from behind. I think it safe to say that more work in post goes toward making things brighter – lightening shadows, perhaps reducing the weight of the background, etc.
Dan
I see it showing up in my photos a lot also, but, I think, less by design than by circumstance. I have been in the Tetons for a couple of days and they almost always exhibit that effect (AR). I wasn’t sure I really liked the way they appear like one of those vaudevillian curtain backdrops – rather flat looking. And the foreground elements sometimes look like “cutouts” that were pasted on. That said, I think I am learning to see them in a new “light”.
Interesting note about (would you call it a “style”) the recurring elements in your work, esp that of the haze obscured (atmospheric recession…!) mountains. How do you handle these sort of shots in post…?