I think of this photograph, in part, as a study in tones. I had been photographing a brilliant sunrise in color, but as the first wild sunrise colors diminished I began to think about monochrome. (Of course, my camera being digital, I was capturing color images, though monochrome results were in my mind.) The brightest areas of the clouds were extremely bright, while the facing side of the tufa formations, being backlit, were very close to black. My plan was to control the bright areas in the exposure and then lift the shadows in post, just enough to hint at details on the tufa.
It is hard to know when the tendency to see in black and white will strike. I’ve been doing this long enough that when I started photography I had little choice but to work in monochrome, and as a consequence I think that has always remained my native visual language. Sometimes I feel that constant color is too intense, like listening to extremely loud music for too long. Color is a great thing, but sometimes I need to turn it off a bit!
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
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