Speaking as a complete non-expert, I think that what we’re looking at here is a boundary between the low point of a small playa-like section of dried earth and a slightly higher area with black pebbles. The pebbles appear to be volcanic material from a nearby eruption that took place hundreds or thousands of years ago. (The particular feature may have erupted as recently as 800 years, though it has also possibly been longer.)
Continue reading A Boundary
I spotted this little architectural oddity somewhere near the St. George Castle in Lisbon, high up in the hills. This is a single wall – it is all the same building. I can only assume that the building is divided into two or more residences and that those who live there have very different ideas about paint! Both are pretty striking. Purple isn’t quite a typical building color, and the worn, layered, and textured quality of the right side is about as different as I can imagine.
Little scenes like this are among those that I’m always looking for when traveling — interesting shapes, architecture, color, texture, and items that reflect that particular place.
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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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Sand Dunes, Light and Shadow. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A curving sand dune boundary between light and shadow, Death Valley National Park.
This particular curving dune section became the subject for a series of photographs I made on this morning. It is a remarkable form, traveling higher and lower on the dune that what you can see in this photograph — a sort of “s-curve plus.” I have previously shared a couple of other photographs of it that were interpreted in color, photographs that show a larger portion of the dune. This one focuses on a small area near its base.
The light here was fascinating. The dunes are backed by a taller ridge, so the morning light does not arrive here until some time after dawn. At sunrise the light on these dunes is fully shadowed, and it has the blue tones of reflected sky. But as the sun rises it eventually sends its light across that ridge behind the dunes, and streamers of light being to slant across the dunes features, creating quickly evolving patterns of light and shadow.
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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
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Ellery Lake. Sierra Nevada near Yosemite, California. June 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Early season morning light on Ellery Lake near Tioga Pass.
I made this photograph on the same early-season morning on which I made the vertical format photograph of the same scene that I recently posted. Ellery Lake is alongside highway 120, the “Tioga Pass Road,” just beyond the eastern boundary of the park and the Sierra crest. To be completely forthcoming, I made this photograph from the side of the road! (The many individuals who know this area well, and who have probably stopped to look at the same scene, already knew that…)
To briefly recap, the road here curves around the upper end of the lake above this small bay. Looking across the bay, the rocky edges of the lake are visible along with the steep talus slopes ascending to the peaks around Mt. Dana beyond. The spot has a natural beauty in terms of the forms of the landscape, but I think it is difficult to photograph as a whole – the light is the tricky thing. The earliest morning light is block by high peaks to the east and the late afternoon light goes quickly from sun to shade as the sun drops below ridges behind the camera position, and this light can be fairly flat since it comes from directly behind. This photograph was made in the morning, but not close to sunrise at all – it was two or three hours later. Even here the scene isn’t without technical challenges, especially from the dynamic range that spans from the shadows behind backlit rocks and trees to the very bright snow fields at upper right.
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