Tag Archives: Cloud

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Clouds at Last Light – Badwater Basin and Panamint Range

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Clouds at Last Light - Badwater Basin and Panamint Range
Clouds at Last Light - Badwater Basin and Panamint Range

Clouds at Last Light – Badwater Basin and Panamint Range. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Last light of the day over the Panamint Range casts its glow on Badwater Basin salt flats and clouds.

In what may be the last gasp of my obvious attempt to extract as many photographs as possible from this late March evening in Badwater Basin, here is yet another. This one was photographed well after the sun had set, and I had turned my camera away from the expansive view north into Death Valley and to the east towards the Panamint Range and Telescope Peak over which I saw this wing-shaped cloud. While there was a thin band of relatively bright sky above the Panamint Range, everything else was heading quickly toward twilight. (The longer exposures listed in the “technical data” below will confirm the light levels.)

I’ve previously mentioned the subjective issue of how to handle the very blue tone of the “white” salt formations here. The salt is, no doubt, really white – but after the sun dips below the Panamint Range the only light is that of the very blue sky, and the salt picks this up. If you think about it you can see it on the scene, but when you look at the photographs later it is absolutely clear. I’ve been thinking for several weeks about how I’d handle this one, and I decided over a week ago that I’d “go for the blue” with this rendition.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM at 17mm
ISO 100, f/16, composite of .8 second and 1.3 second exposures

keywords: panamint, mountain, range, badwater, basin, salt, flats, polygons, desert, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, landscape, travel, scenic, dusk, twilight, sunset, cloud, large, dark, sky, nature, blue, evening, pink, stock, pattern

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Dusk

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Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Dusk
Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Dusk

Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Dusk. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Newly formed salt polygons extend to the horizon as evening clouds gather above the Badwater Basin salt flats, Death Valley National Park, California.

This is one more – and perhaps the last – in a series of photographs I shot on a late-March evening in the Badwater Basin of Death Valley National Park. The light goes through a long and interesting transitional process at this location. Because of the tall Panamint Mountain range to the west, the direct sun leaves the surface of the salt flats quite early, though the hills along the east side of the valley and the more distant mountains can still be sunlit for some time. Once the sun drops behind the Panamints, the “white” salt actually can end up being quite blue since it is illuminated entirely by the diffused light from the blue sky. As I have mentioned before this creates some interesting subjective questions for the photographer. Should the salt be white? Should it be as blue as it looks in the capture? Should it be somewhere in between? I’ve seen interesting and effective photographs that seemed to take each of these approaches.

In this case, because I shot a bit before actual sunset and while some clouds reflected less blue light onto the playa surface, the need to alter to color balance was diminished a bit – which is not to say that I didn’t do some work to balance the colors so that they looked more like what I remembered. A second issues is related, namely that the sky remains very bright while the salt flat surface, in deep shade, is very dark by comparison. On the scene, the eyes/brain compensate and the difference seems less than what the camera records. So, again, some adjustment in post is needed. In this case I made two exposures one stop apart. On just barely handled the brightest portions of the sky without blowing out, while the other did a better job of holding the details for the shadowed salt formations. I combined the two source images in post.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM at 17mm
ISO 100, f/16, composite of 1/13 second and 1/6 second exposures

keywords: badwater, basin, salt, flat, desert, polygon, water, playa, crust, pattern, sky, cloud, evening, dusk, sunset, blue, mountain, ridge, range, distant, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, geology, horizon, stock

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People

Person Atop the Grandstand, Racetrack Playa

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Person Atop the Grandstand, Racetrack Playa
Person Atop the Grandstand, Racetrack Playa

Person Atop the Grandstand, Racetrack Playa. Death Valley National Park, California. March 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A climber stands atop “The Grandstand” formation in the middle of the Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California.

I got a short period of good light when I visited the Racetrack Playa in late March… followed by an evening, a night, and a morning of mediocre light. Win some – lose some! When I first arrived at the playa it was still relatively clear, with only the thin high clouds seen in this photograph. My first stop was at “The Grandstand,” this interesting rocky hill in the middle of the otherwise perfectly flat playa. As I wandered around looking for good angles from which to photograph the formation, a succession of visitors climbed to the highest point of the formation. I had never thought to do this, even though I had climbed over part of the Grandstand to get to the other side on a previous visit. After waiting some time for the climbers to get out of “my shot,” I finally figured out that the lone figure atop this large rock made an interesting subject.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 200, f/11, 1/320 second

keywords: death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, racetrack, playa, moving, rocks, the, grandstand, formation, man, person, climber, top, summit, atop, stand, brush, plant, sky, cloud, mountain, range, scenic, travel, nature, landscape, sport, active, adventure, drive, stock, blue

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Salt Flats and Sunset Clouds – Near Badwater

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Salt Flats and Sunset Clouds - Near Badwater
Salt Flats and Sunset Clouds - Near Badwater

Salt Flats and Sunset Clouds – Near Badwater. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset clouds above the patterned salt flats near Badwater, Death Valley National Park, California.

This photograph was made in the evening at the “secret” spot on the salt flats just south of Badwater. Reports and photographs from this location a couple weeks ago indicated that it had been flooded by earlier heavy rains, but by the time of my visit there was little standing water left here, with the exception of a few open spots (one seen in the middle distance on the salt flats) – though it did appear that the flats might still be wet beneath the salt crust. Walking on this was an odd experience that reminded me a bit of walking on newly frozen winter ice. The appearance of the salt flats was quite changed by the water. Typically the ridges between the flat “polygon” sections of the salt are more distinct, being as tall as a few inches and sometimes almost seeing to break over one another like the edges of ice floes. But at this stage the flats are almost, well, flat.

Shooting this scene in the evening often provides a few technical challenges. In the past I’ve shot from a lower camera position in order to get a closer view of the salt. This time I decided to place the camera bit higher so that I could capture a larger expanse of the salt flat texture. Another issue is the color of the salt. We “know” that salt is white, and when one walks on the playa it registers as white to the eyes/mind. But if you observe carefully – or look at a photograph later – you find out that this salt is anything but white, mostly because it is illuminated entirely by the open sky and therefore picks up the sky coloration. When the sky is clear the salt can become so blue that corrections are needed, in my opinion, during post-processing. On this evening the blue was not as pronounced since the colorful clouds balanced it out to some extent. A third issue is the tremendous dynamic range of the scene, ranging from some very bright sky below the clouds near the left side of the frame, through the much less brightly-lit salt flat, to the very dark foothills on the horizon at the right. In order to manage this I had to do two things. First, instead of using a graduated neutral density filter to lighten the foreground and control sky brightness, I made two exposures one stop apart and combined them in post. Secondly, I used layers to separately adjust sections of the image, primarily differentiating between the salt (which need to be lightened up a bit) and the sky (where the brightest areas needed to be controlled).

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L at 17mm
ISO 100, f/16, composite: 1/6 second and 0.3 second

keywords: badwater, salt, flats, polygon, pattern, playa, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, evening, dusk, sunset, cloud, colorful, pink, orange, blue, sky, landscape, nature, light, travel, scenic, geology, mountains, stock