Tag Archives: cloudy

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

Desert Pool, Panamint Range, Morning

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Desert Pool, Panamint Range, Morning
Desert Pool, Panamint Range, Morning

Desert Pool, Panamint Range, Morning. Death Valley National Park, California. February 21, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A salt spring pool on the salt flats in Death Valley reflects winter dawn light on the east face of the Panamint Range.

Sometimes I hear people describe how they think or imagine that landscape photography is done, and I wonder where they get their ideas. I will acknowledge that there are many ways to shoot landscape, ranging from working very slowly and carefully to produce a single image, to shooting like crazy and seeing what you end up with. But often people dismiss approaches closer to the latter and assume that the former is the “right way” to shoot landscape.

In my experience it isn’t quite that simple. Sometimes the experience is like certain others in which long stretches of time during which one seemingly accomplishes nothing or perhaps just looks and thinks are suddenly followed by quick and intense spurts of work that come almost as a surprise and may be over as quickly as they begin. This little morning shoot in Death Valley along the edge of a the salt/mud flats where the water from a small salt spring spreads across the flats and forms shallow pools was one of these. Very early in the morning, well before dawn, it was difficult to know what the best shooting option might be. There were clouds in the sky that promised to block the dawn light and everything seemed gray and flat. I wandered a bit, not sure where or what to shoot, and finally, more or less by chance, ended up at this spot that I had visited earlier on this trip. It occurred to me that even if the light wasn’t great I could possibly find a photograph that included this water. So I stopped and began to unpack in no particular hurry.

As I walked across the wash toward the area of the spring, much to my surprise it began to appear that there might be some interesting dawn light after all. I quickened my pace and headed toward the area of the shallow pools, and when I arrived there a moment later I could see some color on the top of the Panamint range. I quickly found a decent foreground pool and as the surprising light worked its way down the front of the range I began photographing. I first made several exposures at much shorter focal lengths, including a larger portion of the sky and the foreground. Then I quickly moved the tripod to place this pool in the center of the frame and hold the reflection of the range. I had little time to contemplate as the light was changing very quickly. I had just enough time to find my composition and make a few exposures, and within moments the light was gone.

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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.

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

Moving Rock, Racetrack Playa

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Moving Rock, Racetrack Playa
Moving Rock, Racetrack Playa

Moving Rock, Racetrack Playa. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white panoramic format photograph of a moving rock at Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California.

This photograph probably belongs in the “trying to turn lemons into lemonade” file. I’ve had wonderful luck with great light on all of my previous visits to the remote Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, the site of the “moving rocks” that have left tracks in their wake across the playa surface. However, my string luck seemed to run out on this late March visit. Earlier in the day as I contemplated whether or not to head out there I noticed some budding lenticular clouds to the north and made the decision to go. My preference is to have some clouds at the Racetrack, as perfectly clear sky isn’t as interesting in my view. Plus I always have in mind a particular previous visit when I photographed the playa at dawn with beautiful lenticulars building over the mountains to the north of the playa, and I think I’m always hoping for similar conditions again.

The plan on this visit was to arrive in the mid-afternoon to shoot the Grandstand, a formation near where the road first arrives at the playa, and to then photograph the beautiful evening light, the full moon (in the evening and then again before dawn) and finally the dawn light. The conditions continued to look great as I did the long washboard drive to the playa, and I arrived and photographed the Grandstand as planned. However, as I finished up here a high band of clouds moved across the sky and flattened out the light. As evening came on I was out on the playa, but the clouds remained and the light was not remarkable. I finally wandered back off the playa after dark, hoping that the clouds would clear and allow full moon photography. This never happened, and when I returned to the playa early in the morning the overcast was still present, with only a thin area of blue sky far to the west.

But I photographed anyway. Softer, overcast light has its potential, and since I was there I was certainly not going to waste the opportunity. In the end, I wasn’t thrilled with what I brought back for the most part, though I do like the effect of the overcast and the softer light on this black and white photograph of one of the more recognizable rocks. (By the way, the rest of my Death Valley visit went much better than this one night!)

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.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM at 170mm
ISO 200, f/16, 1/8 second

keywords: sliding, moving, rock, trail, playa, surface, flat, cloudy, morning, inyo, mountains, hills, sky, clouds, monochrome, peak, snow, geology, nature, landscape, scenic, travel, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north american, remote, mystery, icon, light, flat, crack, earth, dry, desert, stock

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

Sliding Rock, Cloudy Morning – Racetrack Playa

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Sliding Rock, Cloudy Morning - Racetrack Playa
Sliding Rock, Cloudy Morning - Racetrack Playa

Sliding Rock, Cloudy Morning – Racetrack Playa. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of a “sliding rock” on a cloudy morning at the Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California.

The weather gods were not on my side during my visit to the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley near the end of March. My plan was to shoot sunset and sunrise, and in between to do night photography. As I drove out there on the terrible washboard gravel road my hopes were high – I saw some interesting looking clouds that looked like they might even form into lenticular clouds. When I arrived I shot a bit in decent light at the “Grandstand” feature near the north end of the playa.

Unfortunately, the good light was short-lived. Before I left the Grandstand a high, thin back of clouds spread across the sky. It stayed in the evening (tantalizing me with some bits of clear sky far to the west), blocked the full moon all night, and was still there when I wandered out onto the playa in the morning to do some early shots. It never did really clear, and I came back from the playa with far fewer good images than I expected. (I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’ve had uniform great luck with lighting on every previous visit, so I was probably due for less than great light.)

In order to make this photograph work I did quite a bit of post-processing, some of which I anticipated when I made the exposure. First of all, I realized that getting everything from the very close rock to the distant ridge in focus would be a problem. So I made three exposures, “focus bracketing” them with one focus on the far ridge, one focused on the rock, and one focused in between. I made a blend of the three exposures in post, keeping the most focused portions of each.

Because the light and colors were fairly flat I decided to go with a black and white interpretation. The conversion was fairly straightforward, but here I also decided to indulge in a bit of post-processing. I duplicated the background layer, turned it into and “overlay,” and added some Gaussian blur. With a bit of dodging, burning, and work with curves, the image ended up where I imagined it would.

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.

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Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 80mm
ISO 200, f/16, 1/10 second

keywords: sliding, moving, gliding, rock, stone, racetrack, race, track, playa, cracked, mud, earth, ground, cloudy, mountain, hill, barren, desert, rugged, track, trail, black and white, monochrome, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, landscape, nature, travel, scenic, stock

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

Moving Rock, Overcast Morning Sky – Racetrack Playa

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Moving Rock, Overcast Morning Sky - Racetrack Playa
Moving Rock, Overcast Morning Sky - Racetrack Playa

Moving Rock, Overcast Morning Sky – Racetrack Playa. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A “moving rock” beneath overcast morning skies at the Racetrack Playa, Death Valley.

First a bit of background about “the Racetrack,” the location of the famous “moving rocks” in Death Valley National Park. About 25 miles out in the desert back-country of the park on a very bad gravel road there is an isolated and desolate playa known as “the Racetrack.” (For those considering a visit, getting to the Racetrack is no trivial matter. The drive takes nearly two hours one-way and the road is awful, with some of the worst wash-board surface I’ve ever encountered. There are absolutely no services along the road or at the Racetrack – no water is available and your cell phone won’t work.) The name of the place comes, in some circuitous way, from the mysterious rocks that have clearly traveled across the playa, sometimes many hundreds of yards, and left tracks gouged into the playa surface. The most likely explanation for the phenomenon involves a combination of a periodically flooded playa, extremely high winds, and rare occasions when it is cold enough to freeze the surface of collected water, locking the rocks in place and allowing the wind to move them. I’ve never heard anything concrete about the frequency of this alignment of conditions, but as far as I know no one has ever observed the rocks actually moving, nor is there any indication that they have moved recently.

I’ve been out there three times in the past, and had great conditions for doing photography. On this visit I had plans to photograph in sunset and sunrise light and to attempt night photography of the rocks under the full moon. (I did the latter once before, but was less familiar than I am now with how to best do this with a DSLR.) Since I’ve had such good luck with weather and lighting conditions in the past, I suppose I was due for less than optimum conditions… and that is what I encountered. Shortly after arriving at the playa the sky was covered by high, thin clouds. Except for a brief moment close to sunset this made late day photography difficult. The overcast stuck around until I left then next morning, making the planned full moon night photography an impossibility, and the morning light was also challenging.

That said, I’m still glad I went. Standing in the middle of this empty playa completely alone as the day ends or begins is an amazing experience that few people get to have. And I did manage to bring back a few photographs that I think will “work.” This one was shot fairly early in the morning at what might have been around sunrise, if a sunrise had actually occurred.

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 200, f/16, 1/8 second

keywords: moving, sliding, rock, race, track, racetrack, playa, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, morning, cloudy, sky, earth, cracked, dry, arid, desert, mountain, snow, covered, inyo, landscape, nature, travel, scenic, mystery, track, trail, phenomenon, lippencott, mine, road, stock