Tag Archives: contrast

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

Canyon and Strata

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Canyon and Strata
A desert wash in a winding badlands canyon leads toward contrasting strata, Death Valley National Park.

Canyon and Strata. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A desert wash in a winding badlands canyon leads toward contrasting strata, Death Valley National Park.

This juxtaposition of very dark and very light layers in this badlands terrain has long fascinated me. Often the contrasts among the various layers are relatively subtle, even where obvious colors are involved — but here we see nearly the darkest forms right next to some of the lightest. The material in the foreground is perhaps closer to the typical coloration.

There is a lot to look at in terrain like this, especially when viewed from a slight elevation. In some ways the largest forms mimic and expand on the smallest. Tiny irregularities combine to produce larger versions of themselves, and then these combine to produce larger gullies, which themselves collect together to form that great washes that drain the landscape.

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

Light and Dark

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Light and Dark
Highly contrasing geological formations in morning light, Death Valley National Park.

Light and Dark. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Highly contrasing geological formations in morning light, Death Valley National Park.

To be honest, much of the Death Valley landscape, as remarkable as it is, tends to feature somewhat neutral tones and colors — many grays and tans and light browns. This is particularly true outside the early and late hours of the day, when warm light often intensifies the subtle colors of the terrain. This neutral quality is actually one of the virtues of the landscape in most cases, particularly in the way that lets light and shadow emerge as primary visual components.

But sometimes a bit more contrast in the landscape can be a good thing, so when I find it here I almost always look for ways to photograph it. This simple scene is a fine example. The early morning sun was just beginning to strike the white colored hill, lining its right flank with rim light. Meanwhile the background slope, composed of much darker material interrupted by lighter strata, was still in 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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Roll-Up Doors

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Roll-Up Doors
A pair of roll-up doors on a San Jose industrial building.

Roll-Up Doors. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pair of roll-up doors on a San Jose industrial building.

Collecting quotations about photography is an occasional hobby of mine. (Making them up is, too!) One of my favorites comes from Minor White: “One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.” (There are several slightly different versions of this remark, so I suspect it is something that he referred to a lot.) This is a powerful and loaded observation, it has quite a few implications, and it points an appropriately wagging finger at those folks who seem to think that photography is nothing more than a way to “capture” things in some form imagined to be “objective.”

This is, perhaps obviously, one of those photographs of “what it is” and “what else it is.” The objective reality of this subject is pretty mundane — a pair of metal roll-up doors on a light-industrial building. I photographed it in bright, harsh sunlight, and the original includes colors not present in the monochromatic presentation I chose here. So, a couple fo doors, a bit of wall, and some dark concrete. Yet, that’s not what I really “see” when I look at this photograph — for me that “what else it is” is the main focus, to the point that I have to almost remind myself of the original subject.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Strata

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Strata
Sort morning light illumnates rugged desert strata

Strata. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft morning light illumnates rugged desert strata.

Desert landscapes can have an almost surreal quality, with features that are close to unbelievable. (I suspect that this happens in most landscapes, but the “barren” desert reveals them more clearly.) The landscape is laid bard, and we get a clear view of eroded features, twisted rock strata, contrasting colors produced by layers of different materials.

In certain places, in the right light, the contests and patterns become even more striking. This is one of those locations, and it was a day with that kind of light. These eroded hills are threaded with both very light and very dark strata, sometimes directly juxtaposed. On this morning the low-angle, directional light was softened a bit by high clouds.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.