Tag Archives: curve

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

Evening Sand

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Evening Sand
Warm evening light on sand dunes, Death Valley National Park.

Evening Sand. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Warm evening light on sand dunes, Death Valley National Park.

I photographed this scene on my first visit to this location. Going to a new location for the first time can be a complex experience. There is, of course, the excitement of photographing something new. But there are other feelings, too — uncertainty about where to start, a bit of confusion and guesswork about how the light will evolve and about where to find the most interesting subjects. While sometimes the new simply seems exciting, other times it is almost overwhelming. For the most part I think I’ve learned to go with the flow, knowing that I’m going to make some wrong choices, that I’m acquiring knowledge that I can use when I come back, and that most likely I will at least come away with something interesting.

Approaching this spot, at first I wasn’t quite sure where to begin. I had an idea of how the light might evolve as the day ended, but when I arrived the light was less than spectacular. Another thing I have learned is that it is often better to just start making photographs rather than waiting for the perfect to reveal itself. Setting up, looking, and making exposures often primes the pump, and soon I start to see things more clearly. It is also good to be flexible and ready to be surprised. This photograph is built around one of those surprises. At first these patterns of windblown sand seemed uninteresting and I went on to photograph something else. But in the very last direct sun (you can see the edge of approaching shadows at lower left) the low light revealed shadows and textures that had been hidden earlier, and the color of the light became momentarily intense.

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

Interrupted Dune #2

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Sand dune patterns, Death Valley National Park
“Interrupted Dune #2” — Interrupted curve of sand at a Death Valley dune.

If you follow my posts and think that this looks familiar… you are right! It is a vertical (or “portrait”) format version of a subject that I shared earlier in a companion “landscape” orientation version. When a subject can work either way (albeit with different effects) it is my practice to capture both vertical and horizontal versions. I suppose one reason is that it relieves me of the worry that I might have picked the “wrong” option. It also puts off a final choice until later. In addition, it provides me with two visual options for the image, something that is occasionally useful. (For example, book and magazine covers tend to use vertical formats.)

Superficially this version looks a lot like the other one, though the taller and narrower format may give greater weight to the curve running between the bottom and top of the image and less weight to the darker portions of the scene. However, if you were to look at them side-by-side you would notice that the textures in the sand are subtly different, and that that colors have also shifted a bit. This photograph, like quite a few that I make in situations like this, was made in rapidly changing light conditions, and in the brief interval between the two photographs the scene changed visibly.

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” from Heyday Books, is available directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Sunset Sand

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Sunset Sand
Sunset light, shadows, and sand dune textures, Death Valley National Park.

Sunset Sand. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light, shadows, and sand dune textures, Death Valley National Park.

In the evening I found myself in an isolated place. In fact, as near as I could tell, there was no one else in these dunes at all, despite a few parties being camped not far from my location. Taking stock of the orientation of the dunes and the surrounding topography, I decided that I wanted to be at the edge of the dunes about an hour before shadows from a tall ridge to me west would arrive there. I picked out a likely-looking destination in the distant dunes, waited in my “camp” for the right moment, and then headed that way.

The complex interplay between the warm-toned light angling low through the atmosphere, the hills that would inevitably cut off that light a bit before actual sunset, and the shapes, colors, and textures of the dunes plays out rather quickly. Sometimes the ideal light may last only minutes, though this can be extended a bit by looking for higher and lower spots to photograph and by paying attention to where the light will last a bit longer as it streams through low spots in the ridge. I thought that I was probably done for the evening until I looked toward this bit of dune texture, where the last bit of light was shining through one of those gaps in the mountains to the west.

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: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stairway, Upper West Side

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Stairway, Upper West Side
A stairway with curving metal railing and gate, Upper West Side, Manhattan.

Stairway, Upper West Side. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A stairway with curving metal railing and gate, Upper West Side, Manhattan.

The story of our “holiday pandemic” visit to New York continues. In our previous episode we heard that after pondering the go-don’t-go question during a week when we carefully watched rising case reports, our decision was to go ahead and do a long-scheduled holiday visit to Manhattan to visit family, including some we had not seen in person in two years. We’re triple-vaccinated, we loaded up with N95 masks, we avoided most of the usual non-family New York attractions, so we were about as safe as we could be — not perfectly safe, since no one is, but generally fine.

Given the unusual circumstances of visiting Manhattan (and The Bronx) during a pandemic, our routines necessarily changed. Every morning began with a quick, masked trip to a downstairs bakery, where we retrieved coffee and pastry that we ate in our hotel room while waiting for the 15-minute rapid tests to complete. When we were not with family, our options for entertainment were somewhat limited, but we eventually worked out a rough walking loop that we followed a few times. It took us through some West Side neighborhoods between Broadway and Central Park, including the street where I photographed this fascinating metal stairway and gate.

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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