Tag Archives: curves

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

Mesquite Dunes and Cottonwood Mountains

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Mesquite Dunes and Cottonwood Mountains
Mesquite Dunes and Cottonwood Mountains

Mesquite Dunes and Cottonwood Mountains. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft and hazy late-afternoon light on Mesquite Dunes and lower Cottonwood Mountains, Death Valley National Park.

The color of the sand dunes of Death Valley changes radically at different times of the day, in different weather conditions, and even seasonally. Many of the photographs of these dunes – the “Mesquite Dunes” in the middle Valley near Stovepipe Wells – are made in the early morning or in the evening. At those times the dunes take on the colors of sunrise/sunset light (generally very warm yellow to golden colors) or the pre-dawn or (better yet) post-sunset light of the sky, which can include a range of colors from blues to pinks to purples and so on. Judging by photographs you might think that the dunes are brightly and intensely colorful. (Or black and white, but that’s a different story.)

Most of the time the coloration is quite different from what we see at the early and late “edges” of the day. The less saturated colors at other times of day can be a bit more complicated to shoot, but they can also create some wonderful subtle effects if you happen to look in the right place at the right time. Late in the afternoon on this early spring day, there was some haze in the atmosphere – perhaps from some blowing dust and/or some clouds and moisture that had been around earlier. As the sun drops at Mesquite Dunes, it goes behind mountains to the west well before actual sunset. When this happens, the dunes are gently back-lit by soft light from the western sky, and the backlit haze mutes the colors of the dunes and, even more, the distant slopes of the rugged Cottonwood Mountains.

My idea here was to isolate the undulating shapes of the softly lit dunes in front of the background of the very, very muted colors and shapes of the lower Cottonwood Mountains, which are obscured by haze. There is some color in this scene, but it is subdued and edges quite a ways towards pastels.

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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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dead Branch, Glaciated Granite

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Dead Branch, Glaciated Granite
Dead Branch, Glaciated Granite

Dead Branch, Glaciated Granite. Yosemite National Park, California. June 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dead branch lies on glacially-polished granite in the Yosemite National Park back-country.

I made a promise to someone to not say where this photograph was made – I’ll just say it is in Yosemite National Park. But the exact location really doesn’t matter too much, as these large expanses of glaciated granite slab are a common feature throughout the park, and you could find similarly interesting geology in thousands of locations.

I was a little surprised to find this weathered branch in this location, since it was a good distance from any trees and also not near any flowing water. Besides its location, a few other things about it caught my attention. First, its curving shapes lined up in a way tht seems to tie in with the bit of glacially-polished granite that lies beneath it. (And, yes, this is exactly where the branch was when I found it.) In a way, the larger shape of the lighter area of granite winding across the photograph from side to side almost seems like a much thicker echo of the curving shape of the branch. In addition, the warm brown tones of the branch seem to stand out a bit – though perhaps more in a larger print – against the relatively drab color of the rock.

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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.

Ideas, Reviews, Technique

Review: “Light & Land” by Michael Frye

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Over the past few weeks I have had the chance to go through Michael Frye’s new ebook, “Light and Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom.” Many are no doubt already aware of Michael’s reputation from his photography, his workshops, and his other publications including his “Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite” and “Digital Landscape Photography: In The Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Masters.” I have the .pdf version of “Light and Land”, and I understand that an iPad app version may also be available.

Light and Land - Michael Frye
Light and Land - Michael Frye

It is typical for photographic “how to” books to focus on specific techniques, and to be organized around a presentation of these techniques – perhaps with a section on curves, a section on black and white conversion, and so forth. This approach has its place, especially for certain types of learners and at certain points in the learning process. It is important to understand the basic techniques and operations that are available in the “digital darkroom” of such programs as Photoshop, Lightroom and so forth. That said, the bigger and more important issue is how to call upon these techniques creatively and effectively and appropriately in order to make photographs. Not all “how to” books do an effective job of illustrating this.

Michael’s “Light & Land” takes a different approach, and one that more accurately and realistically reflects the thought process of a photographer who is calling upon this arsenal of techniques in the service of creating beautiful photographs.  He writes:

“The digital darkroom gives us tremendous control over our images. We can make them lighter, darker, add contrast, change the color balance, increase saturation, turn a color photograph into black and white, remove telephone poles, blend exposures with HDR, combine ten images to capture infinite depth of field, or put a winged elephant in the sky.

But what do we do with these choices?” Continue reading Review: “Light & Land” by Michael Frye →

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

UFOs and Their Mission

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UFOs and Their Mission
UFOs and Their Mission

UFOs and Their Mission. San Francisco, California. February 20, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of a Mission District storefront with UFO flyer in the window, San Francisco, California.

The intricate and curved wrought iron work on the front of this building in San Francisco’s Mission District first caught my attention. As I came closer I thought that the underlying textures and patterns of blinds and stuff in the store and the street reflections might be interesting. Then I notice the small pamphlet taped to the window: “UFOs and their Mission.” The mystery deepens… :-)

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 50mm f/1.4 USM
ISO 200, f/8, 1/80 second

keywords: the, mission, san francisco, california, usa, north america, street, urban, city, store, window, storefront, wrought, metal, iron, curves, ufos, their, mission, sign, flyer, flier, reflection, newspaper, sill, blinds, sky, columbia, stock