Tag Archives: distance

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

Trees, Granite, and Afternoon Haze

November 28, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late afternoon sun back-lights haze around trees growing on granite domes along the Tuolumne River, Yosemite National Park.

I’m a big fan of shooting almost straight into the sun, especially when haze is involved and even more so when backlit trees can be the subject. This photograph was made in essentially these very backlit conditions, with the direct sun just a bit above and to the side of the scene. I liked the way that the near tree’s branches had more presence in front of the haze-faded low contrast background of the nearby ridge with trees and the further ridge fading into the bright haze.

I posted a slightly different version of this scene last week – one in which I had placed the tree almost directly in the center of the frame. Although some will cite some “rule of composition” to disallow that sort of composition, I think that the rules don’t make a lot of sense if your way of applying them is to simply follow them slavishly. I consider them to be more like “observations about composition” than rules of composition. It isn’t that placing a subject in the center of the frame is wrong, it is just that doing so can have a very different effect than putting it along an edge, one-third of the way in from a corner, at the bottom or top of the frame, and so forth. It is more important to get a sense – either intuitive or analytical – of the effects might be of these different placement options. In any case, I liked the centered composition of the other version – centered compositions can have a certain kind of calm strength, and the centering perhaps focused a bit more attention on the tree and a bit less on the background.

At the same time, I like this more “tradition” composition that places the tree a bit off-center to the right side of the frame. In a way, this opens up the frame a bit and I think it gives the middle ridge and its trees a bit more presence. I think it also allows the viewer to see the subtle light on those middle distance trees a bit better. And speaking of that part of the scene… I made a mistake at the time of exposure. With the sun almost in the field of view of the lens, I had to shield the front of the lens from the sun – but in this image I apparently missed a bit since I found a fairly obvious reddish flare in part of the frame. I’m glad to say that by a combination of color balance correction, some control over saturation, and a bit of work with a curve…. I think that I have managed to make the flare go away!

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: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Southern California

From the Panamints to the Sierra

November 6, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A landscape of high desert ridges and mountain ranges extends from Death Valley’s Panamint Range to the peaks of the southern Sierra Nevada in late afternoon light.

This lookout, high in the Panamint Range at the end of a gravel road, is one of my favorite places to be at the end of the day in Death Valley National Park. Perhaps because it is a bit less well-known, because it has a name that is harder to pronounce and remember than “Dantes View,” due to its location at the end of this gravel road which at one point passes along a very exposed section of the ridge, and because it is farther from some of the popular places to stay in the park the number of visitors here remains small. I frequently have the place completely to myself or perhaps share it with one or two others.

Behind the camera position is a stupendous view down into Death Valley itself, many thousands of feet below. But in the other direction, looking back towards the west, a series of rugged high desert valleys and mountain ranges extends all the way to the highest peaks of the southern Sierra Nevada range. In the morning, the front light can show the details of snow and rock on the summit of the Sierra, but in the evening the light crossing the intermediate ridges picks up late-afternoon haze and mutes the details of the scene.

Commentary

California Sky, New Years Morning

September 10, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The sky over Northern California, stretching from coastal hills and fog across the tule-fog-filled Central Valley to the Sierra Nevada, New Years Morning.

On New Years Day 2008 I flew to Seattle for a family visit. As we flew out of San Jose and over the hills along the eastern edge of the Bay Area, the winter tule fog was filling the Central Valley and spilling up against the hills, while above and beyond it was a nearly perfectly clear sky. For those who might be unfamiliar with the landscape here, beyond the fog-filled Central Valley, and very far away, the faint dark line of the Sierra Nevada crest is visible, and if you look very closely you may be able to see that the highest peaks are snow-capped.

This photograph has sat in the archive for over three years. I liked the scene but I wasn’t quite sure of what to do with the somewhat odd colors that resulted from shooting though an airplane window and into very bright light. I had considered a straightforward black and white interpretation and, if fact, that is what I was working on when I decided to instead desaturate the image about three-quarters of the way to being monochrome – and for me this seemed like just the right thing and more in line with how I think of the scene now. Another question was whether to clone out the contrail of another plane near the upper left corner. In the end I decided to leave it, for several reasons that I’ll leave to your imagination for now.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts when this page is viewed on the web. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)

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

Dunes, Mesquite Flat, Sunrise

April 21, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Early morning light striking minor dunes on Mesquite Flat with Cottonwood Mountains wash and the Last Chance Range in the distance, Death Valley National Park.

These dunes are not too far from the main Mesquite Dunes near Stovepipe Wells – they are a bit further east from the better known tallest section of the dunes. The areas of lower dunes provide some very interesting shapes and textures on a smaller scale in some ways that those of the larger dunes. I photographed these with a long lens, shooting from a rise, at a point in time very shortly after the first morning light had struck the sand. The background hills, part of a very large alluvial fan at the base of the Cottonwood Mountains, were in the shadow of a cloud.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter (follow me) | Facebook (“Like” my page) | LinkedIn | Email
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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: distance

Trees, Granite, and Afternoon Haze

Like this:

From the Panamints to the Sierra

Like this:

California Sky, New Years Morning

Like this:

Dunes, Mesquite Flat, Sunrise

Like this:

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.