This little geological vignette intrigued me. While exploring an area in Death Valley featuring very dark, fine gravel that almost has the appearance of shallow dunes, I came across low flat areas where water has obviously collected in the past. Now there was a surface of old mud, cracked into separate pieces as it dried, a familiar desert sight. But here this surface was pockmarked with small black stones.
Continue reading Mud And Stones
I feel that there is always a tension in landscape photography between showing things as they literally are, showing them as we might wish they were, and using them as departure points for more imaginative explorations of what they suggest to us. This photograph falls squarely into the latter category. As I looked at the remarkable patterns in these shoreline rocks, I thought about how I have seen similar patterns in paintings. So I decided to push reality a bit and head in the direction that those works suggested.
Once again, this photograph illustrates how I/we can find new things in old places. I made the photograph at a coastal spot that I have photographed since I was a young kid with a cheap black and white camera, imagining himself following in the footsteps of Adams and Weston — who also photographed exactly here. Decades later I still return and ind new things and new ways to see them.
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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These rock formations have fascinated me since I first saw them decades ago as a child. My parents used to take us on family outings to Point Lobos, and very early on I began to photograph the place. (I am pretty sure that I went there on an elementary school field trip, a memory brought back to me on this visit when I saw a busload of kids eating lunch at picnic tables.) This little intimate landscape includes forms which seem to suggest the sea itself — I can see waves and inlets and more in it.
This particular spot at the reserve has a variety of interesting features. Stratified rock layers descend to the water of a cove, and they are twisted all sorts of interesting ways as the work of the water exposes them. There are colorful bands and intrusions. Sometimes the layers are turned on their sides. And, as here, the action of waves gradually peels back the layers, leaving abstract forms. (Hint: If you look closely you might spot a tiny tide pool and a few of its small inhabitants.)
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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.