Morning sun backlights receding eroded ridges and boulder in the coastal mountains of California’s Big Sur coast.
I now am not quite certain where this exact spot was… but somewhere along the Big Sur coast in the area of Garrapata State Park – there is a pretty good chance that it is just a bit north of Rocky Creek bridge and just south of the actually Rock Creek. (Where there is a restaurant which has, or so I hear, a wonderful view and very high prices.) As I probably mentioned in photos I posted earlier from this May 1 shoot, one subject that I was pursuing was the morning light from the sun as it just barely topped the high and steep mountains along the coast highway. This creates at least two interesting conditions, and both are present in this photograph: diffused and hazy light as the sun shine though very thin fog rising up the canyons from the ocean, and thin lines of light along the tops of ridges and peaks.
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.
Black and white photograph of patterns of gully and hills in bright daytime light at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.
Here I decided to try a black and white high key approach to this generally very bright scene shot not in the typical early morning time frame, but about two hours or so after the middle of the day. I like the way that darker, shadowed wedge of hill on the right sits in the middle of the curving line of the gully as outlined by the lighter face in the full sun. As with several other photographs I’ve posted recently from this area, I used a rather long focal length and composed an image from a very small detail of the scene in the folded hills below Zabriskie Point.
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.
Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 330mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/80 second
keywords: zabriskie, point, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, desert, geology, folds, gully, earth, hill, bright, day, daytime, light, shadow, pattern, texture, curve, angle, black and white, monochrome, travel, scenic, landscape, nature, high key, stock, southern
A small dry wash runs past folded patterns of eroded hills in morning light at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.
This is another in my “up close and personal” sequence of photographs of details of the geology at Zabriskie Point. Zabriskie is undeniably an incredibly beautiful spot, but after photographing “the view” a number of times my attention was drawn to some of the smaller details of the surrounding terrain. While I’ll still shoot the famous view(s) from this location when conditions are special, I now spend more time using a long lens to pick out small elements of the scene – and there are a lot of them to work with!
On this morning the light was, at times, very special. When I made this photograph the typical sidelight from the early sun was diffused and filtered by some high clouds in the east, and this soft light is different than what I’ve seen here before – it seems to me to have a subtle glow.
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.
Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 150mm
ISO 200, f/14, 1/40 second
keywords: zabriskie, point, gower, gulch, wash, folds, eroded, hills, formations, crack, earth, desert, barren, morning, light, sand, gravel, tan, brown, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, detail, landscape, nature, stock, geology, scenic, travel, dry, hill, gully
Photograph of a sunlit gully in afternoon light at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.
Zabriskie Point is a justifiably famous overlook in Death Valley National Park – arguably the iconic view of the park, with the pyramid-shaped Manley Point above amazingly folder patterns of hills and gullies and with Death Valley and the sometimes snow topped summit of the Panamint Range beyond. (OK, the dunes might compete with Zabriskie in the Icon department…)
Everyone photographs at Zabriskie, and I’m no exception. However, my approach to this location has changed over time. At first any Zabriskie sunrise seems worth photographing, and in all honesty sunrise there is an amazing experience in all but the worst conditions. Eventually, though, you become a bit more discerning and not just any sunrise will do. I’ll generally only shoot sunrise there now if I think that the conditions will be extra spectacular, usually meaning some combination of clear or otherwise interesting lower atmosphere, perhaps snow on the Panamints, and some interesting clouds overhead. But even that is starting to feel a bit overworked.
Recently I’ve been trying to figure out what (and how) to photograph here without doing “the usual thing.” Several ideas have come to mind. Earlier I posted a photograph of the Manifold formation made at night under a full moon, and I think there is still more potential there. As others have done, I’ve played around with trying to find shooting locations other than the familiar one near the overlook. This photograph is an attempt to combine two other approaches that I’m working on – detail shots of small elements of the scene made with a long lens and shots made during the day at times other than the “normal” sunrise time.
I first saw this small gully a couple years ago when I happened to stop at Zabriskie during the mid-morning period on my way back from shooting somewhere else. Initially I just thought I’d wander up the path from the parking lot, scout things out a bit, and move on. But as I looked at the scene I realized that not all parts of this spot are necessarily best lit at sunrise, and that some actually can become interesting during the less obvious times of day. This is one attempt at a further exploration of this particular twisting gully, here shot in very bright daytime sun light only slightly diffused by high thin clouds.
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.
Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 400mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/125 second
keywords: zabriskie, point, fold, gully, hill, pattern, light, shadow, ridge, brown, golden, wash, rugged, gravel, dirt, geology, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, desert, formation, afternoon, winding, stock
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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