Tag Archives: light

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

Desert Pool, Panamint Range, Morning

March 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

A salt spring pool on the salt flats in Death Valley reflects winter dawn light on the east face of the Panamint Range.

Sometimes I hear people describe how they think or imagine that landscape photography is done, and I wonder where they get their ideas. I will acknowledge that there are many ways to shoot landscape, ranging from working very slowly and carefully to produce a single image, to shooting like crazy and seeing what you end up with. But often people dismiss approaches closer to the latter and assume that the former is the “right way” to shoot landscape.

In my experience it isn’t quite that simple. Sometimes the experience is like certain others in which long stretches of time during which one seemingly accomplishes nothing or perhaps just looks and thinks are suddenly followed by quick and intense spurts of work that come almost as a surprise and may be over as quickly as they begin. This little morning shoot in Death Valley along the edge of a the salt/mud flats where the water from a small salt spring spreads across the flats and forms shallow pools was one of these. Very early in the morning, well before dawn, it was difficult to know what the best shooting option might be. There were clouds in the sky that promised to block the dawn light and everything seemed gray and flat. I wandered a bit, not sure where or what to shoot, and finally, more or less by chance, ended up at this spot that I had visited earlier on this trip. It occurred to me that even if the light wasn’t great I could possibly find a photograph that included this water. So I stopped and began to unpack in no particular hurry.

As I walked across the wash toward the area of the spring, much to my surprise it began to appear that there might be some interesting dawn light after all. I quickened my pace and headed toward the area of the shallow pools, and when I arrived there a moment later I could see some color on the top of the Panamint range. I quickly found a decent foreground pool and as the surprising light worked its way down the front of the range I began photographing. I first made several exposures at much shorter focal lengths, including a larger portion of the sky and the foreground. Then I quickly moved the tripod to place this pool in the center of the frame and hold the reflection of the range. I had little time to contemplate as the light was changing very quickly. I had just enough time to find my composition and make a few exposures, and within moments the light was gone.

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

Zabriskie Point Badlands, Morning Snow on the Panamint Range

March 10, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning light on fresh snow on the summit of the Panamint Range with Zabriskie Point Badlands in the foreground, Death Valley National Park.

After getting being frustrated by falling snow earlier in the morning when I tried to photograph dawn at Dantes View I headed back down to lower terrain. (Although I was not successful in photographing at Dantes View and, in fact, turned back before the summit in dense clouds and falling snow, it was quite an interesting visit!) I stopped along the way and made some photographs before arriving at Zabriskie Point.

At this point I no longer reflexively photograph at Zabriskie, though I will if something special or unusual is happening with the conditions. Having been frustrated in my original plans, I figured I might as well take a look around since I was there. I left the camera gear in my car and walked up the hill to the famous overlook to see what I could see. The dawn light – if there had even been any on this cloudy morning – was long gone, though a few photographers were still hanging out. As I looked about I noticed two things. First, the clouds were just beginning to thin over the Panamint range. While the summit of Telescope Peak was still socked in – it appeared to be snowing there – light was beginning to break through gaps in the clouds above the east side of the range and interesting shadows were appearing below the snow line. Second, the partially cloudy conditions were softening the light right in the Zabriskie/Gower Gulch area and the light in some of my favorite small gullies to the right of the observation area was looking somewhat interesting. (I have made a project of photographing them with a long lens.)

With no other specific plan, and two potential subjects right here, I followed one of those “laws of photography” that says shoot the thing you see now rather than continuing to wander around hoping that some other miracle crops up. (Sometimes this is great advice. Other times it is dead wrong!) I walked back down the hill to my car, grabbed my gear, and walked back up. I first spent some time photographing the nearby gullies. (I think I have a couple of interesting images of them that will appear here eventually.) But I quickly turned my attention to the interesting weather and light across the Valley, thinking about how I might photograph this wild and rugged scene without making it look like another Zabriskie Point image. I decided to use a relatively long focal length lens – which was already on the camera for shooting the gullies anyway – and try to fill the entire frame with a combination of close and far mountains and snow and clouds in the morning light.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Motorcycle Parking, Night

March 7, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Night photograph of a covered area for motorcycle parking at the front of a clinic, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

This should be the final image in the recent run of night photography from Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, near Vallejo, California. To recap, near the end of February I joined my fellow night photographers from The Nocturnes for a “Mare Island Alumni” meetup and shoot. I’ve shot this location – virtually always at night – for something like five years now, and I still find new things to shoot on each visit.

Early on I mostly focused on what some call the “historic core” of the place – an area of dry docks, giant cranes, and old shops and factory buildings. Later I began to investigate areas around the periphery of this location and to poke my lens into odd little alleys and corners that I didn’t see at first. More recently I have begun to look at smaller and less obvious features of the place and I continue to expand the boundaries of the areas that I know and shoot. This shot and the companion shot I posted just before it are a bit of a departure from my usual Mare Island work in that the scene is a more modern sort of urban landscape illuminated by modern lighting that doesn’t have the warm glow of the security lights and other forms of illumination found elsewhere.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Industrial Building, Stop Sign, Night

March 5, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Night photograph of an old industrial building and a stop sign beneath sky with star trails, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

This old building at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard appears to be some sort of warehouse and loading dock, judging by the raised flat area attached to the front of the building and the large doors. I made the photograph from the middle of a large empty parking lot, and in addition to the horizontal form of the yellow corrugated metal building, I wanted to include the green glow through the windows at the far left and the red stop sign. The sky has a bit of a warm glow that is coming from the urban areas of the East Bay – Mare Island is on the fringe of this area.

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