Tag Archives: light

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

Sand Dunes, Soft Light

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Sand Dunes, Soft Light
Soft morning light on overlapping sand dunes, Death Valley National Park.

Sand Dunes, Soft Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Soft morning light on overlapping sand dunes, Death Valley National Park.

We often hear that photography is all about light, and nowhere is this more true than when photographing sand dunes. In the middle of the day the dunes can be challenging to photograph, with harsh light and little definition of their forms. But all sorts of magic can happen when the angle of the light is lower and the dunes act as a canvas to capture and reflect the light and its color, intensity, softness, and more. The colors can vary through almost every shade from blue through red, and the light may be soft and gentle or stark enough to turn shadows almost black. And at times the light passes through all of these stages and more in moments.

I’ve long felt that dune photography gives the photographer more creative and interpretive freedom than many other subjects. Because the subject is so basic, it is possible to take liberties with the light — its intensity and color — and render photographs of dunes in a variety of subjectively true ways. The light was extremely soft when I made this exposure, so I used to tools of the post-production stage to bring out the colors and forms of the subject.

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

Badlands, Morning Light

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Badlands, Morning Light
Soft morning sunlight on colorful badlands terrain, Death Valley National Park.

Badlands, Morning Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Soft morning sunlight on colorful badlands terrain, Death Valley National Park.

This area of Death Valley attracts me on almost every visit to this desert landscape. Unlike many of the places I like to visit in the park, it isn’t in the “back of beyond,” and I often photograph here on a morning when I don’t want to travel too far, for example on the final morning of a visit. Like many badlands locations, this area provides an astonishing wealth of potential photographic subjects, and their appearance changes with the light.

In keeping with the usual practice, we visited early one morning on this trip, arriving in the area before sunrise so that we would be ready for the arrival of the first light. This morning sun can be intense, but a bit of high cloudiness softened the light a bit, and this made the colors a bit more visible.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Dune Study, Evening

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Dune Study, Evening
An interpretation of soft dune forms and colors in evening light, Death Valley National Park.

Dune Study, Evening. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

An interpretation of soft dune forms and colors in evening light, Death Valley National Park.

When photographing sand dunes I spend a lot of time looking for just the right combination of shading, texture, line, curve, and color. But in the end, it mostly comes down to the light — the light that colors the sand, creates the shading, and illuminates those lines and curves. It seems like every photograph in the sand dunes is an ephemeral, one-time thing, and the particular combinations of conditions can never be precisely replicated. Unlike subjects where the primary elements of the scene don’t change much, each visit to the dunes takes me to different places and photographs.

On a late-March trip to Death Valley National Park, I revisited a location that I had photographed with great success a couple of months ago. This time Patty accompanied me, and I wanted her to experience the light that I had worked with on the earlier visit. That did not happen. Two months ago the evening sky was clear, and warm-colored sunset light illuminated the western-facing dunes. This time the sky was filled with clouds and the light was soft and the colors far less intense, producing an entirely different and subtle experience.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Cranes, First Light

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Cranes, First Light
The first morning sunlight on a flock of sandhill cranes standing in a wetlands pond.

Cranes, First Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

The first morning sunlight on a flock of sandhill cranes standing in a wetlands pond.

The light and atmosphere were a bit unusual on this morning. There was just a bit of ground fog, along with some general haze. As the sun came up, a thin layer of clouds to the east over the Sierra Nevada blocked the direct sunlight. These factors combined to produce a very muted and subdued quality as I photographed groups of sandhill cranes in ponds at this wetlands location, standing in groups and occasionally flying off.

As I photographed in this subtle light I knew that eventually the sun would rise about that eastern cloud deck, and that this would produce a few moments of very warm-colored light that was still softened by the haze and fog. I made this photograph of the cranes just as that first direct sunlight arrived.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.