Tag Archives: monochrome

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Schoolhouse Ruins, Rhyolite

October 16, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning sunlight shine through the window frames of the ruins of the abandoned schoolhouse in the ghost town of Rhyolite Nevada, near Death Valley National Park.

The ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada is located just east of the boundary of Death Valley National Park, along the edge of the Amargosa Valley, and not far from Beatty, Nevada, which itself is close to the Nevada Test Site. Put all of that together and you have the potential for a bit of a spooky place!

Rhyolite was a short-lived mining town in the early 1900s, when it apparently was home to thousands of people who streamed to this forsaken landscape to find silver. The town was eventually abandoned – although some mining still takes place in the area – but a good number of the larger buildings are still there, in various states of decay. An old train station that looks pretty fancy is fenced off to keep us out, but you can walk (respectfully and carefully!) among many other old structures including the old school house that is the subject of this photograph.

I’ve been out here a number of times and dawn is my favorite time to photograph here. The light makes it to many of the old ruins very shortly after actual sunrise, and there is a moment of often beautiful light at this time. From Rhyolite the hills inside Death Valley National Park are visible to the west and above the nearer hills you can see Telescope Peak, the highest point in the park at over 11,000′ elevation.

The school (like a few of the other ruins) looks like it must have been a very large and robust structure. Even though the roof and the second floor are gone, almost all of the exterior walls still stand and don’t show any immediate signs of incipient collapse. On this morning I made a series of photographs from just inside one of the “doorways” of the school with a wide-angle lens. I selected and shared a few of them back in 2009, but I recently went back to my original raw files and decided to try this one in black and white.

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.

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

Building Clouds, Upper Young Lake

September 23, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Black and white photograph of clouds building in the sky above Upper Young Lake and Ragged Peak, Yosemite National Park.

Young Lakes in general, and the upper lake specifically are among my favorite places in the Yosemite back-country. This little Basin has a lot to offer, especially to photographers. For one thing, it is almost completely open to the west and late day light, and the upper lake is one of my favorite places to be as a summer evening comes to an end. (There is, of course, then the matter of the typical walk back to my campsite at the lower lake in the near darkness, but that just adds a bit of adventure.)

If I recall correctly, this was one of those days when I did not quite predict the weather accurately. I saw these beautiful clouds beginning to build fairly early in the day, but figured that I’d have plenty of time to get to the upper lake and perhaps even investigate some areas beyond before the weather got “interesting,” so I headed off without any real rain gear. (You know where this is leading…) Here at the upper lake, the clouds don’t look bad at all – definitely in the “interesting” category, but not all that threatening. With that in mind, after shooting here a bit I headed on up above the lake to check out some higher ridges and so forth that I’d been thinking about visiting.

Much to my surprise, within a few the wind picked up and giant raindrops began to fall. I heard a few claps of thunder. And there I was at timberline without any rain protection at all. Needless to say, I high-tailed it back down, stopping briefly to get a bit of shelter under a tree near the middle lake. Arriving back at my camp, I had the ever-so-fun opportunity to practice the skills of a somewhat wet me into my bivy sack without totally soaking my sleeping bag…

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Driveway and Brick Homes

September 20, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Black and white photograph of a concrete driveway between tightly-spaced brick homes, New York City.

I’m actually not precisely sure where in Manhattan this scene is any more. We were walking somewhere towards Chelsea when we passed through a little neighborhood of brick homes, and I just happened to notice this little scene as we walked past. Aside from plastic trash receptacles with plastic liners and the air conditioners, I don’t think there is much in this scene to date it, which is one of the reasons that I chose to go with a black and white rendition.

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

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.

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.

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