Tag Archives: out

Commentary

Death Valley Delayed

4 Comments

Earlier this winter I had evolved a plan to visit Death Valley earlier in the year than I usually do – I was planning on going later this week. However, as the season as unfolded it has turned out to be a very wet one in DEVA NP. According to reports (including this one) many roads are closed or washed out, including those to some of the places I was planning to visit. While the wet conditions also bring some special and unusual opportunities (including landscapes with reflections in ponds), at this point I’m going to hold off and reschedule my visit for the end of March.

By that time there is a good chance that more of the closed areas will have reopened. I have a hunch that this might also end up being a special year for wildflowers – and if I’m lucky I might manage to be there at right about the best time.

Commentary

What Does “Purist” Mean?

8 Comments

So, let’s say you happen to be spending some time in a popular place doing photography and other things. In the course of your day you wander down to a spot that is very popular with tourists, and you discover an interesting and impressive-looking gallery of photographs. You go inside and read about the photographer – a self-described “purist” who says the photographs show the scenes as they were at the time of the exposures and don’t use fancy and artificial post-processing.

But all but a few of the photographs look like the saturation slider in Photoshop was pushed up to about 100. (OK, I exaggerate… a bit! :-) Highlights in clouds and such are blown out. Shadows are blocked. And colors are pushed in odd and impossible directions.

You understand why such an approach is appealing to folks unfamiliar with fine photographic work, especially when the presentation and pricing of the prints screams “This is Great Photography!” But you’ve seen really, really fine photographs that did not depend on heavy-handed post-processing. In fact, among the photographs in this collection you see a few that take the high road and don’t go over the top, and which remind you of some of those other fine and subtle and sophisticated prints – and which even inspire you a bit.

The artist’s statement keeps coming back to you – the business about being a “purist” and about not post-processing and about presenting in the photographs an unadulterated and real vision of the original subjects.

What do you do? Do you get mad? Do you laugh? Do you try not to think about it? Something else?

Just wondering…

BTW: A few things for the record:

  • I am not criticizing any specific photographer, but rather thinking about an issue that we might all have to deal with.
  • You do not know what photographer (or “popular place!”) I might be writing about – and since the specifics don’t matter I won’t confirm or deny anyone’s guesses.
  • Consider the possibility that I might have just made up the whole story as a literary device for this post… :-)
Commentary

Building 101, Corner View

Leave a comment
Building 101, Corner View

Building 101, Corner View. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. August 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The corner of building 101 under artificial light and with fog overhead – Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California.

Like I said, I guess I’m not finished with this series yet.

This is the same Building 101 that I photographed from several different perspectives late in the evening of my August 30 visit to the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in Vallejo, California to do night photography with some other Flickr folks. The other photographs of Building 101 are straight on and explore various portions of the front of the building. For this one I shot straight at the corner of the building instead, for several reasons. For one, I wanted to include the different types of light striking the two visible sides of the building. Almost all of the light is artificial aside from a bit of moonlight, but the light striking the right side comes from a very close and bright – and very yellow! – sodium vapor light. It was all I could do to handle the saturated yellows on this wall. The front of the building is lit by lights that are a bit weaker, though they only appear less garish by comparison to the almost hallucinatory yellow light on the right side. Above this are some interesting converging angles of roof and walls and overhead the fog glows in the artificial light from sources below.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gdanmitchell
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/gdanmitchell
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gdanmitchell

keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, minsy, vallejo, california, night, nocturnal, photography, historic, building, structure, 101, yellow, artificial, light, bright, window, door, roof, pipe, wire, metal, texture, rust, peeling, dilapidated, old, worn, out, shadow, reflection, grafitti, paint, urban, industrial, lamp, fog, overcast, sky, glow, stock