Tag Archives: pattern

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

Dusk Clouds, Badwater Basin Panorama

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Dusk Clouds, Badwater Basin Panorama
Dusk Clouds, Badwater Basin Panorama

Dusk Clouds, Badwater Basin Panorama. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful dusk clouds against darkening sky above the salt flats of Badwater Basin and the distant ridges of the Amargosa and Panamint mountain ranges.

This was one of the final photographs I made in fading light on this evening. (I made another series a few minutes later when the sky and clouds and salt flats were all various stages of blue – I may ultimately post that image here as well.) The very last light was catching the clouds above Badwater and the central portions of Death Valley, and the color was already fading quickly in the darker area to the east over the Amargosa Range.

As I have mentioned before, the very wide dynamic range between the shaded surface of the salt flats and the bright bit of sunlit cloud and sky at the far left necessitated the use of two exposures which were then combined in post. (Even after this light finally faded I was not yet finished for the day. An hour or so later I was doing night photography under the light of the rising full moon at 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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM at 17mm
ISO 100, f/16, composite of two exposures in the 1/2 to 1/4 second range.

keywords: badwater, basin, salt, flat, polygon, pattern, white, texture, panorama, evening, sunset, twilight, dusk, dark, sky, color, orange, pink, blue, amargosa, panamint, mountain, range, ridge, horizon, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, landscape, travel, scenic, nature, stock

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods

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Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods
Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods

Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods. Muir Woods National Monument, California. April 17, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lush growth of late winter ferns in the redwood forest of Muir Woods National Monument, California.

This is a color version of the previously-posted photograph, cropped slightly differently. Among many specimens that mixed new lush green growth with older dead plants from the previous season, this sample was almost entirely green – the leaves were densely packed, overlapping and intertwined.

Sometimes I like a particular image in both monochrome and color versions, and this is one of those cases. The black and white version posted yesterday abstracts the shapes and textures of the leaves, while the color version more strongly suggests the wet and lush undergrowth of this redwood forest.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 200, f/16, 4 seconds

keywords: lush, growth, fern, leaf, frond, branch, green, overlap, dense, winter, late, redwood, forest, coast, grove, foliage, flora, nature, scenic, travel, muir, woods, national, monument, golden gate, recreation, area, pattern, san francisco, california, usa, north america, marin, county, stock

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods (Black and White)

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Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods (Black and White)
Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods (Black and White)

Late Winter Ferns, Muir Woods (Black and White). Muir Woods National Monument, California. April 28, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of lush leaves of late winter ferns in the redwood forest of Muir Woods National Monument, California.

On this late-winter visit to Muir Woods National Monument – a place I photograph often – I noticed the combination of lush growth for recent heavy rains and somewhat warmer temperatures indicating the approach of spring. Many of the forest floor plants were coming back to life and there was lots of greenery everywhere. (There were also plenty of wildflowers, though it seems that I missed the trillium bloom this season.)

Ferns grow throughout the groves in the bottom of the Redwood Creek canyon and there is a mixture of lush green ferns and the older dead growth underneath. One of my objectives was to shoot the older brown and gray ferns, but I couldn’t resist this pattern of the interlocking and overlapping leaves of these very green ferns – not that you can tell in this black and white rendition of the subject! (There is a color version of this photograph coming soon.)

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 200mm
ISO 200, f/16, 4 seconds

keywords: lush, growth, fern, leaf, frond, branch, green, overlap, dense, winter, late, redwood, forest, coast, grove, foliage, flora, nature, scenic, travel, muir, woods, national, monument, golden gate, recreation, area, pattern, san francisco, california, usa, north america, marin, county, stock, black and white, monochrome

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Dusk

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Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Dusk
Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Dusk

Badwater Basin Salt Flats, Dusk. Death Valley National Park, California. March 29, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Newly formed salt polygons extend to the horizon as evening clouds gather above the Badwater Basin salt flats, Death Valley National Park, California.

This is one more – and perhaps the last – in a series of photographs I shot on a late-March evening in the Badwater Basin of Death Valley National Park. The light goes through a long and interesting transitional process at this location. Because of the tall Panamint Mountain range to the west, the direct sun leaves the surface of the salt flats quite early, though the hills along the east side of the valley and the more distant mountains can still be sunlit for some time. Once the sun drops behind the Panamints, the “white” salt actually can end up being quite blue since it is illuminated entirely by the diffused light from the blue sky. As I have mentioned before this creates some interesting subjective questions for the photographer. Should the salt be white? Should it be as blue as it looks in the capture? Should it be somewhere in between? I’ve seen interesting and effective photographs that seemed to take each of these approaches.

In this case, because I shot a bit before actual sunset and while some clouds reflected less blue light onto the playa surface, the need to alter to color balance was diminished a bit – which is not to say that I didn’t do some work to balance the colors so that they looked more like what I remembered. A second issues is related, namely that the sky remains very bright while the salt flat surface, in deep shade, is very dark by comparison. On the scene, the eyes/brain compensate and the difference seems less than what the camera records. So, again, some adjustment in post is needed. In this case I made two exposures one stop apart. On just barely handled the brightest portions of the sky without blowing out, while the other did a better job of holding the details for the shadowed salt formations. I combined the two source images in post.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Twitter | Friendfeed | Facebook | Facebook Fan Page | Email

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM at 17mm
ISO 100, f/16, composite of 1/13 second and 1/6 second exposures

keywords: badwater, basin, salt, flat, desert, polygon, water, playa, crust, pattern, sky, cloud, evening, dusk, sunset, blue, mountain, ridge, range, distant, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, geology, horizon, stock