Tag Archives: patterns

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

Sea of Dunes

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Sea of Dunes
Undulating patterns of overlapping sand dunes extending into the distance.

Sea of Dunes. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Undulating patterns of overlapping sand dunes extending into the distance.

Sand dunes occupy a tiny fraction of Death Valley National Park but are one of the most common photographic subjects. They loom large in our sense of the place, perhaps because sand dunes evoke of a sort of alien landscape. But they also present a visual blank slate that is open to diverse interpretations. We can approach them as “grand landscapes” or as intimate landscapes, as abstractions of shape and color, as backdrops for photographs of people and wildlife, and more. I think I began by seeing them as grand landscapes but now find it more interesting to seek out little fragments of form and light.

Perhaps because it makes everyone a bit uneasy we don’t speak a lot about the extent to which photographers treat dunes as a photographic starting point for visual experimentation. By this I mean to acknowledge that most interesting, compelling photographs of sand dunes involve a lot of “interpretation,” much of it done via post-processing techniques. To be sure, I regard this as conceptually legitimate and even necessary, and I embrace it in my own photography— I egard post-processing to be as integral to photograph-making as setting up the camera and clicking the shutter.

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

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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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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrian Landscape

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Pedestrian Landscape
A few through upper story windows toward street level pedestrians and geometries.

Pedestrian Landscape. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A few through upper story windows toward street level pedestrians and geometries.

This is one in a series of photographs from this spot and of this scene, mostly made on this visit to San Francisco, though there are a few made on other dates, too. The photograph is, obviously, made from a location up high in an urban building — high enough that it was possible to get a nearly vertical perspective on the street below.

There are a few things going on here that were interesting to me as I photographed. I’m photographing through the tinted glass of a modern building. Recently I’ve been interested in the effects of glass on iight and subjects in situations where its presence isn’t obvious. Here it lens an unusual, cool tone to the colors of the scene. As I photographed small numbers of people passed by on the sidewalk. It was interesting to watch their interactions as they approached and passed on another. In addition, from this perspective things in the scene that would ordinarily be almost invisible become central, especially the various kinds of geometries throughout the scene.

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: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature

Evening Dunes

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Evening Dunes
Abstract interpretation of sand dunes in evening light.

Evening Dunes. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Abstract interpretation of sand dunes in evening light.

For this photograph I decided to move further from supposed reality than usual. In my view, no photograph actually portrays “objective reality” accurately. That’s a good thing, and I prefer subjective reality in photographs. In other words, I’m interested not so much in what the photograph claims to tell us about the reality of the subject as I am interested in what the photographer wants us to find in the subject.

I was in sand dunes in the evening after the sun had dropped beyond mountains far to the west, leaving very colorful light in the clouds, light that suffused the landscape with color while softening the details. Here I was interested in the large patterns of light and dark and the smaller patterns made by wind on the surface of the dunes. The final interpretation of the colors reflects the bluish tones of evening light and the effect of the brightly colored sky, though here I modified the colors in ways that seemed to make some sense for this image.

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.