Tag Archives: recession

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

Fisherman, Ellery Lake, Sierra Crest

August 15, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lone fisherman casts into Ellery Lake beneath ridges rising through haze toward the Sierra Nevada crest

This photograph includes a subject that I’ve stopped and looked at many time, thinking there must be a photograph in it somewhere – and even trying to photograph it a few times – but never quite figuring out how to see it. Ironically, it was the wildfire haze and smoke that made it work for me this time, as that haze muted some of the over-abundance of fine detail that I think can distract from the larger form in this scene, and which also muted the bright reflections on the water which can otherwise be hard to manage.

I thought of this as monochrome image when I made it. (I don’t always know that at the time of exposure, but with digital we have the luxury of making that decision later if necessary.) My first thought was to make it a “natural” landscape, but I noticed that a fisherman had appeared along the left end of the foreground peninsula. Often my first reaction to the appearance of a person in my landscapes is to wait for the person to move. But I have learned that sometimes a very small figure in the landscape can change the image in ways that seem oddly out of proportion to the size of the figure. Here, especially in a larger print, the little figure against the background of the shining water changes everything, I think. Place the tip of your finger over that person to cover him, and see if you see what I mean. I did also continue to make a few more exposures after he left, but I like this one the best.

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

Devils Cornfield, Morning

July 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light on Devils Cornfield and receding ridges, Death Valley National Park

I’m a fan of shooting in the very early morning – what photographer isn’t? – and of shooting directly into the brilliant light of the rising sun, especially when that light shines through an atmosphere containing haze or dust. These conditions appeal to me in a variety of ways. The inclusion of this haze emphasizes the effect of atmospheric recession, and sometimes the most distant elements of the scene can fade to near invisibility as the atmosphere lowers the color saturation and contrast of the scene. Shadows, especially if bit of detail can be retained, can produce dramatic contrasts, and light glancing across the edges of features such as plants can be intensely colorful.

This photograph includes features of a scene that is easily accessible but perhaps one that people don’t often spend much time considering, especially at this time of day. Most photographs of the area that I see are made in fairly normal daytime light or perhaps in the warm and clear light of the evening golden hour. Here I found a slightly elevated camera position and aimed across the tops of clumps of grasses, a small nearby hill, and a succession of higher and more distant ridges leading away toward the mountains along the east side of the valley.

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

Desert Mountains, Pre-Dawn Haze

April 28, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Desert mountain ridges in pre-dawn “blue hour” light rise above Death Valley and recede to highest peaks in the distance

On this April 2013 visit to Death Valley I encountered some very challenging light situations. What you hope for on an early morning like this is beautiful, colorful dawn light, perhaps preceded by a warm pre-dawn glow and followed by bright morning light. But when it came to beautiful early morning light – and evening light, too – I got precious little of it this time. On two mornings a thin overcast and atmospheric haze pretty much killed the dawn light. On one other morning I got some light, but still had to deal with the haze. The clouds were with me on a couple of the evenings, too. I have sort of learned to pretty much go with this flow and accept that difficult light as the balance in the universe that gave me, and will give me again, astonishingly beautiful light.

However, even in such light I try to see what I can find to shoot, and sometimes it provokes me to see things that I might otherwise have overlooked completely. On this morning I was up well before dawn and I headed off to a specific location that I had scouted earlier. I had two possible sorts of photographs in mind for this spot. One involved the view back down and across the main valley, and the other was planned around the arrival of first light on these rugged and stratified hills along the west side of the valley. I got to my spot, was relieved to find that the air was fairly still, and I settled in to wait for the dawn… which never quite came. It was so murky and the light was blocked by so many clouds to the east that I wasn’t even really quite certain when dawn occurred. Things got lighter… but remained hazy. I made this photograph at a moment when, on a clearer morning, these hills might have begun to assume a warm colored glow from light in the eastern sky. But this time it was all blue. The hazy sky was blue, and the mountains were as well. Since the conditions were somewhat unusual, I went ahead and made some exposures. When I first looked at the results I wasn’t very thrilled. But as I looked at them more, especially at very large sizes, I began to appreciate the softer and lower-contrast lighting and the way that details in the formations of the mountains actually become quite visible.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Sea Stacks and Coastal Bluffs, Northern California

October 13, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Haze obscures sea stacks and bluffs along the rugged Pacific Ocean coastline of Northern California.

I made this photograph almost a year ago, from just about the same location as a more recent photograph of this scene that I posted a month or so ago. The location is along the Mendocino County coastline of northern California, a rugged and beautiful section of the state. Here the coast highway travels very close to the water along high bluffs that overlook the Pacific, and this particular cove holds this two-peaked island or sea stack and is backed by receding coastal bluffs that extend out into the water. In the far distance the shoreline to the south curves gently back towards the west, creating a large and very shallow bay.

The personality of this land and seascape changes constantly. On a (rare) completely clear day, the view to the farther shoreline might be easier to make out, but on the many foggy days the foreground scene could well be completely obscured. On this morning, most of the fog had cleared back from the coast, leaving a softly hazy atmosphere that amplified the effects of distance, and the surf was creating low clouds of spray along the coastline.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: recession

Fisherman, Ellery Lake, Sierra Crest

Devils Cornfield, Morning

Desert Mountains, Pre-Dawn Haze

Sea Stacks and Coastal Bluffs, Northern California

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