Tag Archives: series

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

The Ridges Beyond

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The Ridges Beyond
A series of Eastern Sierra ridges leads to the east beyond a backcountry lake in morning light.

The Ridges Beyond. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A series of Eastern Sierra ridges leads to the east beyond a backcountry lake in morning light.

Because variations on this particular scene comprise a significant portion of the photographs I made during our August Sierra backcountry sojourn I have been trying to release them somewhat gradually. However, even though I shared a quite different version of the view from this camera position just a few days ago, here’s another. This one is, obviously, a near-panorama rendition that takes in the far edge of “our” little lake, its outlet, surrounding ridges, the more distant scene, and some beautiful morning clouds. The whole scene is softened by a bit of backlit morning haze.

Sometimes I’m immediately certain of what a photograph will look like as I make the exposure. But other times I’m less sure and I reserve judgment, perhaps making multiple exposures that will work for any of several possible directions I might take with the subject. That was the case with this scene — multiple “takes” were required not only for that reason but also to ensure that I’d be able to work with some rather extreme light contrasts between the shadowed foreground and the very bright clouds and sky.

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

Rising Desert Hills

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Rising Desert Hills
Rising Desert Hills

Rising Desert Hills. Death Valley National Park, California. December 10, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A rising series of colorful eroded hills, Death Valley National Park

I get to use this photograph to tell a story at my own expense. Before arriving in Death Valley I had previous shot a very different subject. I don’t recall if it was birds in fading dusk light or perhaps classical musicians in stage lighting and backstage work lights. (Some of you can already guess where this is headed…) On the first morning in Death Valley I headed to a place that I like to photograph in early light – a place where there usually aren’t too many people, despite the easily accessible location, and where the eroded and colorful geology is almost completely devoid of plants. I arrived before sunrise and soon found a nice composition that I had not photographed before. I spent some time working that scene before moving on and photographing another a little ways away. Partway through that second set of shots I realized that my camera was still on the settings for the prior low-light subject – namely ISO 3200. That is not exactly a typical landscape sort of setting, and while good results are possible when shooting low light subjects that way, the noise levels are far from ideal for landscape. I reset and continued shooting. (I did return to the location on the final morning of the trip to reshoot that first subject.)

This scene was one of the first that I shot after realizing my error. These very eroded hills place different color material in a series of rising hills – tan, reddish, purple-black, brown, and more. The smooth features along the tops of some of the small ridges contrast with the very sharp and angular lines of the eroded channels that lead down to the wash. Later in the day the light here is almost impossibly harsh and the colors fade, but for a few minutes at the start (especially) and end of the day the colors briefly intensify.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Commentary

Induro 5-Way Panhead Video – Count Me As Impressed

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I pretty much always shoot from the tripod so I’m attentive to tripod and ball head quality. I use the excellent Acratech Ultimate ball head at this point – it is a fine piece of equipment and has proven reliable through several years of substantial use including a lot of backpacking. (One reason I got it was the light weight for such a solid head.)

Today I say a video demonstration of a new ball head from Induro. While its larger size and bulk might make it less than ideal for my backpacking photography, this unit looks quite powerful and I’ll have to take closer look for use in other types of landscape and similar work. It looks like it would be especially useful for stitched panoramas, especially in that it allows for shots in which the horizon is not in the center of the frame.

If you haven’t heard of Induro, they are worth considering. I’ve been using their large C313 carbon-fiber tripod for several years now, and it has been solid and reliable through a lot of shooting in conditions ranging from the Sierra to Death Valley to the Pacific coastline.

Commentary

Kudos to Michael Frye for His Weekly Critique Series

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Michael Frye just posted the second in his weekly series of photograph critiques. It is no surprise that he offers insightful and relevant commentary of the photos, but I want to especially note the nature of his critiques.

A lot of what passes for photo criticism on web forums and elsewhere is less than wonderful stuff. I see all too many that fall into a couple of predictable and not very helpful categories. On one hand I see the shallow and quite meaningless one-liner comments: “Great work!” and “Stunning photo!” and “It sings” and the like are, of course, positive – but they provide very little to the photographer than a momentary warm feeling… which quickly when one realizes that the lack of depth in the responses suggests that the photograph didn’t really engage the viewer. On the other hand we see plenty of examples of the “let me tell you why you suck” school of criticism: these often inform the photographer than he/she ignorantly violated some “rule” of photography and can sometimes degenerate into little more than lists of “everything I can find to dislike in your work.” A lot of this stuff comes from people who honestly think that this is what “criticism” is supposed to be, but some of it comes from folks who should know better.

Given the prevalence of poor public critiquing, I’m especially grateful to Michael for demonstrating the features of good criticism. Some things you’ll note in his series: He begins by finding and acknowledging the admirable and interesting in the work being critiqued; he avoids the “this is wrong” or “you shouldn’t do that” commentary; he shares his reaction to the image, letting the photographer know how and why he responded to it; when he has a different idea he offers the alternative to the original artist rather than insisting; he illustrates what he might do differently; and he concludes by looping back to the positive aspects of his observations.

I’ve never had the opportunity to observe Michael lead a workshop, but if the approach he uses in the online critiques is any indication, I’ll bet that there is a lot to be learned from him at his workshops.