Tag Archives: shadow

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

Dune Curves, Morning Light

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Dune Curves, Morning Light
Early morning light and shadows on curving dune forms, Death Valley National Park

Dune Curves, Morning Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light and shadows on curving dune forms, Death Valley National Park.

Yes, it is one more in the never-ending series of sand dune photographs. As I have written previously, the dunes provide a seemingly endless photographic laboratory in light and shadow, color, texture, form, and more. They can be photographed on the large scale, where they comprise an entire monumental landscape, but they can also be presented on a smaller scale, where a photograph might feature a single gesture of sand, a plant, animal tracks, or some other small thing.

I think that you can look at many photographs of this type as having a dual nature. Looked at one way they are representations of “the real” in the natural world, though always with some degree of subjectivity and interpretation. Looked at in another way they can almost be abstract, divorced from their sources. I enjoy trying to see them both ways and in exploring the flexible boundary between the two ways of seeing. Here I was intrigued by mirrored shapes, in one case created by sunlight on a dune surface and in the other a shadow cast by a low ridge that is not within the frame.

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 and Amazon.

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

Sand, Branches, Shadows

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Sand, Branches, Shadows
Shadows of dried branches on windblown sand dunes

Sand, Branches, Shadows. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows of dried branches on windblown sand dunes.

A small group of photographers ventured into the dunes early on this late-winter morning, starting out from the nearby roadway in pre-dawn darkness. As we walked the sky began to get lighter and before long we could begin to make our our surroundings and our destination in an out-of-the-way area of dunes. Along the way we were surprised — though in retrospect we should not have been — by muddy areas still soaked by recent rains.

The sun still was not up when we arrived at the edge of the dunes. As a group of five photographers we encountered a slight challenge — compared to when we photograph such places alone, we found that we had to consider every step regarding how our tracks would potentially intrude on our partners’ photographs! While dunes are mostly sand, there is quite a lot of life there, too. Early in the morning it is common to find the tracks of lizards, snakes, birds, and even small animals. Here and there plant life can be found, too. These spindly branches mostly looked dead, though a few retained the color of living plants and might soon put out a few post-rain leaves.

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 and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Dunes, Shadows, Morning

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Dunes, Shadows, Morning
Patterns of morning light and shadows on dunes, Death Valley National Park

Dunes, Shadows, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patterns of morning light and shadows on dunes, Death Valley National Park.

I made this photograph early in the morning. A small group of us arrived while it was still dark out, anticipating a walk of perhaps a half hour to get to the area we wanted to visit. Since we wanted to be in position well before dawn, we were set to start walking before there was enough light to see our objective. Someone asked, “Which way do we go?” I looked into the murk, couldn’t really make out the dunes, and guessed, “That way! We’ll correct course when the light arrives.”

In the dunes you find yourself in a veritable photographer’s laboratory of of shapes, juxtapositions, textures, and colors. And it is not static scene either when you are there very early or very late in the day — the light changes quickly. Dusk light lends brings softer light and lens a blue cast to the scene. When the sunlight first arrives there can be stark differences between brightly lit highlights and deeper shadows with cooler tones. Before long the colors began to fade and the scene can become more subtle or even nearly monochromatic. When I made this photograph, warm and color-saturated light was coming across the top of the dunes, but the light in the shadows, still mainly from open sky, was of a cooler blue color.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow

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Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow
A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky.

Long before I understood what I was seeing I had noticed and was intrigued by that band of darker sky just above the horizon during the morning and evening twilight, very close to the time that direct sunlight appears on the highest points. There is something very mysterious about it, and it suggests to me great distances beyond those encompassed by the immediate scene. Eventually I learned what now seems obvious — this is the edge of the shadow of the earth, dropping away in the moments before dawn and rising in the moments following sunset. (To this day, every time I think of this, I recall photographer Gary Crabbe’s “interpretive dance” as he explained this at a talk I attended years ago — one hand extended out and upwards pointing to the shadow, and the other extended at a slight downward angle pointing to the unseen sun. Thanks, Gary!)

I made this photograph from a high point east of the Sierra crest one September. I headed out this way in pre-dawn darkness not sure what I would find. I was pleasantly surprised to find extensive aspen color, even though it was just past mid-September, and then to find an open overlook from which I could take in a large section of the Sierra as dawn arrived.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.