Some folks have written asking for ideas and advice about visiting Death Valley. (My first advice is go last month – too hot now!) In response I decided to start writing something that summarizes my experience (which is significant, but nowhere near that of the real DV experts) in the park, especially as it pertains to photographic locations and times of day/year to visit.
I originally thought I’d finish it right after my return from the park at the beginning of April. Didn’t happen… Instead, as I wrote the darn thing kept getting longer and longer. Today I decided to illustrate it with some of my DV photographs, and then I sat back and made a longer outline of the subjects I will eventually cover.
All of this is my way of saying that there eventually will be an article here on photographing Death Valley… but please be patient.
Today’s photograph (the earlier one of Alcatraz in lovely morning light) was made at the tremendously popular parking lot, I mean viewpoint at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. On fairly normal days, especially in the afternoon, it can be so crowded there that you simply cannot find a parking space.
On this morning, with this astonishing light, there was only one other person there when I arrived. A couple more showed up as I hung around and made photographs. That was it.
Steps ascend a steep hill through the redwoods near the start of the Ocean View Trail, Muir Woods National Monument, California.
This is a scene that I have photographed before – in particular I recall photographing these steps early in the evening before one of the winter solstice events at Muir Woods, when the trails through the grove are lit by candles. On the last day of February this year I visited again, but this time very early in the morning before many other visitors had arrived. I was thinking “color” when I made this photograph (and I may still post the color version eventually) but I ended up liking this black and white version quite a bit. I like the diagonal division between the upper left half which mostly includes the vertical forms of the redwood trees and the lower right section which includes the steps leading in to the trees.
This was actually a somewhat tricky scene to photograph. While the dynamic range was quite huge, ranging from the deep shadows on the sides of the trees at the left to the almost sunlit foliage beyond the trees, overall the scene was quite dim. Because I needed great depth of field I shot at f/16. Because I wanted the cleanest image possible I shot at ISO 100. All of this meant that I ended up making a 2.5 second exposure! Still there were post-processing challenges, including bringing up a bit of detail in the darker areas of the scene while at the same time being careful to not increase the brightness in the bright spots. And after paying attention to the extremes some work had to be done on the middle tones to get some life back there.
This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.keywords: muir, woods, national, monument, park, marin, forest, nature, california, usa, steps, stairs, railing, fence, trail, ocean, view, redwood, grove, trees, ferns, clover, oregon oxalis, redwood sorrell, green, canopy, light, filtered, trunk, landscape, scenic, travel, outdoor, hike, stock
Detail view of a section of the base of Tucki Mountain in early morning light – near Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley National Park, California.
I had started this early April morning by hiking around to the back side of Mesquite Dunes near Stovepipe Wells before sunrise. After shooting sunrise in and around the dunes I decided to make some photographs of Tucki Mountain, a massive peak that towers above the Dunes and Stovepipe Wells and dominates the view of this part of the Valley. Here the very early sunlight is slanting across the lower slopes of the mountain from the left with the light catching the folded textures of this rugged peak. This photograph is a stitch of three 12MP photographs.
This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
keywords: detail, view, tucky, mountain, base, wash, rugged, valley, ridge, peak, barren, rock, early, morning, light, death valley, national park, stovepipe wells, mesquite dunes, scenic, travel, landscape, california, usa, nature, shadow, texture, fan, geology, stock
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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