Death Valley National Park and Sierra Nevada Range :: California

I am happy to announce the publication of the California Gallery containing 67 images from Death Valley National Park and the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Range.

There were many surprises on this trip. I had thought, “The desert – Death Valley – what’s to see?”, and was just wanting to get out of Chicago in February to someplace warm. What I saw were countless textures and shapes and colors of rock and mud and clay and stone. I wanted to stop the van every few miles and capture images. And there were vast open spaces, no cars or roads or telephone poles or power lines to litter the eye. Not even trees to block the sight line to the bases of mountains rising up in a snowy patchwork.

Even the weather surprised me with its variety – snow (in the upper elevations), some rain with standing pools of water turning the dust red, surrounding dried-out sage brush. Imagine photographing steam rising from the clay furrows at Zabriskie Point! And there were just enough mostly scattered clouds to give color and texture to the sky.

What Death Valley National Park shows me are the phases of an ongoing geological process that’s over 5,000,000 years old. Pretty long time. 70,000 lifetimes or so. I’m glad I had a chance to see it in this one.

Below are three images from the workshop. Please view them and more as a slide show at the California Gallery on a large monitor to appreciate the detail in these images. Viewing on a smart-phone will simply not do them justice.

Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park has the widest variation in geological forms and colors I have ever seen.  This image shows the Mesquite Sand Dunes like waves of gold stretching below the Grapevine Mountain Range.

“Waving Gold”, Mesquite Sand Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California (C) Hitzeman Photography

Sierra Nevada Range, Lone Pine, California

This trip also included a drive to Lone Pine, California, in the foot hills of the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  They’re called the Alabama Hills — unusual and beautiful rock formations and a few arches.  In the early days of movies, westerns were filmed in this site because of its scenic rock formations and nearness to a local town.

“Sierra Gold Sunrise”, Lone Pine Peak, Sierra Nevada Range, California (C) Hitzeman Photography

Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point is a part of the Amargosa Range in Death Valley National Park.  Its erosional  landscape is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 million years ago.  The site was named after Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company in the early 20th century. The company’s famous, iconic twenty-mule teams transported borax from its mining operations in Death Valley.

“Manley Peak Bask”, Death Valley National Park, California, (C) Hitzeman Photography

What are we busy about?

It is not enough to be busy.  So are the ants.  The question is: What are we busy about? — Henry David Thoreau

This past week has been very busy.

Sunday I worked on getting 3 images ready to submit in the April competition of the Mayslake Nature Study and Photography Club.

Monday I attended the club competition meeting and took notes on the judges’ comments on my entries as well as a friend’s, whom I had encouraged to join and also to submit photos.  He won an Honorable Mention, and I won an award for the image below titled “Lake Powell Sunset”.

“Lake Powell Sunset”, near Page, Arizona, (c) Harry Hitzeman

One of the other images I submitted that I really like (and so did Hank Erdmann, one of the judges) is below, titled “Owens Lake”.  This scene impressed me with the patience of the sage brush plants in waiting for rain water to make it over the Sierra Nevada mountains.  I like the pastel foreground and sky, split by the sharp detail of the snow in the peaks.

“Owens Lake”, near Lone Pine, California, (c) Harry Hitzeman

Wednesday I studied the amazing moving images created for The Clash of the Titans (I’ll spare you my  Kraken jokes!).

Thursday I completed building 4 DIY Plamps to hold plants steady in the field when I’m photographing them.

Friday I attended Photoshop for Digital Photographers, a live day-long workshop presented by Scott Kelby, and also enrolled in a two-year membership to the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).  I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know that I didn’t know, and will be studying more over this year (and beyond).  Whereas 2009 was the Year of Learning How to Capture the Image Data, 2010 will be the Year of Learning How to Enhance the  Image Data.  (Ansel, we’re not in Kansas anymore!)  I also learned that my friend Jen bought herself a new camera for her birthday because she was inspired by how much FUN I was having!

Saturday I went on an outing with 8 other photography club members to the Morton Arboretum here in Dupage County, getting down in the mud to shoot wildflowers.

And today, Sunday, I installed my new Dell 24-inch monitor, which shows great color, much better than my old one.

Whew!! Sometimes I can feel a tad overwhelmed with so much to learn, so much equipment to buy, so many years of work to go to get as good as I want to be.  But that’s just a thought that doesn’t feel good, and wears me down.  To get back to a state of calm, measured excitement, I like to remember these closing words from Desiderata:

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.  And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him [or Her or It] to be.  And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.  Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

So. Go ahead. Gaze at the stars.  Hug a tree. Create and appreciate beauty.

And … be happy!

“Spring Wildflower”, Morton Arboretum, DuPage County, Illinois (c) Harry Hitzeman

Masterclass :: Tonality and Contrast

Assignment: High Dynamic Range

“Photograph a scene that offers a high dynamic range, exploiting the fact that either the high values will be too white or the shadows too dark.  Compose to work with areas of blackness or whiteness against which the mid-tones can shine.  Don’t make any attempt to control high dynamic range with image manipulation.”  — from Digital Photography Masterclass by Tom Ang

Result

This is an unedited image of the Sierra Nevada mountains looking west at sunrise, just as the first rays of direct sunlight are hitting the snow-capped peaks.  Exposure at ISO 100, shutter speed 1/80s, aperture f/8 ensures that the highlights of the  mountain whites are not blown out.  When unedited, this image leaves some areas of the arch in almost total black darkness.   Just 30 seconds later, the arch was bathed in the morning glow, showing more light and detail in the formerly dark arch.  (View more images of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.)

Commentary / Learnings

This assignment from Tutorial 3 :: Mastering Your Camera :: Tonality and Contrast, was a challenge in that, as a fine art landscape photographer, I normally want to get the entire scene in detail, and avoid areas of total black or total white.  These areas are called “blowouts” where there is zero data to work with during  the editing process, leaving areas of the image or print either totally white or totally black .  As part of the routine of capturing the image,  I always adjust ISO and shutter speed and aperture to expose for the areas of important detail, and often compose the scene to exclude the sky from the frame because of its great brightness.

The learning here for me is that composing the scene and selecting camera settings affecting exposure are all choices, not necessarily absolutes.  What to include or exclude in the composed frame and what exposure choices to use depend on the artist’s vision for the finished print.  Yes, a scene can be “technically” exposed to “correctly” capture the most detail data from dark to light, or it can be exposed for an effect or mood the photographer as artist wants to convey, or to capture detail of the part of the scene of primary importance, and let other parts go to black or white.

My choice has been to capture the clearest image with the most detail possible with the equipment available, and later to make editing choices to create the print that I want to present as an artist.

Now, I am open to also allowing exposures with deep shadows and bright highlights if there’s an artistic reason.