These Death Valley pictures were lost until I found them earlier today while searching for pictures to write about. Right after shooting them I made a mistake somehow when loading them and every picture loaded at 600dpi across the longest edge. Every now and then I would be searching through pictures and come across the file with the tiny Death Valley pictures I couldn’t use anywhere. It was my third real trip there after one of my throat operations. The doctor said, “No talking for any reason for five days.” So I figured Death Valley could be a great place to go and not talk to anyone.
Then the pictures were lost. This morning I saw one and noticed the date on the name. Then as I was searching a file popped up of the files Lightroom saves onto a hard drive that don’t get changed. I flipped through a few and remembered the date on the small picture. Scrolling down to the dates of the trip, I found the entire five days untouched my a clumsy photographer.
On this trip I spent a great deal of time in the Mesquite Sand Dunes towards the north end of the park. I also drove around exploring and discovered how big the park really is when you go searching. It was also the trip where I discovered just how good Yeti coolers are for simple road-tripping. It only needed one bag of ice per day in 90 degree weather. The 90 degree weather was the reason for the long gas sucking drives every day: my Tacoma was the only place with AC. That heat without any trees or shade was very unpleasant and why I don’t go back to Death Valley too often.
My personal favorite landscape photographer, Ansel Adams, and another photographer who isn’t a favorite but is a legend nonetheless, Edward Weston, both made some amazing black and white images of sundry sand dunes back in the day. So whenever I’m in sand dunes it’s impossible to not see their iconic images in my mind.
Finding these pictures opens the opportunity to do several posts of black and white or color because of the black and white nature of sand. Of course, shooting in color then getting curious and experimenting with ideas in black and white means I’m doing the pictures at sunrise and sunset to maximize the color saturation in the dunes. Perhaps pure black and white would look better in the brighter parts of the day to really let the highlights go to Zone 0/1 and the shadows go to Zone 9/10. But there’s no way I would go hiking around in 90+ degree weather to test my creative ideas that way. It would be really easy to get a bad sunburn and also to fall over with heat stroke.
So here’s the color version of the above picture.
A layer of thin clouds were slightly blocking the setting sun which created a pastel color palette on the dunes. Seeing warm/cool colors always works for me. Plus the sensuous lines the dunes make remind me of the artsy nude pictures some photographers make.
That said, the color doesn’t hold a candle to the high contrast black and white version. Sand dunes are about lines, shadow, and shape* and color distracts from the amazing forms and shapes they take. Perhaps other people have a different idea of which is better. If so, go out and do some pictures to test your own creative ideas!
My second or third assignment in Photo 1 at San Francisco State was called Lines, Shadows, and Shape. (If possible I’ll find the picture from that assignment and share it) These elements could be thought of as the building blocks of any and all pictures. Even a portrait done with a light on the subject sitting in front of a painted canvas contains these three elements. Different photographers see and use these elements in their own ways. The only path to truly understanding them is to get out and shoot a pile of pictures. Call it your 10,000 hours of practice required to find your vision