Death Valley Mesquite Dunes Singh Ray Polarizer 1
December 3, 2008 by Alec
Filed under Landscapes
click image for larger view
For this week and next I’ll be posting a series of sand dune shots. Dunes are a very mature photographic subject (they’ve been photographed a lot by really good photographers), but I hope you enjoy them nonetheless. All were shot in Mesquite Dunes in Death Valley.
Technical: Canon 1Ds MkII, 70-200mm, f/16, warming poalrizer, hand-held, 1/500 shutter speed, ISO 800, very late afternoon light. Not quite twilight, but very close to it.
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Wow! Great lines and shadows. I like the color juxtaposition of sand and sky.
I like the simple geometry, quality of line and compression. I am not sure if we talked at the airport but I think their maybe a square crop in there somewhere as well. My shot of this is not the same with the wide angle lens. Travis
It’s hard to find creative new ways to photograph the dunes, but I knew that, if anyone could do it, you could, Alec. Your results are superb. Great lines, shadows, and balance.
One request: You’re doing a great job discosing your technical information, but you rarely disclose f-stop. I’m far behind you in technical skill, so that would really help me to get a starting point with my own photography. Thank you.
Hi David,
THANK YOU for being here and for the comments. I definitely started with looking at this in BW, but it wasn’t working for me. Something about the juxtaposition of grays and specularity in the original file made it, well, ugly. So, color worked much better for me and I’m glad you provided your reaction to it. THANK YOU.
Sincerely,
alec
T-bone,
After I posted the image I sat and staired at it thinking, “Something is still not right…”. I think you’re on to it and will go back and take a look at a square crop. That might just do it.
Later mon,
alec
I like the shot. I love the color. It is a perfect example for color degrading the farther away from yourself you go. I could see instructors using this as an example in a painting class. It’s so perfect it almost looks artificial, or set up. It’s like a staged moon shot or something. I don’t know what you were going for, and I mean all of this as a compliment. I would certainly hang it on my wall. One thing that would make it better is C3PO and R2D2 walking off in the distance.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the kind words and continued support. If I omit f/stop its probably because I’m forgetful these days
I’m not trying to hide or be deceptive. In this post I DID disclose the f/stop which you’ll see listed under the technical information. I shot at f/16.
Here’s an explanation of my choice of f/stop:
With this lens (70-200), a “long lens” there are few challenges. 1) a change in f/stop is going to have a much greater affect on depth of field than we would see with a wide or super wide angle lens. So, I was hoping to minimize softness by shooting at f/16, but I was balancing that against hand-held shutter speeds, which for this lens should be around 2X focal length (rule of thumb, feel free to break that rule). So, at approximately 200mm focal length I wanted at least 1/400th shutter speed to feel comfortable that I wasn’t going to get softness in the image as a result of camera shake. 2) I was trying to minimize the amount of softness that’s generated by the physics of optics and shooting a lens at it’s extreme f/stop. this lens will go to f/32, but at the extremes on most lenses you’ll notice softness everywhere in the image, so I try to avoid that unless there is an artistic decision to have the softness OR sharpness is not the most critical issue; 3) to get that shutter speed I needed to bump my ISO rating to ISO800. I did not want to do that, but had to if I wanted to continue to shoot hand-held, which I was bound and determined to do (since I already had decided to leave my tripod in the car, so…). But, I’m confident enough in my camera and noise cleaning software to shoot at AT LEAST ISO800 and not have a problem with noise/grain.
Hope you find this explanation helpful. Also hoping to make it to Brewery this weekend.
Cheers,
Alec
Hey Eric,
Good to hear from you, mon. Side note: Have you listened to the new Guns and Roses album yet? I haven’t, but not hearing super great things about it…love to get your opinion.
I think your comment about artificial or set up is interesting. More interesting is the “I don’t know what you were going for…” comment and it gives me a little bit of an opportunity to talk about artistic design elements in photography.
What I was going for is the perfectness, if you will, is working with the natural design elements of the dunes: line/rhythm/symmetry/shape. Being a wickedly talented musician, you can certainly draw an analogy to these same design elements in music.
The challenge in the dunes is to simplify chaos. Now, let me be clear, chaos might be the message, but it wasn’t for me. Simple lines, simple shapes, simple color, simple elegant movement say more about the dunes for me than chaos does. Travis and I had an awesome hour in the dunes, in almost military like fashion starting at the foot-dunes, and advancing strategically further and further into them, moving quickly with light gear, in a very responsive fashion. In a very different analogy, like a dance, we moved with them, working through the valleys, letting the dunes lead and reveal and our job was to remain observant at a very abstract, subtle level. This may be a little too romantic of a description, but it was really that way and I hope Travis chimes in here. We talked about the process afterwards in reflection of the process we used the day before, which didn’t work for us. We tried to work around the small dunes and sneak into the large ones, thinking that was the grand prize, lugging heavy tripods which we really didn’t need and only served to disconnect us from the subject.
So, the creation of this image was a direct outcome of intention (simplicity), dynamic process (keep moving, no tripods, take what the dunes give us), and presence (seeing deeper and deeper into the beautiful, natural design elements present in dunes).
Thanks for your always open and provacative observations. MUCH APPRECIATED.
Cheers,
Alec
Alec,
I have only heard one song on the new GNR album (on the radio), but didn’t instantly care for it. I haven’t really liked a GNR album since their first one.
The reason I used the term “artificial” is because it is so perfect. The sky is like a consistant blanket of blue, the dunes cascading over one another, the shadow progression, the number of dunes on each side and the spacing. I guess what I was trying to say is it looks like a photo of what someone would TRY to paint in a picture. You know how those Joy Of Painting scenes are just too perfect to be real.
My comment “I don’t know what you were going for…” was just a reflection that I am aware I don’t know anything about photography, and that my comments were only meant to compliment the quality of your work. I just come here, not as a fellow photographer, but as a guy who knows you and admires what you do with a camera.
Your explanation of what you were trying to accomplish was very informative, and even poetic … or “romantic” as you say. Well done sir!!!
Alec,
Thanks again for inviting us to share our impressions. I really enjoy your work and am impressed by the technical artistry that it represents.
On the dune image, I find myself caught between two approaches when viewing the image. On the one hand, I like the abstraction and symmetry and appreciate the image on that level. However, given that there is sufficient information to make out that these are sand dunes, I find myself looking for other markers to gauge their scale, which removes the abstraction. I feel like it would almost be better to go to one extreme or the other — make it more of an abstract piece via cropping, or make it a more “grounded” representational natures shot and real by providing some other reference points. Thanks for sharing an indulging the commentary!
Michael!!!!!
Good to hear from you, man.
I love the point you make and personally I struggle with this all the time. You’ll see in an image on Friday that I took a much clearer position vis a via abstract vs. reality. Then again, some might argue that what you were struggling with is a valuable tension in the image. What’s important is that you had a reaction to it, enough so to share it. THANK YOU!!!! For anyone reading this blog (there are 5 or 6 of them
), you’ve added some real value in the comment.
Cheers (and don’t be a stranger)
Alec