gdanmitchell
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Kee Woo Rhee wrote:
Dan,
I am learning a great deal from your explanation. I whole heartily agree most of your opinion here and appreciate that.
Especially the color scheme of Death Valley, being to the pale side. Quite often people including myself go overboard the intensity of the contrast level. I need to remind myself of that. Thanks again. -Kee
Thanks.
The first time I visited Death Valley NP (DEVA) I was a bit surprised (disappointed?) to find that the coloration is predominantly quite different from what you would image if you had only seen photographs. But after something like 15 years of shooting all over the park - especially for the past 10 years, when I have spent a week or so there every year - I have figured out a few things about the place:
Sometimes the colors are more saturated or intense. Obviously this can happen (occasionally to an almost unbelievable degree) in dawn and sunset periods. You can also find colors in smaller things - intimate landscapes of rocks in the washes, close ups of wildflowers and some plants, and so forth.
There are ways to photographically "see" the truer colors of the place. I figured some of these our in a few years of shooting, but it was only in the past couple of years that I learned to see some places that might at first impress you as being colorless. What finally got me thinking about this was my recognition that I like being in these places that seem less photographically intense, so there must be some way to capture that in a photograph.
I agree (emphatically!) that there is not one right way to photograph a place like Death Valley, nor one right way to handle a photographic interpretation of these subjects. I also know that it took me some time to see beyond my desire to impose my pre-existing notion of what I hoped the colors would look like and to figure out how to photograph what is really there.
It has been and continues to be a long and rewarding journey. :-)
Dan
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