Afternoon Thunder Shower • [Canon 5D]
August 29, 2010 • Mono Lake, California
(click in the image for a larger version)
This image was made about 15 months ago during a drive down Highway 395 along the eastern Sierras. It was actually made on the same afternoon as the previous image of the Sawtooth Ridge. There is so much to see along that drive! The vistas of the mountains, Mono Lake, the Owens Valley, and the Alabama Hills are a visual playground for landscape photographers. It's one of my favorite California drives and I'm hoping to return that way for more photo exploration in the near future.
Exploring the landscape doesn't end when the physical journey ends. Revisiting your images in the digital darkroom is an entirely different part of the photographic journey that can be just as creative as the time you spent on the road or trail in search of photographs to make. One of the most fundamental questions that arises with any photograph is whether to treat it as a color or a black and white image. You may know how you will interpret the scene based on your own style and whether or not the photo is part of an existing series, but some images present tantilizing creative directions in both color or monochrome. With certain scenes, the answer is clear, but with others, you could go either way. This image of the thunder shower over Mono Lake works well as a color shot, but there is something about it that is more powerful when it is presented in black and white. Perhaps it is the visual association with the long and venerable tradition of black and white landscape photography. That was not on my mind when I took the photo, but it became an obvious connection once I began working with it in Lightroom. There was just something more to the scene when it was rendered in the stark, grayscale tonal values of a black and white image.
I'm looking forward to exploring the landscapes of Iceland next August during my "True North: Photographing the Interpretive Landscape" workshop with Focus on Nature. We'll be spending the week of August 12 – 18 chasing the sweet light all across that beautiful arctic island, focusing 100% on creative photography in a way that is only possible when you set aside time to escape from the regular routine of your life. It is shaping up to be a fantastic trip. I hope that you'll consider joining me for what is certain to be a once in a lifetime photographic experience.
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