I never did get around to sharing the third entry to the Orange County Fair.  It’s a very unique photograph, not because of the skill of the photographer so much as the luck of the photographer being in the right place at the right time.

The setting is Death Valley, California.  A massive storm the week before flooded several of the playa including the one called “Cotton Balls,” north of Furnace Creek.  The day before this photo was taken another store came through and dumped a fresh coat of snow on the Panamints. 

The morning was perfectly calm so that we had ideal conditions to photograph the reflection of a snow covered range in a lake on a salt pan … in Death Valley.

Death Valley Reflections

The other submissions were…

Bristlecone Moon

Virgin River and the Watchman

The happy news is that all three were accepted for the competition.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I was in the Eastern Sierra above Bishop, CA.  We had shot a beautiful red sunrise at Lake Sabrina followed by some wonderful early morning low-light photography at North Lake.  Finally we turned to South Lake.  And it was there that I found it!

“I think I’ll shoot tapestries,” I thought to myself.  Tapestries are my way of saying, “Photographs with no particular subject but more about texture and color.”  The foliage was just starting to come out after a snowy winter.  The willows had those little red buds that precede the leaves.  Everything was just barely getting started.  There were still rain drops on the branches from the prior day’s thunder storms.  The monsoons had come early to the Sierra this year.

I was really getting into it.  Then I came across this lone pine tree with a glimmering backdrop of emerging spring.  I brought my camera up to my eye to compose a shot.  “Impressionism,” I murmured to myself as I looked through the view finder.  I took about four shots to get the composition just right (hand held you see – I owe Jack $25 for committing that sin).  A feeling of excitement came over me.

I held off working on this one for a couple of weeks.  I had made a quick test print early on and wasn’t excited.  But all the time it was calling me, “Impressionism.”  I had to get back to it.  I had the title before I even started – “Sierra Impressions.”

Now I’ve grown really fond of using contrast masks in my post processing.  They impart a quality of light that is often more than amazing.  I have several variations of contrast masks that I use.  So when I sat down to work on “Sierra Impressions,” I had to try a contrast mask.  But this time I experimented with even more variations.  I really wanted to create an image that captured the intense colors and bold brush strokes of the Impressionism period.  I must experimented with tried half a dozen variations applying different filters to the basic contrast mask.  Then I stumbled across a combination of filters that made the image burst into flame.  It was what I felt; it was my impression; it was exactly what I had hoped to achieve.  You may love it; you may hate it.  But I am very proud to present…

Sierra Impressions

When I do art festivals and street fairs, many people enter my booth and ask me if I’m the photographer.  I answer, “Yes I am.”  Very rarely does someone ask me if I’m the artist.

It seems there is not a strong connection in many peoples’ minds between photography and art.  That is further evidenced by another question I get a lot – “Do you manipulate that photographs?”  My answer to that is, “Of course.”  That’s the short answer.  The longer answer is, “I approach photography from the mind set of a painter.  I reserve for myself all the creative and artistic freedom a painter has.”  To this they usually respond, “Oh, I get it.  You’re an artist.”

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