First Light, Southern Death Valley. Death Valley National Park, California. January 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
As seen from Aguereberry Point, first dawn light spills across the lower end of Death Valley.
I have previously photographed from this location high in the Panamint Range and overlooking a vast portion of Death Valley National Park and its surroundings. The view stretches east to 11,000+’ peaks in Nevada and west to the crest of the Sierra Nevada, and great distances north and south to places and features that I cannot identify. My previous visits had all been late in the day, and I had often wondered what the location might be like at the start of the day. So, on this visit to Death Valley, a trip to Aguereberry Point before dawn was on my agenda.
As usual, I awoke well before dawn at my camp site back at Stovepipe Wells. (You can often tell if there are other photographers about – in the dark period an hour or more before sunrise you hear people quietly get up, quickly start their engines, and drive away.) I headed up into the Panamints and turned off at the start of the six-mile gravel road that goes to this point, and arrived just before the first colorful light began to light up the sky – and I was pleased to see that there were some interesting clouds. I have been fascinated by this view over the shoulder of a ridge dropping down toward the Valley above Trail Canyon, so I composed a photograph that juxtaposed this diagonal with the end of the Black Mountains across the valley and the light-filled atmosphere beyond where the very first sun was coming across lower Death Valley.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
I have had the good fortune of being able to visit Death Valley just a couple of times, and each time, I leave there craving more. As you already know, it is a spectacularly immense place, and your dedication to getting to know it in all it’s glory is impressive. I appreciate your willingness to share your adventures from there, and you are inspiring me to try to make it back there in person again.
David, thanks so much! I’ve been working on understanding this particular location for several years now, and I feel like I’m starting to “get it.”
Dan
Dan… definitely one of my new favorites of yours from Death Valley. The relative simplicity in composition defies the vastness displayed in the scene and the subtle layers unfolding from dark to light.