Eureka Valley, Twilight. Death Valley National Park, California. January 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Twilight on plants and sand flats near the edge of the dunes, Death Valley National Park.
Some might accuse me of being a bit of a contrarian with this photograph, I suppose. I made it at the base of the some very spectacular sand dunes, purportedly the tallest sand dunes in the USA – but I have the dunes to my back and the photograph doesn’t show them at all. This is also an area with very interesting and somewhat dramatic surrounding hills and ridges, but I intentionally cut the upper border of the photograph so as to not include these ridges or the sky. Speaking of the sky, I shot this just after sunset, when sky color is at its peak… but no sky here! And in a time when pumped up, saturated photographs are very common… this one goes with a very different palette, one that includes a lot of tones that are basically tan, along with some bluish color on the far mountains.
I hope that some who know places like this might understand. This is a very desolate place, and I wanted to just accept and try to photograph that. And in the early evening, when the sun has dropped behind the western hills, the blue-tone light comes on and the contrast lowers, and the colors drain from the landscape. In addition, it was cold! For me, the coloration of this scene suggests that aspect of the scene, which is perhaps not what first comes to mind when we see desert sand and plants.
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.
New Years Eve (2011/2012) I camped at Stovepipe Wells and my water bottles froze. It was 23*
I got there late in the day, and although it was clear, the light was going fast! I shot for a while in the soft evening light. The next morning I discovered just how cold it can be in Death Valley National Park in the winter! But the morning light was also very beautiful – sort of “hard” and blue, but very different than that soft and warm (visually speaking!) light the previous evening.
No, the very thick cloud cover helped moderate temperature – but also made photography challenging.
Remote, lonely, but oh so beautiful.
The Eureka Valley (and the dunes) are a wonderfully remote and lonely part of the park. Hope it wasn’t as cold for you as it was when I was out there!
Dan
I was fortunate enough to visit the Eureka Dunes several weeks ago (end of January) – but was so fixated on the dunes that I didn’t ‘see’ this remarkable point of view.
Love the soft, taupe colors in this shot.