Having photographed in the red rock canyons of Utah, I suspect that I have a bias toward that sort of beautiful, warm-toned landscape. In Death Valley I often look for, and enjoy finding, canyons with similar smooth surfaces… though that Utah red rock isn’t something you’ll see very much here. The narrow canyon in this photograph is perhaps more typical of the Death Valley landscape, with much rougher and more angular rocks.

I have written frequently about how wonderful canyon light is and how much it contrasts with the harsh and brilliant light of the desert landscape outside the canyons. In the deepest and narrowest sections the shadowed light becomes quite blue since the blue of the sky that is the main source of illumination. In this photograph we see the contrast between those blue foreground shadows and the warmer colors of the more distant canyon wall that is more open to the light.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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