Today I made what should be my final regular daily post on Facebook.
This is not an April Fool’s Day joke. It is a matter or principle
I have been active on Facebook for a VERY long time. I’m no longer sure of the first date, but I initially was able to join way back when only those with .edu email addresses were eligible.
The initial promise of the service was quite special and seemed altruistic. We could join and then find and follow accounts that interested us — Facebook was the medium for choosing who to connect with and enabling those connections.
Morning light on a gigantic alluvial fan at the base of desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.
This morning I am waking up in a place that is almost literally on the other side of the world from my “home country” of California. As I look out the window from a home in Kosovo toward high mountains at the start the day I am thinking about the storm impacting my state today, and the deserts regions such as Death Valley are especially on my mind as I read reports of tropical storm Hilary.
Our natural impression of places like Death Valley National Park (the part of California’s desert terrain that I know best) is of dryness, heat, aridity… of places where little grows and where challenges human visitors. It isn’t quite that simple, but there is truth to this. Our biggest concerns in such places are often the heat and the scarcity of water.
But I have long been impressed by the fact that there are few locations where the impact of water is more clearly visible than in the desert, especially in the rugged terrain of places like Death Valley. The valley was once a lake. Remnant water from that lake still appears and flows there. The tremendous mountains on either side of the valley were eroded and formed by water, and monumental alluvial fans flow out of side canyons everywhere. Deep watercourses cut through rock, and a close look at stones reveals that they were moved by water.
Even when we recognize the landscape-forming power of water, we still think of the landscape as now being static — formed by forces that worked in the past but now have left a stable geography. A few rocks fall, occasionally a wash overflows and takes out a small section of a road, a playa may fill temporarily with water… but soon everything is back to “normal” as it was.
But this morning it sounds like we may experience much more profound changes as Hilary sweeps though, the sort that occur at intervals measured centuries. Those of us who love this landscape may find our access cut off and that much changes after this storm. I’m both excited by and fearful of these effects — but in any case this is a powerful reminder of the scale of the forces at work in these places we love.
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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
This morning I am sharing a bit a news about this blog — a sort of “heads up,” if you will. During recent weeks we’ve been busily preparing for this summer’s main travel event. We’ve lined up house-sitters who will live here and take care of the place while we’re away, finalized plans and itineraries and reservations, started packing, and more.
At times I won’t be able to update the blog every day. On other occasions you may see a new photograph but not the usual descriptive text. Long-time followers probably know that I’ve shared a daily photograph here since the early 2000s without a break. (I think I’m coming up on twenty years soon!) I don’t want to break that streak!
In order to keep things running — and the content flowing — I’ve been working to pre-load a lot of material. If things go as planned you should continue to see new daily content.
What will that content be? Some of it will be photographs that I made earlier — the work is new here, but less recent. Some comes from as recently as June, but some may be from earlier this year.
Because our travels will take me away from the usual Sierra Nevada and California sites, you won’t be seeing as much of “the usual” here. (Watch for new Sierra work in late summer and fall.) However, I’m hoping to share at least some new work from our travels, perhaps along with some stories about it. I can’t predict what that it be just yet, but keep watching! You may enjoy some surprises!
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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.
Patricia Emerson Mitchell and I are presenting a Silicon Valley Open Studios event this weekend. Here’s a video preview of our open studio.
We will have many of our prints available for viewing and purchase, with some excellent discounts available. We’ll also have related items, including signed copies of my California fall color book and Patty’s beautiful cards.
We’ll be open on Saturday, May 20 and Sunday, May 21 from 11:00 AM until 5:00PM. More details are available at the Silicon Valley Open Studios website, or by contacting us, including by posting a comment here. Direct links to our Open Studio pages, including location maps, are listed below:
Note: This video is from last year’s event, so things may look a bit different when you arrive!
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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