Category Archives: Commentary

Ruins, Dawn, Rhyolite

Ruins, Dawn, Rhyolite

Ruins, Dawn, Rhyolite. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cloud-filtered dawn light washes over crumbling ruins in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada with Death Valley National Park, California and snow-capped Telescope Peak in the distance.

(More of my Death Valley photographs)

Looking back through my photos from Rhyolite in early April of this year, I found this image of several ruined and crumbling buildings against the backdrop of Amargosa Valley, Death Valley National Park and Telescope Peak, and an cloudy interesting dawn sky. One reason I thought I’d share this one is that it is a somewhat different image of the Rhyolite ghost town in that it doesn’t really include any of the iconic structures – just a more typical scene of buildings in a state of ongoing desert decay.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Panther Beach Clean-up and Photography – and You are Invited!

Photographer Ivan Makarov recently emailed to let me know about an beach cleanup and photography event at Panther Beach on the Pacific Coast north of Santa Cruz. (Ivan, I have shot at Panther Beach – this past winter – and it is a really wonderful location! Proof below… ;-) Follow the link for more information.

Last Light, Panther Beach

Last Light, Panther Beach. Pacific Ocean North of Santa Cruz, California. January 11, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Somewhat Humorous Yosemite Story

When I’m out photographing I cart around the typical pile of stuff – the big, squarish bag of camera bodies and lenses and accessories, the tripod, the works. And when I photograph in popular places I make it a habit to offer to take photographs of folks with their P&S cameras. You know the scene – the family traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to get to some beautiful place, but one member of the family is missing from every photo since someone has to hold the camera. (The embarrassing thing is that sometimes I don’t understand how to operate these little cameras, but that is a story for another post.)

Put the two together and some surprising and odd conversations can ensue. Last Saturday I was in the Happy Isles area of Yosemite Valley looking for dogwood trees in bloom when I saw a mother about to snap a photo of (I presume) her daughter, so I asked if they would like me to use their camera to take a picture of the two of them together. I put down my bag and left the camera on the tripod and made the photograph. The woman inspected the photo, seemed to approve, then looked at me and my stuff and asked, “Hey, you aren’t Mr. Adams, are you?”

Sometimes it is so hard to avoid saying the wrong thing in reply, but I think I more or less succeeded… ;-)