Category Archives: Locations

Commentary, Conservation/Environment, Ideas, Locations, News, Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Southern California, Thinking Aloud

Death Valley on My Mind

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Wash and Alluvial Fan
Morning light on a giant alluvial fan at the base of a desert mountain wash.

Wash and Alluvial Fan. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

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.

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Commentary, Conservation/Environment, Locations

No More Posts About “That Thing”

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Earlier this week I saw an article from a Southern California newspaper (and many links to it online) that promoted and glorified the annual late-February appearance of a particular conjunction of light and water in Yosemite Valley.

I first photographed it quite a few years ago, back before the 50-foot wave of the incoming digital camera revolution washed over everything, threatening to change such things forever, and not in good ways. Back then I was fortunate to join a few folks (maybe a dozen or a score?) standing quietly in one of a couple of places and hoping to see “the thing” happen. For many years I did an annual post about the subject that offered advice on when, where, and how to photograph it.

I’m not doing that any more.

I pretty much stopped photographing it several years ago when the whole event took on a circus-like atmosphere and got so out of control that it began to threaten the well-being of portions of the Valley. While I could share some positive aspects of it, the truth is that chasing after a photograph of something that has been built up and even distorted by too much publicity no longer interests me… and that it is now doing more harm than good.

This past week I also read that the Park Service has had to institute even more draconian (and necessary, I think) restrictions — closing traffic lanes, making it illegal to stop along portions of Valley roads, and completely closing one popular viewing area that had gotten to be so overrun that the forest, meadow, and river were damaged.

You’ve seen photographs of this subject. The photographs can be striking and sometimes remarkable. May I share another secret? If you go there to make your own photograph, the best most visitors can likely hope for is to maybe, if they are really lucky and really skillful and have the right equipment, get a “me too” photograph that looks pretty much like the others. There can be some value in that, but no longer enough to negate the downsides.

And what you are likely to see isn’t what you see in those select few remarkable photographs. The event, if it happens, is very high up on a tall cliff and a good distance from where you’l. be standing. In order to fill the frame the way you’ve seen it you are going to need a very long telephoto, a pretty good camera, probably a tripod. You’ll also need to take that “capture” and subject it to a fair amount of post-processing. The truth is that most of the photographs of the subject that you’ll see, including many of the most striking, have been enhanced to a considerable degree. during post-processing. (I’m not anti-post-processing at all. I’m just being honest.)

Short story: you aren’t going to get “that photo” on your iPhone.

And all of this assumes that the event actually happens. It depends on the conjunction of a number of uncertain conditions — a small stream that must receive enough February snow melt from a very small drainage to start it flowing, a clear line of sight between the location and the horizon far to the west. This doesn’t happen every night. In fact, of all the times I did try to photograph it, more often than not it did not happen.

But I have good news, too! Further afield in the famous Valley where this happens, this is my favorite season of the year, and there are loads of other astonishingly beautiful attractions that are equally worth photographing: morning mists in meadows, snow-topped cliffs ringing the Valley, the potential for spectacular winter storms, clouds floating among cliffs and towers, quiet forests, waterfalls that may come back to life, ice, and much more.

UPDATE: As of 2020 I am no longer posting annual updates concerning the annual Horse Tail Fall event. I also no longer recommend going to the Valley to see it. Unfortunately, too much exposure (yes, I played a part in it, unfortunately) has led to absurd crowds, traffic jams, littering, destruction of areas in the Valley where too many people go to see it… and the park has increasingly — and appropriately — cracked down. Parking options have been eliminated, at least one viewing location has been closed. Good news! The rest of Yosemite Valley is still there and often exceptionally beautiful at this time of year.

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 and Amazon.

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Events, Locations, News, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife, Shows

Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival

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Every November there is a Sandhill Crane Festival in Lodi, California, celebrating the return of these marvelous birds. I’ve been meaning to enter some of my crane photographs for the past few years, and this year I finally did. Here are the three photographs appearing in the art exhibit at the festival.

I made the first one, “Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog” on a marvelous February morning a while ago. I had never seen so many birds at once, nor seen them quite this active. On top of that, the tule fog was just beginning to break up, and the atmosphere was luminous.

Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog
A foggy San Joaquin Valley winter landscape filled with geese and cranes

The second is “Two Sandhill Cranes in Flight,” a juxtaposition of two of the birds against the blue winter sky.

Two Sandhill Cranes in Flight
A pair of lesser sandhill cranes in flight above California’s San Joaquin Valley

Finally, “Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes” is a photograph of a group of cranes taking off from a shallow pond and heading toward the faint light of the rising sun on a very foggy morning.

Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes
A group of sandhill cranes takes to the morning sky above foggy marshland

If you are curious about these birds and want to know more and you life in Central California, a trip to the Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival this weekend can get you started. In addition to the art exhibit, there are lectures and guided tours to some of the nearby locations where you can find these birds. And the birds are there — I saw thousands of them this morning.

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 and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Commentary, Locations, Sierra Nevada Fall Color

Sierra Nevada Fall Color – Coming Soon!

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This is an We’re just weeks away from Aspen Time as I write this eclectic and incomplete account of how I photograph Eastern Sierra Nevada fall aspen color. (Originally posted in September, 2009, and updated and slightly revised in varying degrees during successive aspen seasons — current update for fall 2019. Check the comments for other updates and notes. )

California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra
California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra

My fall color guidebook: “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra“ is available from Heyday Books. Order from Heyday Books and from Amazon. The book greatly expands and updates information in this article and elsewhere on my website. (Contact me directly, too — I may have some autographed copies to sell.)

Fading Autumn Color
Fading Autumn Color

During the latter part of August every year there always seems to be a day in the Sierra when I become aware that summer is coming to an end and fall is just around the corner. I’ve never quite identified the source of the feeling, but it is unmistakable when it happens. Perhaps a change in the light? Possibly something about the patterns of the wind? Maybe just that more and more places dry out and shift from green to brown and golden?

Of course, sometimes it is more obvious. I was in the Sierra during the final week of August in 2009, backpacking into Yosemite’s Ten Lakes Basin for a few days. It wasn’t hard to notice that the corn lily plants were dying and that many had taken on wild yellow/gold colors, or that some of the small meadow plants were beginning to turn red and yellow, or that some of the chaparral plants were losing a few leaves. By early September 2014 I was already seeing some aspens starting to pick up autumn color in a few places. When I revised the article in 2015 this day arrived early — we felt it during the first week of the August, perhaps due to the strange California weather that year. As I update this once again in 2019… it arrived later, following a very wet winter, spring, and summer, with wildflowers still blooming in early September!

So even when it is still summer by the calendar – and will be through most of September – my thoughts turn to fall once again. And that means I’m looking forward to the opportunity to photograph the incredible displays of aspen color in the eastern Sierra. (There are some aspens west of the crest as well – for example in the Carson Pass area – but the stands east of the crest are larger and more accessible.)

Since I’ve been visiting and photographing the aspens for some time, here are a few ideas and recommendations and locations for photographing them in the eastern Sierra. In no particular order:

Continue reading Sierra Nevada Fall Color – Coming Soon! →