Category Archives: Photographs: Death Valley

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Evening Light, Desert Hills

April 19, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on desert hills, Death Valley National Park

I have had my eye on this general area of Death Valley for some time, revisiting regularly to try to get a better feel for its character and photographic possibilities. It lies along a route between other more iconic subjects, but because I identify so strongly with the sense of immense space, the atmospheric haze, and the quiet of “empty” spaces in this landscape, the non-iconic nature actually appeals to me. A few years ago when I started to look more carefully at this area I was attracted to its upper portion, where it comes up against some rugged mountains. But as I traveled there I kept looking at this landscape of lower and initially less impressive hills, thinking about how their forms might be photographed.

On my most recent Death Valley trip I decided to get serious about “working” this landscape, and I visited and revisited this general area three times, at different times of the day and in different conditions. (Not once did I see another photographer here, despite the easy accessibility and the interesting visual potential!) This visit was in the evening when, following my usual afternoon down time, I headed out for late afternoon and golden hour photography. I went straight to the top of a small hill I had located on earlier visits, set up to photograph, and simply watched quietly as the light evolved. The beautiful light on this hill, which is not a very striking feature in more typical light, immediately caught my attention, especially with the muted features of the more distant mountains visible beyond. This light didn’t last long, but it produced one of the quiet and subtle beauties of the desert landscape that I treasure.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Predawn Clouds Above The Black Mountains

April 18, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Lenticular clouds build over the Black Mountains before dawn, Death Valley National Park

Death Valley can be a tough place in general and a tough place for photography in particular. My recent trip in April of this year might be a case in point. The photography was not easy, and I faced different sorts of challenges almost every day. During the morning and evening hours when I typically look for “golden light” subjects, I had rather thick clouds on almost each day. Wind is often a challenge in the park, and this trip was no exception. And with the wind comes dust — yes, I dealt with dust storms on multiple days. On one morning I arrived at what I thought was my location in pre-dawn murky light, loaded up a pack, and wandered out into the landscape… only to realize once the light came that I was in the wrong place! While this sort of thing can make the photography edge a bit more difficult, I know that it comes with the territory, so I’m philosophical about it. If you are out there enough to encounter astonishing conditions, it is not a surprise when you find yourself at the opposite end of the bell curve on occasion. And when this does happen, if I just open myself to the terrain and look more carefully I can almost always find something.

On my second-to-last day of photography in the park I packed up my camp and left one of the popular campgrounds, with a plan of putting myself in a more isolated location, one of several that I had in mind. However, as I drove up the Valley a storm wind began to rise from the south, and soon clouds of dust and sand were filling the air and blowing north towards the places I thought I would visit. I wasn’t in the mood for camping in a dust storm so I switched gears and decided to head up into the Panamint Range where I thought the terrain might give me some protection. I arrived and set up my “camp” (which, in this case, was mostly my vehicle, in which I would roll out a sleeping bag), and almost immediately clouds filled the sky and a strong wind raced through the campsite. I hunkered down, at some dinner, and realized that this was not going to be a photography evening. The next morning, my final in the park on this trip, I was up and out of the campground at around 5:00, heading out on a gravel road to a high place with a grand panorama. As the first light appeared it became clear that the clouds had not gone away, and my hopes of a colorful sunrise were not going to be rewarded. I arrived at the destination to find that gale-force winds were raking the summit ridge. But I was there, I had my camera, I figured something might happen, so I got out and watched the sky lighten. Soon I saw this remarkable lenticular cloud formation to the southwest above the Black Mountains.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Rock-Covered Hill, Desert Haze

April 16, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small hill covered with rocks, the salt flats, and distant mountains, Death Valley National Park

I distinctly recall my somewhat unusual first view of Death Valley. It was perhaps about twenty years ago. My oldest son was in a school “hiking and biking” club, and their annual “Big Trip” was to be an adventure in Death Valley involving hiking, backpacking, and more. Most of the group traveled to the park on a small bus, though I joined a group of parent chaperones and the club adviser/teacher in an old Chevy Suburban, highly modified and loaded down with backpacks and other gear for more than thirty people. We drove all day and entered the park after sunset. Because it was late we stopped at the first available camp ground, the Emigrant campground along highway 190 partway down the route below Towne Pass. We set up camp in complete darkness, unaware of our surroundings, in a landscape that I had never before seen.

Early in the morning, perhaps shortly after dawn, I crawled out of my tent and in this light saw the immense light-filled space of this great Valley for the first time, a view that extended down the gigantic fan on which we were camped, the distant valley floor thousands of feet below, and the rugged mountains on the far side of the valley. I had never seen a raw landscape like this before, with no visible plant life and its geology laid bare — a place of rock, sand, haze, juxtaposed shapes, textures, often-subtle colors, and huge distances. There is, I think, a bit of that in this photograph, which includes a dark, rocky hill that I have looked at many times, its ridge sloping the opposite direction from the distant dark hills across the valley, barely visible through the opaque atmosphere.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Death Valley From The Panamint Range

April 15, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking down from the ridge of the Panamint Range toward Death Valley

I have paused near this spot many times while traveling in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley, sometimes thinking about making a photograph but never quite seeing it. It probably hasn’t helped that I’ve typically been on my way to another location as I passed by, and I didn’t really want to linger here too long while the light was waiting for me at my destination. In fact, on my outward journey I more or less passed right by this time, too. I went on to my destination, spent time there making photographs of a subject that I had in mind, took time to fix breakfast “on the road,” and then turned back.

By the time I passed by this spot again on the return trip it was well past the typical photography hours in Death Valley, where the light can become quite harsh and washed out closer to the middle of the day. But this time that seemed to almost work to my advantage, especially since a bit to thin high cloudiness muted the light just a bit, and the distant haze in the Valley helped produce a near-far distance effect. So I stopped, in a spot close to by not exactly where I had previous thought about photographing, noticed that the hills at the close edge of the Valley were just visible through the slot between the converging slopes on either side of the gully, and made a photograph which I anticipated would become a monochrome image.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Death Valley

Evening Light, Desert Hills

Predawn Clouds Above The Black Mountains

Rock-Covered Hill, Desert Haze

Death Valley From The Panamint Range

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.