Category Archives: Photographs: Death Valley

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

Desert Slot Canyon

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Desert Slot Canyon
Desert canyon narrows curve past sculpted rock walls, Death Valley National Park.

Desert Slot Canyon. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert canyon narrows curve past sculpted rock walls, Death Valley National Park.

No, I’m not quite done yet with the photographs from this year’s foray to Death Valley. Visiting the park is an annual tradition for me — sometimes more than once. I often go around the end of winter or beginning of spring, and I would have missed last year’s visit but for the lucky timing that took me there in January of 2020. Since then I had wondered whether the pandemic was going to force a break in the annual ritual, but after being vaccinated it seemed plenty safe to go there and stay (mostly) in uncrowded, out-of-the way places. I was wonderful to be back there!

This is another photograph made in one of the narrows of a canyon that is a bit off the beaten track. (Despite the prominence of some well-known icons in this park, the place is full of other wonders that are far enough from pavement to decrease the number of visitors.) I camped in complete solitude near the entrance to this canyon, and that gave me the chance to explore in in both late afternoon and early morning light. The the narrower sections of the canyon there can be wonderful contrasts between the warmer colors where the canyon walls get a bit of sun and the darker sections that remain in the cool-colored shadows.

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

Sea of Dunes

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Sea of Dunes
Layers of sand dunes lead toward barren desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Sea of Dunes. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Layers of sand dunes lead toward barren desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Death Valley is often a beautiful place, but there are places in this landscape that can appear quite desolate if you look in the right direction. In many landscapes most of what we see is what covers the scene, but here the underlying geology is often stripped bare and we are left with a landscape of rock and sand. Even where plants grow — more places than you might imagine — they do not cover the landscape in the manner of forests and meadows.

This photograph is about that way of seeing this landscape. The dunes build one after another toward their highest point, much like waves on the ocean. Beyond this there is a rugged desert mountain range. This photograph is what I think of as a subjectively true image. While you would never find a scene that literally looks exactly like this, this interpretation is true to one way of seeing the place.

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

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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

Canyon Bend

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Canyon Bend
Contrasting warm and cool colors in a narrow section of a desert canyon.

Canyon Bend. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Contrasting warm and cool colors in a narrow section of a desert canyon.

During my hikes up and down this canyon I made quite a few photographs of these lovely narrows. I camped at the mouth of the canyon, and this made it possible to hike up twice — once late in the day and again the next morning. The appearance of a narrow canyon like this one depends so much on the nature of the light, and that was almost completely different during the two visits.

Several things intrigue me about this particular narrows. Sections of it are quite angled, with the wall on one side slanting away and on the other side overhanging the bottom of the canyon substantially. In other words, you don’t look straight up to see the narrow band of sky, but instead you look off to one side a bit. I assume that this is a partially due to erosion following natural lines of weakness in the geology and partly due to the tendency of moving water to undercut a side of the canyon. Of even more interest to a photographer, the color of the light in this canyon and others like it is quite variable. In the darkest section the only light comes from the very blue sky, and the light here is quite blue. (I actually toned it down a bit in the photograph.) However, where the light comes in a bit more directly or perhaps through a wider gap the color is much warmer, as we see on the far wall beyond that gap in this photograph.

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

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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

Creosote, Dunes, Desert Mountains

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Creosote, Dunes, Desert Mountains
Morning light on blooming creosote plants in the dunes, Death Valley National Park.

Creosote, Dunes, Desert Mountains. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on blooming creosote plants in the dunes, Death Valley National Park.

While much of my recent visit to Death Valley focused on relatively out of the way locations and subjects, I did spend one night at the Stovepipe Wells campground/parking lot. (If you have been there, you understand the reference.) The idea was that sleeping there for one night would put me in the best location to photograph in the nearby dunes in the evening and again very early the next morning. This photograph comes from the morning session, not too long. before I packed my gear, headed back to my vehicle, made a quick breakfast, and drove to another of those isolated locations.

The ritual of morning photography in these dunes is familiar to me by now. I get up before sunrise so that I can arrive at the point of departure for my walk into the dunes well before the sun comes up. Getting to the locations where I like to photograph can take between 15 minutes and a half hour of walking. Once I’m in position I usually have to work somewhat quickly since the light begins to change quickly. I’ll usually photograph a bit in the soft pre-sunrise light first. Then the first direct light on the peaks to the west alerts me that the direct sun will be here soon, and I turn my attention to finding subjects to photograph in the moments when the light/shadow boundary moves through the scene. I made this photograph considerably later, just as the increasingly bright light was a about to begin washing out the subtle early colors.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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