Category Archives: Photographs: Desert

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

July 30, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Predawn light above high desert mountains, reflecting on the surface of Mono Lake

Mono Lake is famed for several things, among them the remarkable tufa towers found in several locations along the shoreline of this great land-locked lake east of the Sierra Nevada. And, yes, this photograph includes a few of those towers — a small group that lies far enough from the shoreline to make them less accessible and interesting to most photographers. (No, that isn’t Nessie — or a band of Nessie lookalikes — at the lower left corner.)

But tufa towers are not my primary or strongest association with this place. Mine include more ephemeral things — the sense of huge space, the expanse of the sky (accentuated by the distance and smallness of surrounding mountains), the deep quiet that is broken only by the sounds of birds and wind. In my experience, to understand those things about this place you must find a quiet place away from other people and perhaps just “be” there quietly, long enough to let its stillness begin to affect you, too. On this morning I arrived in Mono Basin before dawn, ending up at a spot that is not typically regarded as being iconic. Being early, I was in no hurry, so I set up my camera and tripod and just looked for a while before beginning to make photographs of the predawn light from beyond the eastern mountains as it reflected on the breeze-ruffled surface of the lake.

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

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Rain, Reflection

July 29, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The reflection of an evening thunderhead on the surface of Mono Lake

During the past few days I was once again in the Sierra, camping just outside Yosemite’s Tioga Pass entrance and photographing in the surrounding areas. There is a lot to write about: the tremendous amount of snow still in the high country, the remarkable amounts of water everywhere, how odd it is to see all park campgrounds along Tioga Pass road still closed, the challenges of hiking in these conditions. I’ll save most of the details about those things for another post for now, except as they may relate to this photograph. After photographing elsewhere very early in the morning and then killing time in camp until about noon, I decided to hike into an east side canyon. It was a beautiful hike, though because I was alone and had not brought trekking poles, I eventually turned around soon than I had planned rather than risk solo crossings of high-water creeks. Coming back down from the hike I was surprised to see a thunderstorm brewing over the lower end of the canyon, and I quickly found a high overlook from which to watch the show. Before long the show became a bit too exciting! Heavy hail and rain developed — too much so for photography — and I high-tailed it down to Lee Vining.

As often happens, the convective action was mostly developing to the east of the Sierra crest, so I found a (not very secret!) location from which I could watch the evening light develop above Mono Lake. Multiple thunderstorms continued to develop right through the sunset, dropping rain on the high desert mountains and reflecting the evening light onto the surface of the lake.

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

Clearing Dust Storm, Evening

June 1, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Translucent atmosphere as the sky clears in the wake of a Death Valley dust storm

This was the tail end of a massive dust storm that was with us in one form or another for an entire day. Very early in the morning we had seen the precursor conditions when we visited a high ridge in the Panamint range before dawn. At that time there was a kind of haze in the atmosphere that I had come to associate with incipient dust storm conditions. By midday the dust was easily seen rising out of the great valleys on either side of the mountains, and before long tendrils of dust were snaking through the air above our position. Returning to Death Vally itself we encountered a wild scene — thick dust everywhere and extremely high winds. We gave up and shut ourselves indoors for a few hours, and then not long before sunset the wind abated a bit, and I ventured outside.

The dust storm was still raging across the valley, but in our location the winds had dropped considerably. But in the interim a weather system had moved overhead, and now it was raining into the dust storm — something I had not encountered here before. I made my way to an elevated location that was above much of the worst of the dust and from which I had wide views across the lower end of the Valley. From there I could see the Cottonwood Mountains to the west, and as the air cleared slightly the light made its way under the clouds and back-lit the dust still floating in the translucent atmosphere.

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

Dunes, Mountains, Dust Storm, Rain

May 27, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening dust storm and rain in the evening in Death Valley

During the nearly two decades since my first visit to Death Valley I have seen my share of exceptions conditions there — a wildflower “bloom of the century,” snow on more than one occasion, unreal golden hour color, wild animals of various sorts. Once we even photographed wildflowers in a snow storm… in Death Valley. But this day was one of the wildest I have experienced, and the evening was like nothing I had seen or even imagined before. Much earlier in the day we photographed high in the Panamint Mountains, and by the middle of the day we could tell that a big dust storm was brewing. The atmosphere was opaque and glowing, and before long tendrils of blowing dust were passing high above the mountains. By the time we descended back into Death Valley a full-blown storm was underway. I had never seen as much dust or experienced winds quite so strong. In places this was no mere dust storm — it was a sand storm and even a pebble storm on at least one occasion. We finally gave up and headed to Stovepipe Wells and shut ourselves in our room as huge winds howled around the building and sand came into our room through every crack in the door or windows.

Hours later the wind began to subside and a bit of light appeared, so I decided to head out and see what I could find. I took a little-used gravel road up to a high spot overlooking a section of the Valley and waited to see what would happen. The dust storm was stilling in progress, but occasional breaks in the wind allowed me to make some photographs – only to be interrupted by huge gusts and more blowing dust. As the dust storm began to thin a bit it became apparent that there were storm clouds above the Valley, too, and — I’m not making this up! — as golden hour light began to arrive I watched thunder showers begin to drop sheets of rain onto the mountains above the still-raging dust clouds blowing along the Valley floor. “Apocalyptic” was the word that came to mind when I tried to describe what I was seeing. We respond to landscapes in many ways — they can be pretty, beautiful (not the same thing!), quiet, peaceful, static, dynamic, and more. But this landscape and these conditions provoked a powerful mixture of wonder and amazement and a kind of fear in the face of a landscape full of forces that made me feel very small.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Desert

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

Evening Rain, Reflection

Clearing Dust Storm, Evening

Dunes, Mountains, Dust Storm, Rain

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