Category Archives: Photographs: Desert

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Morning

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Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Morning

Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Morning. Death Valley National Park, California. April 2, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on the round folds of earth in Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California.

From my point of view, at least based on my one visit there, one of the most interesting features in Twenty Mule Team Canyon has to be the extensive areas of colorful “folded earth” cut with gullies formed by runoff water. This area is hundreds of feet across and extends for a good distance from right to left as well. In flat light the color can be very pastel, but in the warm early morning light the subtle colors become more intense and visible. Here, shortly after sunrise, the light is skimming across the tops of the small hills, lighting them but allowing the gullies to remain shaded.

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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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Sunrise, Lower Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Death Valley

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Sunrise, Lower Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Death Valley

Sunrise, Lower Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Death Valley. Death Valley National Park, California. April 2, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Panorama of early morning sun illuminating hills in lower Twenty Mule Team Canyon with Death Valley beyond – Death Valley National Park, California.

This is a view of Death Valley that I did not know about until I shot in Twenty Mule Team Canyon last week. As I was working on photographing the nearby folded formations of the earth I happened to look down-canyon in time to see this wonderful light hitting the tops of the hills at the lower portion of the canyon with the rest of Death Valley and the Panamint Range beyond. This photograph is a stitch of two 21MP photographs from the 5DII. Although I exposed them differently I was able to compensate in post and I think the blend is pretty seamless.

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.

keywords: sunrise, dawn, morning, light, illuminate, hills, formations, geology, 20, twenty, mule, team, canyon, lower, death valley, national park, california, usa, panorama, wide, salt, flats, panamint, mountain, range, sky, shadow, vista, landscape, scenic, travel, stock

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Road, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Morning

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Road, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Morning

Road, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Morning. Death Valley National Park, California. April 2, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A gravel road winds through the curved hills of Twenty Mule Team Canyon in early morning light, Death Valley National Park, California.

I had never visited Twenty Mule Team Canyon (located just up the road from Zabriskie Point) before this trip, but thanks to Edie Howe’s recommendation I spent an early morning shooting there on this trip. Except for the lack of a single dominant feature like Manley Point, in some ways this little loop has as much or more to offer than Zabriskie Point. Many of the same curved and twisted landscape features are found here, and there is even a wonderful early morning view down across low hills and peaks into the heart of Death Valley itself. In this photograph the early morning light is hitting what is, to be honest, a mud hill near a curve in the gravel road that passes through the canyon.

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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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Gully, Morning Light, Zabriskie Point

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Gully, Morning Light, Zabriskie Point

Gully, Morning Light, Zabriskie Point. Death Valley National Park, California. April 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning sun lights the folded earth of a gully at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.

I know Zabriskie is an “iconic” photographic location, and it has “been done” many times, but somehow I find myself unable to complete a Death Valley trip without an early morning visit to shoot a Zabriskie sunrise. (When I think of photographing Manley Beacon I’m reminded to the joke about photographing Yosemite’s Half Dome – it goes something like this: “When you photograph Half Dome be sure to open up about one stop to compensate for all of the light that has been used up by previous photographers.”) But for me the real interesting subject at Zabriskie is found in the nearly infinite variety of shapes, textures, and shadows of the tortured terrain below and to the left of the Point. Long after the sunrise is over and almost all the other photographers have left, I’m still there photographing the continuously changing light as it picks off the top of this small ridge, creates a reflection that lights up that fold, and so forth. I’ve photographed the gully that is shown in this photograph as late as 9:30 in the morning.

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.

keywords: gully, valley, fold, texture, pattern, wash, runoff, zabriskie point, death valley, national park, california, usa, land, form, geology, scenic, travel, nature, desert, stock, shadow, morning, light, bend, twist, icon