Category Archives: Photographs: Desert

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Dunes, Mountains, Clouds

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Dunes, Mountains, Clouds
Evening clouds above the Grapevine Mountains and sand dunes.

Dunes, Mountains, Clouds. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening clouds above the Grapevine Mountains and sand dunes.

During the past week, as I’ve shared photographs and stories from my recent visit to Death Valley, you may have caught me complaining about the less-than-incredible light conditions while I was there. Just a little… ;-) But to be fair, one of the side effects of challenging lighting is that it often comes in association with at least some examples of unusual and striking lighting. You may have to wait for it — I sure did on this trip! — but most often it does arrive eventually. (To be honest, it is rare to encounter a period of purely miraculous or purely awful light. It is more that the balance between the two extremes is variable.)

On the final evening of this visit to Death Valley, after a full day of trying to work that uninspiring light (with at least some success) I was rewarded with a period of truly lovely and dramatic late afternoon and evening light. The clouds that had been afflicting me for nearly two days began to part, light came through, and the remaining clouds lent some drama to the scene.

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

Desert Morning Sky

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Desert Morning Sky
Cloudy skies clear above Death Valley in the early morning.

Desert Morning Sky. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cloudy skies clear above Death Valley in the early morning.

This photograph exemplifies a lesson I learned quite a few years ago about light and atmosphere and the potential of conditions that don’t look that promising. On that long-ago evening I had gone to the California coast below San Francisco in the evening to make photographs, only to find bleak, gray, hazy, obscured conditions that looked uninteresting and hardly worth photographing. But I stuck around. Right at sunset, somewhere to the west out over the Pacific, high above the murk the last light illuminated high clouds with brilliant color. It was as if the stage lights had been brought up on a beautiful set that had been hidden behind a scrim. In a moment a brilliant scene emerged out of, well, pretty much nothing.

I’m not sure that this morning equaled that first experience, but it was a reminder of how this can happen. As I arose in darkness it was apparent that overcast covered the sky. I drove north as the first faint light appeared, and it did not get better — once again words like “gray, murky, and blah” characterized the scene. Without a lot of hope for better prospects, I stopped and climbed to a high place to take a look. And shortly after literal sunrise the low clouds thinned and parted a bit, revealing a beautiful morning sky above.

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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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: Macro, Photographs: Nature

Dried Winter Flower

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Dried Winter Flower
Dried desert wildflowers, Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park

Dried Winter Flower. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dried desert wildflowers, Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

As someone once wrote, “There’s always something to see!” Occasionally I have to work at reminding myself of this, and then I have to work at doing the “seeing.” My recent January trip to Death Valley was a case in point. This is a place I know well, and where I usually can find plentiful subjects to photograph, and where conditions usually are not an impediment. In fact, the conditions regarded as challenging — things like dust storms — often turn out to be photographically compelling. However, on this trip things often seemed a bit… blah. There were thick clouds and a heavy atmosphere, with a sort of gray and murky effect that did not seem to provide many opportunities to photograph the grand landscape and which left a kind of flat light that wasn’t even great for more intimate subjects.

As I often remind myself, if I’m in the field often enough that I manage to encounter spectacular conditions I have to accept that sometimes I’ll experience the opposite, too. So in conditions like these I have strategies. One is to simply slow down and enjoy being in the place — and I did quite a bit of that on this trip, taking time to wander up some quiet washes and to poke around odd back-country places. Another is to look where I don’t usually look. This photograph came about from a combination of those focuses. Driving a gravel road “in the middle of nowhere” I noticed an abandoned side road, stopped, got out and walked along it, discoing some old mining remnants. As I walked back toward my vehicle I realized that the surrounding terrain was full of winter plants holding a remarkable number of these dried flowers, something I hadn’t noticed here before.

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.

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

Salt Flats, Dawn Clouds

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Salt Flats, Dawn Clouds
Clouds float above salt flats and desert mountains in dawn light, Death Valley National Park

Salt Flats, Dawn Clouds. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.Salt Flats, Dawn CloudsSalt Flats, Dawn Clouds. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clouds float above salt flats and desert mountains in dawn light, Death Valley National Park.

There is a lot I could write about this photograph and the recent trip on which I made it — I think I could easily write a chapter about it. But I’m going to try to keep it shorter. I photograph in Death Valley National Park during at least one week each year and frequently more often. When it comes to photography, this was one of the more difficult trips I’ve taken to the place. Mainly the weather didn’t cooperate much at all, at least not where I was. A couple of days featured gloomy, low contrast overcast. It even managed to rain one night! I reminded myself that I’ve had many beautiful days in this park, and if you go anywhere enough times you’ll see it when it is at its best… and when it isn’t! I also simply enjoy being in the place, so when photography seemed unlikely I explored: checking out some mine sites high in the mountains, wandering up a few washes I hadn’t visited before, and so on.

I was hopeful that the last morning, when I had an hour or so to photograph before I had to pack up my camp, might just provide some lovely light. Things did not begin in a very promising fashion.I had picked a likely location for dawn photography, but in the pre-dawn twilight I could see that a layer of clouds hung over most of the valley. I went ahead and wandered out onto the salt flats. I made a few early photographs — some of which will likely be worth sharing — but things were looking distinctly unspectacular. However, I did enjoy the utter solitude and silence out in this lonely spot on a winter morning when few people were out and about in the park. But patience paid off eventually, as the clouds began to thin a bit and light angled in above the cloud bank to the east, producing a rather spectacular arc of clouds and color above the salt flats.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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