Category Archives: Photographs: Desert

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

Playa and Mountains, Last Light

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Playa and Mountains, Last Light
Twiilight winter sky above Death Valley playa and the Panamint Mountains.

Playa and Mountains, Last Light. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Twiilight winter sky above Death Valley playa and the Panamint Mountains.

On one hand, I’m fortunate enough to live where I can get to Death Valley in a single day of driving. On the other hand, it is a rather long day! I was on the road close to 6:00AM. (Sometimes I leave earlier, but we were out the night before.) I don’t stop a lot on these drives, but even so it was close to 3:00 by the time I got to the place where I planned to camp… only do realize that this was a long weekend and there were actual crowds in Death Valley. I’m more used to seeing very few people there this time of year. This fact cost me a bit of extra time figuring out where to camp, and by the time I got that sorted out and headed out for evening photography it was pretty late in the day.

This is my way of saying that I had to make more or less a snap decision to commit to a general location and go there quickly. By the time I arrived there wasn’t going to be a lot of light left and I soon found myself photographing end-of-day and evening light. But what a beautiful sky it was! Desert dawn and sunset skies can, at least when there are some clouds, be exceptionally beautiful. I think one reason is that they stand above a landscape that is often stark and bare. (In the right conditions, that emptiness can be a canvas painted by this light.) On this evening there were a few clouds right above the Panamint Mountains, with one straggler stretching high into the sky against a lovely gradient transitioning from brightly lit clouds to the deep blue of oncoming night.

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

Geology Lesson

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Geology Lesson
Colorful eroded formation in Death Valley National Park

Geology Lesson. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful eroded formation in Death Valley National Park.

The title of this photograph is offered with tongue somewhat in cheek… since I would not be the first person you would go to for a real geology lesson, nor for an accurate description of the objective facts that would account for these remarkable formations. I understand that the material was layered a very long time ago, and that additional colors may have been added over time. Eventually the strata were distorted and twisted and then exposed, where the elements began a process of eroding material away and creating the sculpted effects we see today.

Regardless of the explanation, almost everything about this place and places like it evokes wonder: the striking patterns of uplifted and twisted strata, the unusual patterns of colorful material, the subtle curves of the gully that rises and then turn left, and the details visible in the soft light.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.