Category Archives: Photographs: Nature

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

Desert Mountain Valley

September 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dry and rocky little valley high in the Amargosa Mountains, Death Valley National Park

I have photographed in Death Valley for some time now, and I enjoy the place immensely. I try to spend a week or so photographing there each year, and sometimes get there more than once. With my familiarity with the place in mind, on my early 2013 visit I started to think about a different way to try to photograph this landscape. I’m not sure quite where this will lead just yet, but this is among a few photographs that mark my foray down this slightly different path.

Photographs never provide the viewer with a complete view of the objective reality of the subject. I like to say that “All photographs lie.” In the nicest way, of course. ;-) What I mean is that a photograph will diverge from the real in two basic ways. First, there are non-visual aspects of the real experience of being in such a place that the photograph, while possibly suggesting them, cannot “capture” – the heat, the feeling of an early morning breeze in a desert canyon, dust, and more. Second, the photographer necessarily imposes his or her way of seeing the place on the photograph – realistically, this cannot be avoided. We choose when to be there and make the photograph, we wait for “just the right light,” we decide how to juxtapose and frame the elements of the scene, we determine what you don’t see, and so forth. If you only saw photographs of Death Valley, even the most beautiful and compelling work, you would see only a small subset of what the place consists of, with emphasis on certain “spectacular” landscapes and types of light. I started thinking that the appeal of the place is not limited to just those experiences in the familiar photographs and that, as hard as it is to make a photograph of such things, a simple desert canyon winding toward a rocky ridge is an appealing thing when you are there – so it should be possible to make a photograph that somehow conveys that. This is one such place; basically an anonymous bit of canyon and hillside in morning light high in the Amargosa Range.

(By the way, on the day I’m posting this to the queue at my blog – June 30, 2013 – we are in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave here in California. I’m sure that this would be a particularly unpleasant place to be today!)

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Dogwood Thicket and Forest, Evening

September 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Blooming dogwoods among the conifer forest in evening light, Yosemite National Park

Among photographers and others who watch the seasons change in the Sierra, the spring blossoming of the Yosemite Valley dogwood trees is an important indicator that winter is over, spring is here, and summer cannot be far away. At the right time, in many locations in The Valley these flowers can bloom profusely, and this year’s bloom was exceptional. However, many who focus their visits on the brief (a week or two?) bloom in Yosemite Valley may overlook the beautiful though perhaps a bit different bloom that continues in the higher country.

I was in the Valley on this early May day for various reasons, but as evening approached I decided to drive up out of the Valley to a particular little tree-filled Valley where I often stop – in spring for the dogwood flowers and in fall for the autumn colors of these trees. I arrived during the hour before sunset when the late sunlight still shines over the top of a low ridge to the west and filters through the mixed forests to backlight the thickets of dogwood trees growing among the more typical forest trees of the area, and I spent the evening quietly looking and walking among the trees of this little section of forest.

(Note: This photograph was made in late spring, but it appears on my blog in early September… following the gigantic “Rim” fire in the vicinity of the northwest boundary of Yosemite National Park. From what I can tell from the fire maps on the Internet, there is a possibility that these trees are now gone, though I have not had a chance to check yet. They are/were on the west side of the road that formed one of the fire breaks, so I’m hopeful that they might have been saved. I’ll know soon.)

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Maple and Sorrel, Redwood Grove

September 7, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

An old maple tree leans above a bed of redwood sorrel in a redwood grove at Muir Woods National Monument

Of the group of photographs I made on this early August morning at Muir Woods National Monument, this may be the darkest scene of all. Almost no direct sunlight had yet penetrated down into this section of the forest, with the exception of a few odd beams striking here and there among the higher branches, and one coming across the forest floor from the right side of the frame.

Redwood trees here are generally quite straight and bulky. With the exception of those that have fallen or are leaning over, they forma a continuous pattern of vertical lines. Breaking up this verticality are the curving shapes of trees like the laurel, and in this scene a thick, old maple tilts wildly to the right at a 45-degree angle, and is the form that initially attracted me to this spot. The forest floor here is almost covered with redwood sorrel, a clover-like plant that puts out small blossoms earlier in the year. The light, of course, is soft and the whole scene is in deep shade.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Wildlife

Grazing Deer, Evening

September 6, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

A huge herd of deer grazes in evening light at Tuolumne Meadows beneath Lembert Dome and Mount Dana

This evening started out looking like it might turn out to be a photographic bust. I had been over near Mono Lake earlier in the evening where smoky haze from a forest fire to the south along the eastern slopes of the Sierra was making photography a bit challenging. I did manage to get a few interesting images of the lake, but as the sun started to drop behind the Sierra crest to the east, things began to look very murky. I decided that I might just have enough time to get up and over the crest to where it was possible that the air might be a bit clearer, since forest fire smoke can be somewhat localized and varies a lot depending upon the wind. Crossing Tioga Pass, high clouds and more smoke continued to make the possibilities seem less than promising. This was one of those times when there was a temptation to just head back to camp and kick back for the evening. But I virtually never give in to that, so I continued on down Tioga Pass Road toward Tuolumne, hoping that something might change with this light. In fact, aside from the haze, this evening was a candidate for one of my favorite of all Sierra light shows that can happen when the cloud deck ends somewhere to the west, and the descending sun briefly shines under the clouds for a few moments right before sunset.

I got my first hint without warning. I had pulled over at a spot where I could see higher peaks to the southeast, thinking that I had seen a subtle glow on the shoulder of one far off ridge – but by the time I got the camera and tripod set up it was gone. Somewhat frustrated, I took down the equipment, got back in the car, started driving… and literally 30 seconds later the light suddenly came under the clouds and bathed the entire scene in warm colors. I did (another) quick u-turn and went back to the spot I had just left and made a few exposures. However, in this light I started thinking that interesting things might happen in Tuolumne Meadows, so I headed on down that direction to find interesting but unusual light. The warm color was certainly there, but the haze was muting the intensity of the light and softening distant features. With the idea of photographing across the meadow from the west end, I drove on… and soon saw that largest herd of deer that I can recall ever seeing here. I’ve often seen groups of perhaps a half-dozen or a few more, but here there were dozens. (In fact, I can count at least three dozen in this photograph, and it doesn’t include all of the critters that were in this herd.) So, as the nearly-gaudy glow of the last cloud-filtered light came to the meadow, I photographed this herd with a long lens, positioning myself so that I could place barely lit Lembert Dome and the summit of Mount Dana behind the animals.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Nature

Desert Mountain Valley

Dogwood Thicket and Forest, Evening

Maple and Sorrel, Redwood Grove

Grazing Deer, Evening

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.