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

Rising Desert Hills

December 31, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A rising series of colorful eroded hills, Death Valley National Park

I get to use this photograph to tell a story at my own expense. Before arriving in Death Valley I had previous shot a very different subject. I don’t recall if it was birds in fading dusk light or perhaps classical musicians in stage lighting and backstage work lights. (Some of you can already guess where this is headed…) On the first morning in Death Valley I headed to a place that I like to photograph in early light – a place where there usually aren’t too many people, despite the easily accessible location, and where the eroded and colorful geology is almost completely devoid of plants. I arrived before sunrise and soon found a nice composition that I had not photographed before. I spent some time working that scene before moving on and photographing another a little ways away. Partway through that second set of shots I realized that my camera was still on the settings for the prior low-light subject – namely ISO 3200. That is not exactly a typical landscape sort of setting, and while good results are possible when shooting low light subjects that way, the noise levels are far from ideal for landscape. I reset and continued shooting. (I did return to the location on the final morning of the trip to reshoot that first subject.)

This scene was one of the first that I shot after realizing my error. These very eroded hills place different color material in a series of rising hills – tan, reddish, purple-black, brown, and more. The smooth features along the tops of some of the small ridges contrast with the very sharp and angular lines of the eroded channels that lead down to the wash. Later in the day the light here is almost impossibly harsh and the colors fade, but for a few minutes at the start (especially) and end of the day the colors briefly intensify.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New York City

Winter Trees, Central Park

December 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Low-angle late afternoon sun on winter trees casts shadows across Central Park lawns, New York City

For this photographer, New York provides a much wilder landscape than anything in the Sierra – though here “wild” may have a slightly different meaning. I like New York a lot, and I find the pace and density energizing, at least for a while. Most of the time, it provides an almost completely different sort of shooting for me (with only some of my San Francisco photographs being a bit similar in concept). I shoot entirely handheld, with a small camera, and almost entirely with a single prime lens. (Contrary to what you’ll here, a reason for shooting with the prime is that it requires less thought, since there are fewer options to consider, thus allowing me to work a lot faster.) I make many photographs, the great majority of which are not wonderful and which will never been seen by anyone else. But every so often something happens in front of the camera that is worth the search.

But this is not that kind of photograph. It was shot handheld and using that very same prime lens, but it is a landscape. On this afternoon in Central Park the winter sun was low in the sky, and beautiful light filtered through hazy sky. There were thousands of people out in the park, having a different sort of “outdoor experience” than I’m used to – not a solitary sort of thing at all. There was the usual assortment of pedicab and carriage rides, food stands, people walking dogs, bike riders and runners… and always beyond the winter-bare trees the skyline of tall buildings. In this corner of the park I found a place to point my camera towards some trees and into the low afternoon sun.

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

Canyon Wall in Reflected Light

December 29, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pink and blue canyon wall and plants in midday light reflected from a nearby cliff

This is the second photograph I made along this section of curiously colorful cliff face deep in the “narrows” of a Death Valley National Park canyon. I have visited this place a number of times – it isn’t all that hard to get to – and often found it to be a very challenging photographic subject. I have shot it before, but mostly made it work by including people in the frame or by shooting subjects above the canyon rather than at the bottom. Because it is so deep – and it lacks the beautiful reddish rock of the Southwest – the depths of the canyon are often simply dark and somewhat drab.

As I passed through this time I took a slower pace than sometime, and I’m sure I saw things that I had overlooked before. This was certainly the first time that I had noticed the pink tinge to the rocks in this spot, much less the subtle blue tones of the underlying layers, the interesting rippled patterns, and the glow of light from an opposite canyon wall. I almost kept going but something told me to slow down and spend a bit of time here looking around, and I finally decided to see what compositions I could make out of the cracked rock and very sparse plants.

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

Titus Canyon Narrows

December 28, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Titus Canyon road passes through the Narrows as light reflects down from canyon walls high above

Titus Canyon road is a well-known “attraction” in Death Valley National Park, traveling from the eastern park boundary in the Amargosa Valley near the town of Beatty, Nevada over the Grapevine Mountains and then down to Death Valley itself. It is also known as a fairly rough road, subject to washouts and closures after storms – not a true four-wheel-drive road, but certainly not for the faint of heart of those who are not accustomed to rough desert and mountain driving. (Many chose to forgo the long drive and instead hike into the canyon from its mouth, from which the spectacular “narrows” section is easily accessible.)

I have been getting to better know the country through which this road passes as I’ve driven it many times during the past decade or so. More recently I have been slowing down and taking nearly the full day to drive its length – and in doing so I am able to see and photograph things that I used to miss. Oddly, since it is often regarded as the main attraction of the route, I’ve often found it very difficult to photograph the narrows section near the end of the road just before it spills out at the top of a giant alluvial fan along the edge of Death Valley. Perhaps it is the predominantly gray color of the rocks – once you’ve photographed the canyons of the Southwest, California rock just looks so drab! This time I think I passed through the narrows section at what must have been just about the ideal time of day and season, and light hitting upper canyon walls was reflecting down into the bottom of the canyon and creating some interesting, albeit subtle, colors and soft reflections on the rocks.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Rising Desert Hills

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Winter Trees, Central Park

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Canyon Wall in Reflected Light

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Titus Canyon Narrows

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

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