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

Sand Dune Shadows

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Sand Dune Shadows
Creosote plants cast long shadows across sand dunes in early morning light.

Sand Dune Shadows. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Creosote plants cast long shadows across sand dunes in early morning light.

On every visit to Death Valley National Park I like to combine return visits to places I have visited before with visits to new locations. In the former case I often continue to expand my knowledge of familiar subjects and try to see them in new ways. In the latter I bring what I already have learned about this landscape to these new locations and see how I can draw on that to understand these new places. I made this photograph in a place that I’ve long thought about visiting and finally got to on this trip.

I camped nearby overnight, which gave me the opportunity to photograph in evening and morning light. On that first evening it was exciting to head out on the walk to this new place, unsure of what I would find or how I would photograph it. Early the next morning, as I walked across nearly the same route, the place was already starting to feel like “mine” a little bit, both from the previous night’s visit and from recognizing features familiar to me from elsewhere in the park. These creosote bushes were in a flat area at the base of taller dunes, and as the sun rose over the tops of these dunes the plants cast long shadows.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Sunrise Above the Badlands

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Sunrise Above the Badlands
Sunrise on desert peaks works its toward badlands.

Sunrise Above the Badlands. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Sunrise on desert peaks works its toward badlands.

There are some landscapes that stump me. Even after returning many times, often over a period of years, I still find it hard to “see” them photographically. While I don’t generally have that issue with Death Valley National Park as a whole, there are a few locations where this comes up, and at least a couple of them are relatively iconic places that are visited by the majority of the park’s visitors. My feeling about both of them has long been… interesting places, but not my thing photographically. In the back of my mind, in both cases, I wonder if it is more that I still need to just figure out how to see them.

A chance comment that a friend made about one of these two locations recently stuck in my mind and I kept thinking about it on my January visit to the park. On the last morning of this trip I went to one of these place and poked around a bit. Perhaps surprisingly, this photograph includes a feature of the landscape where I have stopped in the past, looked, and kept going. This time, however, I went ahead and set up and then made a few photographs as the early morning sun was striking the high peaks to the east.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Geese, Before Sunrise

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Geese, Before Sunrise
Migratory geese fly above Central Valley trees and low fog before sunrise on a winter morning.

Geese, Before Sunrise. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Migratory geese fly above Central Valley trees and low fog before sunrise on a winter morning.

What would possess me to get out of bed at 3:30AM, drive two hours before the first hints of dawn, and roll out of my vehicle in the darkness while the temperature is below freezing. This would. The end of the season for photographing these particular migratory birds is only weeks away, and I had b been holding off on visiting in hopes that there might be some fog. With no such conditions in the forecast I stopped waiting and headed out there. But luck was with me and a very shallow layer of ground fog appeared, muting the foreground terrain until the first sunlit burned it off.

The photograph looks across the tree-dotted agricultural flatlands of the Central Valley toward pre-dawn light above the Sierra Nevada. The birds come to life as the first light appears and become more and more active as sunrise approaches. The line of geese in the sky might contain Ross’s, snow, and/or white-fronted geese — but silhouetted against this light it is hard to know for certain.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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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: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Creosote, Morning Light

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Creosote, Morning Light
A cluster of creosote in sand dunes, backlit by morning sun.

Creosote, Morning Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A cluster of creosote in sand dunes, backlit by morning sun.

As this morning’s light quickly evolved, I had just time to make one photograph of this subject from this camera position. I was photographing almost straight into the sun, which was just above the ridge that creates the shadow in the background. The plant’s mirror image of shadows caught my attention, and it sort of felt like the combination of the plant and its shadow exploded across this bit of dune landscape.

From a photographic perspective, this image is another example of a few semi-technical points I’ve made in some of my recent Death Valley posts. It was made quickly — not at all using the sort of sedate process that some might think of when considering landscape photography. This landscape of dunes and light evolves very quickly at this time of day, and to respond to it I often work quickly, moving rapidly from one subject to the next. It is also a photograph made with a long focal length lens. As I have mentioned, this lets me work a larger area in the dunes more quickly, and it also allows me to limit the scope of the composition.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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

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