Sunset Light Begins. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First dusk color comes to the sky above Death Valley and the snow-capped Panamint Mountains.

Like most photographers, I’m typically attracted to the most intensely colorful phases of sunset light. I confess! Those colors are hard to resist, and frankly I don’t know of any good reason to not photograph them. (The “problem” perhaps occurs when one thinks that is the only light that is good enough to photograph.) As a matter of fact, not too long ago I shared another photograph from this spot, made at close to the same time on this evening, that does focus on a wildly colorful sky, captured at its peak of intensity.

This photograph is perhaps more subtle, photographed when the light was lovely but not so intensively colorful. Anyone who has observed such a sunset recognizes that it in a constant state of development and change. Late afternoon light almost imperceptibly fades into early evening light, and eventually the sky’s colors begin to intensify. At the most transient moment many elements are in play — the east becomes more blue, the sky in the far west seems “warmer” and more intense by contrast, and the whole thing parades across the sky from horizon to horizon. Here the fact that the gaudy colors are suppressed seems to allow us to see more clearly the beauty of the gentler blue 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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Winter Desert Flowers. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dried winter flowers high in the mountains of Death Valley National Park.

From photographing with my wife, Patricia Emerson Mitchell, who specializes in photographing the plant world, often at very small scales, I have learned to pay more attention to the small things that I typically overlook — at least when I remember to do so. I’m not immune to photographing small subjects, but my perspective often begins with the large and works toward the small, not always going as far in that direction as she does. When I’m in Death Valley, where I made this photograph, I often remember that I only really began to pay attention to the myriad tiny plants and flowers on trip where she joined me.

When I first paused at the location where I made this photograph, flowers were the furhest thing from my mind. I was returning on a gravel road from a less-visited outback location, and because I was not in a hurry I turned off when I spotted some dilapidated traces of an old mine — some tracks, a small tailings pile, the entrance to a mine. I got out and walked toward it, and as I walked I realized, much to my surprise, that this very dry desert mountain landscape was absolutely filled with dry flowers left over from the previous season. I cannot identify these flowers, but they and other dry flowers were everywhere… when I finally stopped to look.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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