Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Temblor Range Wildflowers, Evening

April 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Wildflowers, evening light in the Temblor Range hills

On the first day of my annual spring Death Valley visit, I took a detour down US 101 and then inland to the Carrizo Plain National Monument. I usually go straight to Death Valley in a single day, but the reports of a “super bloom” in areas of the Central Coast, plus the fact that friends were already there camping and photographing, made the side-trip sound interesting. Heading inland from 101 at Paso Robles, I soon entered the spring-green hills and began to see wildflowers… and wildflower fans! After five yours of historic California drought, Californians are absolutely thrilled by this lush spring of green hillsides and flowers. I continued heading east and eventually arrived at the Carrizo, where the only thing more plentiful than the wildflower hunters were the flowers themselves!

This national monument is not as developed as most, which makes sense given the remote location, the typical dry and inhospitable climate, and the generally small number of visitors to this faculty that is co-administered with the BLM. All of that is my way of saying that it took me a while to figure out where the heck I was and where my friends were camped! I found them, we sat and caught up on one another’s stories, and as evening came on we headed out for some photography. We ended up climbing up into the Temblor Range, where there were all kinds of flowers. I made this photograph of the hills and valleys above us just before the sun set.

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

West From The Panamints

April 23, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early evening view looking west from ridge of the Panamint range, Death Valley National Park

I made this photograph on the evening of my arrival in Death Valley. The drive is always a long one, taking most of the day when I come straight from the San Francisco Bay Area. This time I had started in the Carrizo Plains National Monument, where I had stopped overnight to join friends for some photography of this year’s extraordinary wildflower bloom. That meant that even though I had a slightly shorter drive I got a later start — I wasn’t about the leave the Carrizo without making some morning photographs, and then I explored a slower route through the Temblor Range on my way out to the Great Central Valley before continuing on to Death Valley.

My Death Valley plans were not set in stone, so when I arrived in the park I wasn’t quite sure where I would go the first night. I had some thoughts of heading out to a remote canyon area to camp, but given the late arrival I started to consider simply camping at Stovepipe Wells. When I got there and it looked like the wind might kick up a dust storm I changed my mind again and headed up into the Panamint Mountains. (Anyone who has endured a Stovepipe Wells dust storm will sympathize!) In any case, I set up a camp in the mountains and then headed out to this remote ridge top location, a place from which I have often photographed in the early morning. The haze was a bit thick looking to the east, but what a view there was to the west! In that direction the same haze glowed in the backlight of the evening sun with ridges receding into the distance and culminating at the crest of the Sierra Nevada.

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

Equipment, Ideas

“DSLR Killer!” — Maybe and Maybe Not

April 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sony, a company that has made innovative inroads in the camera market in the past few years, just announced its new Sony A9, yet another innovative product that continues the impressive progress of mirrorless cameras. Some describe it as a “DSLR Killer.” I’m not so sure. Some thoughts follow.

(Sit back. This isn’t going to be a short post! Hint: It isn’t anti-a9, though it isn’t exactly pro-a9 either.)

First, some personal background and perspectives. I use both mirrorless and DSLR camera systems — a Canon system based around the 5DsR and a Fujifilm system based around the XPro2. I use both for serious photography. Either may be my first choice, depending upon my subject and other conditions, and each excels at some things and is less capable at others. All of this is my way of saying that I’m not “pro-DSLR” or “pro-mirrorless,” and that I’m fairly brand-agnostic. (My first digital cameras back in the pre-2000 “stone age” period were mirrorless!) There are a lot of great cameras coming from by a range of manufacturers today and choosing one brand over another makes little difference to one’s photography.

I’m convinced at this point that mirrorless cameras have the potential to become the predominant serious cameras eventually, and that they are already serious tools that can be the best choice in some situations. Their pluses, both current and potential, include the following: Continue reading “DSLR Killer!” — Maybe and Maybe Not →

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Wash And Hills

April 22, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on a desert wash, hills on an alluvial fan, salt flats, and distant mountains of Death Valley National park

As I wrote in a previous message describing this Death Valley trip, one of the areas I decided to focus on this time was this one — a location along a fairly well-known Death Valley route that includes a vast alluvial fan, cut by washes, interrupted by hills of darker rocks, and always with extensive long views of surrounding mountains and off int the distant reaches of the valley itself.

This time I went in the early morning. I arrived before sunrise, set up, and watched as the morning began to unfold. From this location I could see a huge range of terrain. The highest point in the park at more than 11,000′, Telescope Peak, poked up above the bulk of the Panamint Range and caught the first dawn sunlight. Far to the west I could see the upper slopes of the Cottonwood mountains, and soon the sun lit them, too. The light slowly worked its way down from the mountains and before long fingers of morning sunlight reached the valley floor. I made this photograph while some distant parts of the valley were under cloud shadows, but when the light was beginning to shine on the desert wash at the base of the small hill from which I photographed.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Temblor Range Wildflowers, Evening

West From The Panamints

“DSLR Killer!” — Maybe and Maybe Not

Desert Wash And Hills

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