Tag Archives: and

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

Glacial Erratics

December 1, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Glacial erratics rest on top of a low granite dome in the back-country of Yosemite National Park.

“Erratics” are boulders left behind in the wake of the passage of glaciers, and left behind when the glaciers disappeared. They are found all over the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada and some of the most striking examples are found in surprising places – like along the top of this granite dome-like ridge in the Yosemite back-country along the Tuolumne River. After spending decades in these mountains I sometimes take these rocks for granted (and for “granite…” ;-), but every so often it hits me just how strange and wonderful it is to find these large boulders sitting in unlikely places.

I made this photograph in the late afternoon as the lowering sun began to cast longer shadows and as earlier clouds began to dissipate above the distant ridges. The Tuolumne River begins it steep descent into the lowlands between my position and the distant ridge covered with granite and trees.

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

Dust Storm, Death Valley

November 11, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A building dust storm begins to obscure the sky above Death Valley, California.

In retrospect, there were hints that this tremendous dust storm was coming prior to its actual arrival. Very early in the morning I had been photographing at another location and the light and atmosphere were a bit unusual. The dawn and very early morning light was beautifully warm, but the distant peaks were slightly obscured by a sort of atmospheric haze that is hard to describe but which I now recognize as being associated with incoming dust storms. Soon, large and impressive clouds began to appear high in the deep blue sky, but at about the same time the air closer to the bottom of Death Valley started to look increasingly opaque.

I left my early morning shooting location and began my trip home from Death Valley. After a stop at Furnace Creek – to treat myself to a real breakfast after days of camping – I headed north towards Stovepipe Wells. As I headed north I began to see the obvious clouds of blowing dust accumulating along the Grapevine Mountains, and shortly before the turn to Stovepipe I encountered the boundary between the relatively clear air and the murk of the dust storm that was growing directly ahead and off to my left.

Before entering the cloud – I had not choice since my route went that direction – I pulled over within perhaps a quarter-mile of the edge of the storm. Not wanting to risk dust getting into my camera, I unpacked my gear inside the car and decided to just use the lens that was already fitted to the camera. I stepped outside to find that lines of wind-blown dust were already streaming along the ground and that the atmosphere had taken on the strange and electric feel of these storms. Off to my left, the dust was beginning to kick up among some low, dark hills across a nearby wash, while a gap in the dust clouds momentarily left open a window to the bright sky and high clouds above.

Related: See my posts on Photographing Death Valley

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

Trillium Plants, Redwood Forest

November 3, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trillium plants beneath the redwood forest canopy at Muir Woods National Monument.

This is another of the previously overlooked photographs from a few years back, this time from Muir Woods National Monument in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. I visit there frequently, and on this occasion I arrived just after the bloom of the trillium flowers had finished, but when the plants were still growing strong.

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

Badwater Salt Flats, Evening

November 2, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Black and white photograph of rough patterns in the dried salt desert floor at Badwater Salt Flats, Death Valley National Park.

This is another of the “rediscovered photographs” that I uncovered while reviewing many years of raw files recently. Periodically I go through all of the old archived raw files, partly to cull out a few that I know that I’ll never use, but also because I know that whenever I revisit the old files I discover some photographs that I had forgotten or had never understood at the time I made them. Revisiting the old file archives, I’m sometimes shocked that I passed over certain images.

This one is from the salt flats at Badwater in Death Valley National Park. Technically, this was not shot at precisely “Badwater,” but it is close enough. I was out on the flats in the late afternoon, shooting as the sun dropped behind the Panamint Range. In my view, the best light – with the exception of days when clouds might tower above the Panamints – comes starting right about at the time that the sun passes the line of the ridge as it descends at the end of the day. This takes the incredibly bright and harsh sun off of the playa and provides softer light in the shadow of the range. However, this also presents a problem that almost everyone who has shot here must understand, namely that the illumination by the bright blue sky turns the “white” salt a surprisingly intense blue color. I’ve seen people handle this in a variety of ways: keep the intense, almost gaudy, blue color; do a lot of color correction to get colors that more closely correspond to what we recall seeing; mostly include the sky with its more intense colors; or let the colors go and do a black and white rendition.

Although I’ve “done” this subject in color a number of times, somehow this one seemed to call out for black and white. For one thing, it allowed me to use the interesting shapes of the evening clouds as a dramatic backdrop to the rough and broken shapes of the playa salt polygons. It also allowed me to try an interpretation that focuses on the dramatic potential of the scene.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: and

Glacial Erratics

Dust Storm, Death Valley

Trillium Plants, Redwood Forest

Badwater Salt Flats, Evening

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