Tag Archives: atmosphere

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

Dust Storm, Desert Hills

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Dust Storm, Desert Hills
A dust storm begins to envelope desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Dust Storm, Desert Hills. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dust storm begins to envelope desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Last year we spent nearly a week in Death Valley in the Spring, photographing landscape and plants and flowers. I go every year, usually camping, but this time we stayed in one of the lodging facilities in the park, heading out from there on various one-day adventures. (I like camping in the park… but I don’t mind sleeping in a bed and eating good food either…)

We experienced some fairly big dust storms during this visit — not the biggest I’ve seen by far, but powerful enough to make an impression. One was building on this afternoon, so we headed in that direction to see what photographic opportunities might arise. Near the end of the day the sky was almost apocalyptic, with clouds above, raging dust storm below, and sunset color. But this photograph comes from earlier in the day when the effect was more subtle. We stopped close to these rounded desert hills and photographed the landscape as the more distant mountains gradually were obscured by the increasing dust.

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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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Across Owens Valley

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Across Owens Valley
Look across Owens Valey from a perch high in and Eastern Sierra canyon

Across Owens Valley. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Look across Owens Valey from a perch high in and Eastern Sierra canyon.

The east side entries to the Sierra Nevada high country bring all sorts of associations for me. My earliest experience with the range was always on the west side, coming across the great Central Valley, rising into the foothills, entering the great forests, and much later finally getting in sight of the highest, rocky peaks. My first trip to the east side, at least the first one I can recall, came much later. A friend roused me from my comfortable west-side stupor. He had gone to grad school at UCLA, and thus his orientation to the range was to drive up through the desert, parallel the immense eastern escarpment for miles, and then ascent abruptly into the range. After going into the range that way once… I was hooked.

Almost any east side entrance or exit will also produce long views into the depths of Owens Valley, and across that dry valley to the Inyo and White Mountains. These comprise quite a mighty range on their own, and the many are often surprised by their first view, when they discovered the there are peaks to the east and are just as high as those of the Sierra. I made this photograph near a trailhead in one of the east side canyons. We were just heading out for a week of backcountry photography in Sequoia-Kings Canyon, and as we started up the trail I paused to look back 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 and Amazon.

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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

Sand Storm, Desert Ridges

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Sand Storm, Desert Ridges
The dust from a nearby sand storm obscures a series of ascending ridges.

Sand Storm, Desert Ridges. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The dust from a nearby sand storm obscures a series of ascending ridges..

On this afternoon I made quite a few photographs, and they range from a few with striking sunset and dusk colors to others that are almost devoid of details in the blowing sand and dust. Yes, it was a sand storm day, and that is precisely what drew us to this portion of the valley. High winds from the southwest were raking the sand dunes and raising giant, fast-moving clouds of sand and dust. They raced across the valley, traveling northeast toward the Amargosa Mountain range.

I made this photograph very close to the point where we entered the cloud of dust/sand. We had come up from a part of the valley further south, and as we got closer to the dunes and the source of the haze the dust began to obscure the sky and the view. We stopped here before entering the worse of the cloud and made a few photographs looking into it, with the tall mountains to the north nearly obscured

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.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Green HIlls, Morning Mist

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Green HIlls, Morning Mist
Morning fog and mist above green spring hills

Green HIlls, Morning Mist. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog and mist above green California spring hills.

Many people who visit California for the first time are surprised by how dry much of the state is for most of the year. In many places — most of Southern California, the deserts, the Central Valley, coastal hills, even along portions of the coast — the predominant colors from late spring through autumn are golden and brown. What they don’t know, but may learn over repeated visits, is that much of the state passes through a miraculously green interval every year during late winter and early spring. During this time that dry, brown terrain becomes “impossibly green” for a short period.

This week I visited one of those places that seems desert-like during most of the year. Following recent rains there was mud everywhere, and even the driest of hills was sprouting new green growth. I camped up in a valley above a large plain, and when I arose in pre-dawn light I swore that this arid valley appeared to be full of fog. I broke camp in near-darkness, and as I drove down I entered the fog bank, which soon began to drift and thin in early sunlight, revealing this landscape of overlapping slopes, edges marked by the low-angle 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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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