Desert Ridges, Morning Haze II. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert ridges disappear into distant morning haze.

While the light of the very early morning and the very late afternoon is the most obviously appealing, there are ways to photograph at almost any time of the day. Because the distances in the Death Valley landscape are often so immense, there is almost always some amount of haze in the air. Not only does it obscure distant features, but it also shifts the color balance toward blue. In all honestly, sometimes this doesn’t make for the most appealing landscape photography, especially when distant features are included. But it is also possible to make the blue haze your friend, especially where it can enhance the sense of distance and scale.

I had finished up my sunrise photography at a different location on this morning of my early 2022 visit to Death Valley. My daily routine is usually to bet up very early — well before sunrise — and head to a first location, arriving well before the good light appears. You may have noticed that I didn’t mention things like coffee. Or breakfast. I usually skip them and get right to work. Later, after finishing with that first subject of the day, it would be easy to give in to the call of breakfast, but I usually continue on to a second location that holds some promise in later light. So on this morning I headed up into the hills to find a spot with a broad, long-distance view. From here I photographed across rows of intervening ridges as the haze gradually hid the landscape details to the point that haze and light and land merged in the distance.

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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Desert Ridges, Morning Haze. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert ridges disappear into distant morning haze.

There is a series of lessons I have learned about photography in Death Valley National Park. They including things like seasonal timing, observations about the light at various times of day, the number of locations and subjects that are a bit off the beaten track, and the importance of spending time “poking around” looking for them. One important element sits at the nexus between the immense scale of the place and the qualities of its atmosphere and light: learning to love blue haze in the atmosphere.

As a photographer who has done a lot of work in places where clear air is common — for example, among high peaks of the Sierra Nevada — the bluish haze that is often visible across the immense distances of Death Valley was initially a challenge. (It still can be at times.) Dealing with this required me to learn some lessons about timing… and that I learn to see the haze as a potential asset rather than just a problem. On this morning I had finished photographing a location in the clear sunrise light. I headed to a elevated location with broader views… and lots of the blue haze obscuring distant features. The intent of this photograph was to work with rather than against that condition, and let it help reveal the scale of the landscape.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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