Tag Archives: black and white

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

Panamint Sky

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Panamint Sky
“Panamint Sky” — Morning winter sky above the Panamint Range and Lake Manly.

Lake Manly, the ephemeral lake that appears in Death Valley’s Badwater Basin in unusually wet seasons, is gradually shrinking once again. It was very large in early 2025, and again quite large early this year. It is starting to dry out and it will likely begone soon. For now though, it is still impressive, especially if you stand at its edge early in the morning, and doubly so when clouds fill the sky.

I chose black and white for this photograph of the lake because monochromegives me a great deal of interpretive freedom, in many way s more so than with color. As a starting point, black and white never can claim to be an accurate representation of the world of colors, and this frees us from notions that a photograph must always aspire to look like what we saw. In this case, monochrome allows me to draw attention to this remarkable winter desert sky.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Mountains, Sky, and Water

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Mountains, Sky, and Water
“Mountains, Sky, and Water” — Desert mountains and hazy light above Lake Manly, Death Valley.

Many of my Lake Manly photographs look out into Badwater Basin, across the lake, and towards the Panamint Range rising in the west. For this photograph I found a camera position a bit north of the “usual spot” and pointed the camera south to including the sequence of desert mountain slopes beyond the lake. This view includes the interrupted reflections of those slopes along with salt flats along the edge of the lake.

This photograph is related to another I shared recently that also featured layers of desert mountains extending into the far distance. Both feature “atmospheric recession,” in which haze lightens more distant features and obscures their details. In addition to elements such as converging perspective lines, this effect also can suggest depth and distance.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Oak Among The Conifers

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Oak Among The Conifers
“Oak Among The Conifers” — A solitary autumn black oak tree at the edge of a grove of conifers.

Every so often I think about how photographers captured images of fall “color” in the era of black and white photography, and I have to try my hand at it once again. Obviously the usual approach — finding some brilliant color and then emphasizing it in the photograph — won’t work here. Instead, contrast with darker surroundings could be one way to evoke the brilliance of autumn foliage.

Although this small black oak appears alone in the photograph, it has other oak neighbors nearby. What sets it apart apart is that it grows against a backdrop of a very dark and thick conifer forest. I’ve watched this tree for years, and the contrast can be quite compelling in the fall.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Window Formation, Desert Mountains

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Window Formation, Desert Mountains
“Window Formation, Desert Mountains” — Desert mountains beyond a teardrop-shaped window in a rock wall, Death Valley.

Death Valley National Park is full of popular and famous attractions that are quite accessible — Mesquite Dunes, Badwater, Zabriskie Point, to name a few. But there’s far more to this immense park than the popular spots. There are equally worthy things to see everywhere, including in some rather remote locations. This is one of those sights, and the odds are that you would be alone here if you were to visit.

The feature is an impressive tear-drop shaped “window” in a wall of rock that stands on the inside of a sharp bend in the canyon. Beyond, further canyon walls rise above the wash, and in the far distance we see the highest peaks of the Panamint Range, including 11,000’+ Telescope Peak.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.