Tag Archives: butte

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

Mountains, Evening Sand Storm

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Mountains, Evening Sand Storm
An evening sand storm sweeps up into desert mountains above Death Valley sand dunes

Mountains, Evening Sand Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An evening sand storm sweeps up into desert mountains above Death Valley sand dunes.

Desert dust storms and sand storms can create wild photographic conditions, sometimes producing almost apocalyptic effects of light and color and atmosphere. They are, however, a mixed blessing since they bring strong winds and dusk gets into everything. On this evening we knew that there was a chance for such conditions, and when we started to see the dust clouds rising above the valley we headed north to see what we could photograph. I made a series of photographs — some in nearly obscured conditions and others, like this one, when the dust became a bit less thick and dusk colors added to the scene.

Photographing (or anything else, for that matter!) in sand storms is not pleasant. The conditions are impressive, but they are also extremely challenging. The sand and dust are terrible — on lungs, on vehicles, and on camera equipment. I employ several strategies, depending on the circumstances. Often I head for the edges of the storm and photograph into it with long lenses. I also may work from inside a vehicle, perhaps photographing through a partly open window (on the leeward side of the vehicle if possible) or, in extremely bad conditions, even shooting through closed windows. To make this photograph I briefly got out of my vehicle and worked in the partial shelter on its downwind side, shooting handheld so that I could minimize my exposure to these conditions.

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

Kit Fox Hills, Amargosa Range

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Kit Fox Hills, Amargosa Range
Amargosa Range mountains rise behind the Kit Fox Hills, Death Valley

Kit Fox Hills, Amargosa Range. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Amargosa Range mountains rise behind the Kit Fox Hills, Death Valley

These low, deeply eroded, and colorful (in the right light) Death Valley hills lie at the western base of the Amargosa Range near the start of the road heading north toward the Scotty’s Castle area. I recently read that they may be the remnants of an old earthquake fault along the eastern side of Death Valley, marking a division between the rising mountains and the sediment-filled valley. I have walked along the base of these hills, though I still need to find the time to more extensively explore their rugged and eroded landscape.

Late in the day they intercept almost the very last sunlight to reach the valley floor before sunset. With that in mind, I have photographed them many times, often from a good distance away across the valley. That was the case on this evening, when I found a spot elevated above the valley floor and climbed to its summit to watch the late-day light. It was one of those evenings when the light was unpredictable. There were clouds to the west above the Cottonwood mountains, which can turn out to be either a good thing or a bad thing. The clouds may light up at sunset and the minutes just after… or they may simply block the sun and “turn out the lights” on sunset photography. It looked like the latter might turn out to be the case as I watched the sun descend toward a band of thicker clouds. But there was a small gap between the base of the clouds and the top of the mountains, and the sunlight shone through this gap for a few minutes, casting beautiful soft light on these hills.

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: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake Shoreline, Evening

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Mono Lake Shoreline, Evening
The last light on hills beyond the Mono Lake shoreline

Mono Lake Shoreline, Evening. Mono Basin, California. October 4, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The last light on hills beyond the Mono Lake shoreline

I’ve long been fascinated by the view across this section of the Mono Lake shoreline. It contains a lot of things that I consider essential to the Mono Lake experience — tufa “towers” (though these are more like islands), the shallow shoreline with its curving edges, the larger islands and buttes, the distant mountains in the east, the immense open sky, and the textured and reflecting surface of the water.

In a way, this photograph was sort of (but not exactly!) the result of “killing time” between photographing two other subjects. I had been at a nearby area with colorful aspen trees, and had finished up there — the light was gone sooner than expected when high clouds moved in. At that point I knew that the full moon was going to rise close to sunset, so I decided to find a location along the Mono Lake shoreline to photograph it. I arrived there too early — better than too late! — and had some time to photograph other things as I waited for the moon. I went ahead and set up tripod and camera with some urgency as I noticed to last sunlight on some of those distant hills.

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: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Mono Lake Sky

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Mono Lake Sky
Mono Lake Sky

Mono Lake Sky. Mono Lake, California. August 5, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Afternoon thunderstorms develop over the eastern Sierra Nevada and Mono Lake

I think that many people are initially drawn to Mono Lake by the famous and often photographed tufa tower formations, and I have certainly sought out and photographed that subject quite a few times. But the more I go there the less I’m interested primarily in the tufas, and the more I find myself drawn to and thinking about other things. These include the immense space and deep quite surrounding the lake, broken by the cries of birds, especially when you visit at the quietest time around dawn. I also am drawn to the sky above this lake – which is often, frankly, rather barren, but when filled with the right kind of clouds can almost be the subject itself.

But only almost, so in this photograph I decided to include a thin strip of the reflecting water of the lake along with the darker formation of Black Point and the hills rising beyond in order to anchor that sky to something solid. This was one of those afternoons when thunder storms were trying to develop, but couldn’t quite build sufficiently before sundown. But this still left some very spectacular clouds, especially where updrafts pushed their tops high into the light. I suppose that there are several reasons that I chose to make this a black and white photograph, but one very practical reason was that the lower reaches of the atmosphere were a bit brown from a nearby wildfire, and I could better adapt to that in monochrome.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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