Tag Archives: canyon

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

Hiker, Natural Bridge Canyon

April 13, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hiker passes beneath a thick natural bridge spanning a narrow Death Valley canyon

With the exception of a couple of very accessible and popular canyons, many Death Valley Canyons are not visited all that much. Even canyons that are a short distance from major iconic locations and roads are often uncrowded. Canyons that are more remote can be wonderfully lonely places, locations to find the solitude that the desert supplies in such abundance. They are magical places though, to be honest, if you have experienced the red rock sandstone canyons of the Southwest, many of the canyons of Death Valley are more subtle. The canyons are also an undeniable reminder of the tremendous role of water in forming this landscape, odd as that may seem in what is now a desert.

While many Death Valley sights are arguably at their best during or near the golden hour period around dawn and sunset, the canyons can be good a bit later in the morning and earlier in the afternoon. In fact, too close to the sunset/sunrise times and the canyons can be quite dark — perhaps too dark for most photography. But when the sun is a bit higher in the sky the light can strike upper canyon walls and bounce and diffuse down into canyon depths. This light can be soft, gentle, and take on the colors of the canyon rocks. You can see some of that light on the massive bridge that crosses this canyon, and if you look closely you may see a small hiker providing a sense of scale.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Winter Light, Granite And Snow

February 28, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter sunset light on a granite face and distant mountains fade into falling snow

I spent the last week in Yosemite National Park, as an artist-in-residence sponsored by Yosemite Renaissance. (Thank you!) I stayed in the Wawona area and made the drive to the Valley every day. It was wonderful to have a full week in the park and, especially, in the Valley. I spend a lot of time in Yosemite, but most of it is in the high country during summer and into the beginning of fall, so having this unbroken block of time in winter was a special treat. Making it even better, I got some weather luck. Recently California has again been in drought conditions, and last month we had record high temperatures that often felt more like spring or even summer. But I arrived to find cold (at times very cold) conditions, and a series of weak cold fronts brought snow to the Valley.

If I recall correctly, I had spent much of this afternoon photographing in the eastern part of the Valley, and as the weather closed in the light there began to die. I finished up my work in that area and prepared to depart for Wawona, but leaving enough to time to stop along the way should interesting light appear. In fact, further to the west the skies were trying to clear, and intermittent light made its way through breaks in the clouds to spotlight various areas. I stopped here and waited a few minutes, at which point almost the very last light of the day cut across the edge of the El Capitan monolith as the snow storm closed in on the upper Valley.

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

Mud Hills, Evening Light

November 28, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mud hills near the mouth of a Death Valley canyon

On this evening I had taken a “random” walk into a canyon that I hadn’t visited before. It isn’t a tremendously popular place, so I had its narrow confines almost completely to myself, even though I wasn’t all that far from some rather popular Death Valley locations. The canyon itself was not the most visually striking Death Valley location I have visited, though its narrow dimensions and solitude were notable. I reached a blockage some distance up the canyon, and since the hour was getting late I decided to reverse course and head back out for early evening light.

As is so often the case with these canyons, I emerged from the dark and narrow canyon onto a broad wash that expanded onto an alluvial fan littered with boulders, cut by water courses, and open to more distant views. Golden hour light was beginning, so there was a lot to photograph, and it took me quite a while to work my way down from here toward the trailhead. As I walked, the surrounding hills became lower and more rounded as they gradually merged with the alluvial slopes that tend to line the valley. As the light faded with the already behind hills to the west, I made a final stop to photograph these folded forms, glowing in the filtered and soft light of early evening.

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

Lakeside Trees and Rocky Slope

November 15, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Lakeside autumn aspen trees reflected in shoreline water

This was a long and productive day. We started before dawn, waking up in darkness and heading up into the mountains to arrive at a likely spot to photograph fall color before sunrise. We began by photographing a familiar lake from a somewhat different perspective, working from an elevated position above the lake. A bit later we moved to other locations in the big east side mountain valley, generally working our way around so that we could photograph aspen color before the direct sun arrived. We stopped for breakfast at a mountain lodge before heading back down into Owens Valley and then turning north. We ended up north of Lee Vining in the late afternoon, and eventually we finished photography and began the long drive across the Sierra and back to the San Francisco Bay Area.

This is one of the early morning photographs. I had finished with a somewhat iconic Eastern Sierra subject, though photographing only parts of it that might or might not be recognizable. Soon the direct sunlight began to hit this subject, washing out the colors and ending my photography of that subject. No matter, I just pivoted a bit to my right and found lakeside trees where the direct sun had not yet arrived, and I photographed these trees in the softer shadow light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: canyon

Hiker, Natural Bridge Canyon

Winter Light, Granite And Snow

Mud Hills, Evening Light

Lakeside Trees and Rocky Slope

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