Tag Archives: capped

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

From Valley To Peaks

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From Valley To Peaks
In morning light, he Panamint Range rises from below sea level in Death Vally to over 11,000 feet at Telescope Peak.

From Valley To Peaks. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

The Panamint Range rises in morning light from below sea level in Death Vally to over 11,000 feet at Telescope Peak.

Earlier I shared another photograph of this series of impressive ridges, rising in the dawn light from the below-sea-level playa of Death Valley to the 11,000’+ summit of Telescope Peak. The other photograph took in a wider view of the landscape. In this one I narrowed the focus to emphasize the immense mass of these mountains and their astonishingly tall escarpment.

It is very hard to get an accurate sense of scale for this scene. This was true when I was there, and I suspect it is even more true when looking at the photograph. The base of the mountains is many miles away — I don’t have an accurate measurement, but it must be more than ten miles. If you look closely, you may notice that it takes four ridges to reach that highest summit, whose distance is likely something like 25-30 miles. And if you look closely you can pick out a series of four ridges as the mountains rise to the summit.

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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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon

Evening Dunes

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Evening Dunes
Soft early-evening light on san dunes as the last sun strike distant desert mountains.

Evening Dunes. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Soft early-evening light on sand dunes as the last sun strikes distant desert mountains.

Photographers (and other creatives) understand that their perspective on their own work will always differ from those of others. It cannot be any other way. Only the photographer — that’s me! — knows the circumstances and experiences of making the image. No one else can ever see the photograph the way I do or know all of the associations it evokes. Perhaps this is a reason that we tell stories about photographs. We hope to fill in some of what the photograph alone cannot tell.

So, some backstory: This was the first time I visited at this semi-remote desert location. I planned to photograph in the evening, camp nearby that night, and photograph again in the morning. My camp was a bit more than a half hour walk from the location, and this was the very last photograph I made that evening. Astute observers (and fellow photographers) may wonder: “Why did you stop when that light was still on the mountains?” Well… I was there to photograph the dunes. It was extremely windy and the low light was becoming more of a problem. The light on the mountains was beautiful, but there wasn’t a photograph there. And I had a long walk back to my camp, alone and across terrain that I had not visited before.

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

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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

Morning Sun, Panamint Mountains

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Morning Sun, Panamint Mountains
Morning sun on the eastern face of the Panamint Mountains.

Morning Sun, Panamint Mountains. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning sun on the eastern face of the Panamint Mountains.

The light on this morning was interesting, a bit softer than expected due to thin clouds to the east that muted the colors and contrast a bit, plus a bit of the ubiquitous Death Valley haze. I made the photograph back in late January, so it isn’t a big surprise to see a dusting of snow on the higher peaks along the ridge of the Panamint Mountains.

The Panamint Mountains stand along the western side of Death Valley and are a remarkable range in many ways — their scale, the human history they contain, and their relative inaccessibility. While humans have, no doubt, appeared from time to time in this slice of landscape, it is a forbidding place and not one traversed easily. From Valley floor to the highest peaks is over 11,000′ feet, and the terrain between the two is immense and rugged.

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

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sierra Foothills, White Mountains

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Sierra Foothills, White Mountains
A long view from the Buttermilks in the Sierra Nevada eastern foothills to the crest of the distant White Mountains.

Sierra Foothills, White Mountains. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A long view from the Buttermilks in the Sierra Nevada eastern foothills to the crest of the distant White Mountains.

Recently I was once again pondering how the way we approached the Sierra Nevada at first affected our overall perceptions of the character of the Range of Light. As I have noted before, during the first decades of my relationship with these mountains I approached from the west, crossing semi-coastal mountains, crossing the agricultural Central Valley, rising gradually into oak-grasslands and eventually to conifer forest, and only much later finally arriving in the “High Sierra” world of open meadows and alpine peaks. Contrast this with the experience of those approaching from the east, where the range presents a very long “wall” of peaks that towers above high desert, in places rising by as much as 10,000 feet above that dry landscape.

This photograph is, probably obviously, one that focuses on that eastern part of the Sierra. But here I look away from the Sierra Nevada, past the rugged and “barren” terrain of dry hills at the base of the range, across the expanse of Owens Valley, and toward the (also dry) peaks of the White Mountains. To put it plainly, you won’t see anything like this on the west side!

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.

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