Tag Archives: cathedral

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

Detail, Red Cathedral

November 16, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I have recently posted other photographs made in the area of Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, including one other of this feature sometimes known as the Red Cathedral. It stands to the right of the more famous and recognizable parts of the Zabriskie Point Landscape where, for example, Manley Beacon is one of the most well-known visual icons in the park.

This detail photograph was made using a long lens very shortly after the first morning light had arrived on this feature. In my experience, getting good light on Red Cathedral can be a tricky thing. Parts of it face away from the sun and towards Death Valley and because its face is deeply fluted it can be tricky avoiding blocked shadows. But increasing exposure too much creates problems with saturated colors on the brightest strata that cut through its face. If you shoot it in the morning, light somewhat softened by some high clouds can be helpful, and that is what I had on this morning – the sun light is direct, but it is also filtered a bit by passing through broken clouds to the east.

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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

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

Red Cathedral, Zabriskie Point

November 8, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

This photograph was made at what may be the most famous location in Death Valley, the overlook area at Zabriskie Point. The photograph does not include the famous view of the spire of Manley Beacon, which is just out of the frame to the left in this image. Instead, the photograph focuses on the “Red Cathedral,” a ridge to the right of Zabriskie that rises above the rest of the surrounding eroded hills, is a darker and reddish color, and presents a deeply eroded face.

It is not an easy subject to photograph, and I still have some additional ideas on how else I might approach the feature as a subject. Exposure is a challenge when shooting the Red Cathedral. At first, as light comes to other nearby areas, this feature remains dark. When the sun does finally arrive here – as it is in this photograph – it rakes across the foreground gullies, brightly illuminates the light-colored ridge to the right, and picks off a few small areas of the Red Cathedral while leaving others in deep shade. To add insult to injury, there is a good chance that a photographer will be set up in a position that eventually gives very flat front lighting to the ridge. I may this exposure very shortly after the sun hit Manley Beacon and just as it was starting to light up the foreground gullies and small hills.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Gaylor Basin and the Cathedral Range, Evening

August 11, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Evening shadows stretch across the boulder-filled meadows and forests of Gaylor Basin with the peaks of the Cathedral Range on the skyline, Yosemite National Park.

On the first evening of my late-July four-day visit to Yosemite’s high country along Tioga Pass Road I decided to visit this favorite location of mine. It is a short (but steep!) hike from near Tioga Pass over a nearby ridge to reach this quiet basin with its many lakes, long distance views of the Cathedral Range, and the treeline terrain of rocks and trees that I believe is my very favorite in the Sierra.

I started out after my mid-afternoon “dinner” and the drive to the trailhead from my camp at Porcupine Flat. Probably because it was so late in the day, I met a fair number of people hiking back out but only saw two others in the entire basin once I arrived. I suppose this is one of the advantages of keeping odd “photographer’s hours” – while most people are heading back to camp to fix dinner, I’m heading out to catch the evening light.

In the end, I didn’t make many photographs on this evening. I mostly wandered, something I love to do in these high open basins. I walked around the first lake, passing over some still-unmelted snow, and crossed the very full outlet stream, trying to skirt the wettest portions of the meadow by looking for rocky terrain. I finally settled on an area just below the lake and made a few photographs of trees and rocks and the long, shallow valley leading toward the main trunk of the Tuolumne River and the mountains beyond. I finished just after dusk, climbed back up the ridge as darkness came on, and finished the hike back to my car with the help of the light from my headlamp.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Mammoth Peak and Kuna Crest, Overflowing Tuolumne River

July 1, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mammoth Peak and the Kuna Crest loom above as the Tuolumne River overflows its banks and floods surrounding meadows on a frosty spring morning, Yosemite National Park.

As I drove from Lee Vining Canyon over Tioga Pass and toward the Tenaya Lake area early in the morning, I came to the Tuolumne River where it passes under the bridge beneath the highway in the Tuolumne Meadows area. Just at about this moment the sun was rising high enough to begin to warm the frost covered meadow, at least the parts of it that were not flooded by the high water of the Tuolumne. Overnight it had risen almost to the level of the bridge and was so high that after passing under the bridge a small portion split off and headed into the trees to the right of the main branch. In a few weeks this flooded area and its reflecting surface will be gone, and there will just be a meadow and people will hike though it.

The backlight comes across the shoulder of Mammoth Peak, the high point near the end of the long snow-covered ridge of Kuna Crest, which runs parallel to Lyell Canyon toward Donohue Pass and the Sierra Crest.

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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