Tag Archives: clearing

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

Clearing Storm, Panamint Mountains

April 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The remnant clouds of a spring storm clear over the snow-dusted peaks of the Panamint Mountains, Death Valley National Park

This was one of the most interesting and varied days I’ve spent in Death Valley, in terms of everything from the weather to photographic subjects. (It probably wasn’t the most varied day—that might be a story for another post sometime.) As is typical, the day began well before dawn with an early wake-up call and a long drive in the dark. In this case, the objective was to be at a high place with a panoramic view before sunrise. We arrived there in the early pre-dawn light to find that clouds were moving in. There was a brief moment of photographable sunrise light, and then the scene went relatively gray, though still with some interesting possibilities. As we left this spot we saw snow flurries on the peaks around us. We then photographed some old remnants of the mining activities in these mountains as the snow increased, at one point coming down fast enough that we decided to beat a retreat to a lower elevation. Intermittently things would clear a bit, and we took advantage of the soft light to make midday photographs of the abundant spring wildflowers.

Eventually the weather began to break up a bit and we had some sun. By this time in the afternoon what had been more or less universal cloudiness and snow in these mountains had transformed into scattered cells of precipitation, but mostly into beautiful blue sky interrupted by billowing, sunlit clouds, whose shadows raced across the high desert landscape. Here, as we returned from investigating what was at the end of a gravel back-country road and were about to return to the paved highway, we stopped to take one last look back towards the higher peaks of the Panamint Mountains.

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

Rain, Cottonwood Mountains

April 14, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Afternoon showers from a clearing storm fall on receding ridges of the Cottonwood Mountains, Death Valley National Park

This had been a “weather day,” with several hours of snowfall high up in the Panamint Range, where we had photographed sunrise—such as it was— and wildflowers and, of course, snow. We spent the morning and half the afternoon kicking around up high in these mountains, enjoying the late-season surprise cold weather, finding tons of wildflowers, and visiting various historical remnants of the mining days in Death Valley National Park. My typical shooting day in a situation like this starts well before dawn, includes a midday break, and then moves on to late afternoon and evening shooting until it is dark. But it was well past mid-afternoon when we finally descended from the Panamints.

There was no time for a real break, so we headed right on out to find an evening subject. We had not yet photographed in the Mesquite Dunes, and my initial thought was to photograph there in late afternoon and evening light. In the right conditions there can be wonderful light late in the day, especially during the final few minutes before the sun leaves the dunes. But there were still clouds floating around, especially to the west, and I wasn’t at all sure that we would see the good light out among the dunes. So I decided that it might make more sense to go to a higher spot where the wider panorama would let me pick out various areas of the Valley and surrounding mountains as the light changed. Arriving at “the spot,” I looked west and saw that showers were still falling over the Cottonwood Mountains and glowing with backlight from the late afternoon sun, so I put on the long lens and made some photographs of portions of the range where the falling rain masked the details and turned the mountains into abstract shapes.

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

Clearing Storm, Panamint Range

April 9, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A clearing snow storm in the Panamint Mountains above Wildrose Canyon, Death Valley National Park

I seem to have a knack for encountering “interesting” weather in Death Valley. The first time I visited the park, on an early April trip back in the late 1990s, I encountered light snow at Scotty’s Castle, an extremely cold wind storm that forced a retreat from the back-country near Teakettle Junction, and a big dust storm at Stovepipe Wells. Since then I’ve experienced a number of dust storms, heavy rain, sub-freezing temperatures, more snow, and plenty of wind. If you are hoping to visit the park for its more typical hot weather, you might want to avoid times when I’m there! Of course, I often visit around the beginning of April, and this seems to be a time of wildly varied conditions in this park—the time of wind storms, and a season when you might see the last Pacific winter storms or the first really warm weather.

On this year’s early April visit things leaned more in the direction of winter-like conditions. As a series of welcome Pacific storms came through there were plenty of clouds, cooler temperatures, strong winds, and some precipitation. The plan on this morning was to start at a very high overlook in the Panamint Range, from which expansive morning vistas are often possible. We were there before sunrise… but it was cloudy and becoming cloudier. There was enough light for some photography, but we also became aware that snow was starting to fall on some of the higher peaks. After an hour or so at this location we retreated to a high, broad, sage-filled valley and continued to watch the clouds close in and the snow spread along other nearby ridges. Not wanting to miss the unusual conditions we headed up into Wildrose Canyon, getting as far as the charcoal kilns before the falling snow convinced me that we shouldn’t go any further. We worked our way back down the canyon where the storm began to temporarily clear from the ridge of the Panamint Mountains.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture

March 24, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lone great blue heron overlooks a pasture in clearing fog, San Joaquin Valley, California

I photographed this critter on my first bird photography trip of the season in the Central Valley of California, during which I visited several wildlife refuges in the Merced area. In typical Central Valley form, the day started out very foggy – tule fog hugged the valley floor and obscured the view in many places. By late morning most of the fog had dissipated, and hazy light came through the still-humid cool-season atmosphere.

When I first arrived at this refuge, the fog was so thick that it was more or less impossible to photograph the birds – though I tried! Eventually I reconsidered and did some landscape photography in the mysterious atmosphere of the thick fog. As it finally began to clear, I turned my attention back to the migratory birds. I found this solitary blue heron in a pasture at the far corner of the refuge, and I used my car as a “blind” to eventually pull almost parallel to it on the gravel access road, then stopping to make a series of telephoto shots with the foggy pasture as the backdrop.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: clearing

Clearing Storm, Panamint Mountains

Rain, Cottonwood Mountains

Clearing Storm, Panamint Range

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture

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