Tag Archives: cliff

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

Rugged Terrain, Lower Titus Canyon

December 29, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Details of the rugged cliffs and walls rising above lower Titus Canyon in Death Valley National Park.

Titus Canyon Road is one of the marvels of Death Valley National Park. It begins in high desert of Amargosa Valley near the town of Beatty and the ghost town of Rhyolite, winds over the summit of the Grapevine Mountains, drops precipitously into upper Titus Canyon, passes a number of historically interesting sites, passes through a very narrow and deep section in the lower canyon, and then suddenly emerges into the vastness of Death Valley.

In the lower section of the canyon, the wash becomes very narrow, passing through a twisty slot canyon and is, in places, barely wide enough for the one-lane gravel road. Here the walls of the canyon press tightly together and rise steeply for hundreds of feet. Some places are so deep that the sun rarely penetrates to the bottom.

Fortunately for the preservation of the canyon the road is horrible, at least if you are used to more civilized driving. It is a one-way road and the whole thing is gravel. Sections are in decent shape, but it other places the road passes over narrow and twisty sections next to precipitous drop-offs and then dives steeply into deep canyons. At times the route is closed after heavy rains or other conditions that make the route impassable.

Fortunately, the section that is perhaps the most impressive in many ways – the deep slot canyon near the bottom – is easily accessible by foot from Death Valley. After a short drive up to the canyon entrance on a gravel road to a parking area, you can enter the canyon on foot and walk up as far as you want. This photograph was made within the lower mile of the canyon during the late morning, when the light penetrates more deeply into the canyon and creates a glow on the canyon walls.

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.

(Basic EXIF data may be available by “mousing over” large images in posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Winter Dusk, Carmel Highlands Near Yankee Point

December 17, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Winter dusk light and clouds over the Pacific Ocean at Carmel Highlands near Yankee Point, Pacific Coast Highway, California.

This is the companion image to the black and white photograph I posted yesterday, Before I made the exposures that I used to create that black and white landscape-orientation image, I first made a quick series of bracketed exposures in portrait mode. As I photographed, I knew that the dynamic range was going to be too large for a singe exposure so I quickly made a series of four exposures, from which I selected two that have blended to produce this image.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Yankee Point and Cypress, Carmel Highlands, Dusk

December 16, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

A Carmel Highlands cypress trees stands at the edge of a cliff above the Pacific Ocean and Yankee Point at dusk.

Oddly, this is a photograph that sort of “didn’t make the cut” the first time I went through the batch shortly after making the photographs in early 2010. I had spent the afternoon photographing further south in the Big Sur area and several other photographs from the set turned out more as I expected – and this one seemed like a sort of problem child photograph, so I didn’t take the time needed to work with it. Eventually I forgot about it as I went on to other projects.

The photo had been almost a bit of a grab shot. As I was heading north back up the coast, thinking I had finished my shooting and was now on the way home, I was stunned to catch a glimpse of some intense post-sunset light as I rounded the bend at the head of this cove in Carmel Highlands. I wasn’t certain that I could find a composition and work out a photograph in the brief interval the probably remained before the light faded, but I quickly put on the wide angle zoom, attached the camera to the tripod, and headed over to the edge of the bluff. Exposure was a terrible problem because the brilliant and very colorful sky was quite bright, while the close side of the foreground tree was nearly black. I made managed to shoot the scene a few times, shifting from landscape to portrait mode and making three bracketed exposures of each composition.

When I got home and looked at the raw files I think I decided that it was just going to be too much work for too little reward, and I instead went to work on more promising shots from earlier in the afternoon. This week I came upon the series of shots again and wondered what I could do with them. My first inclination was to go with the color, and I did come up with a portrait orientation image in color that I will probably post before long. Then, as I began to work on the landscape mode image, I started to see it as having potential as a monochrome image. I tried it. I liked it. And here it is!

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Cove and Beach Near Davenport, Evening

December 13, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Black and white photograph of two people standing on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean and overlooking a cove and beach near Davenport California.

Although I have continued posting photographs at a rate of one per day, I have only managed to get into the field to shoot a few times since early November. Yesterday I found time to make it over to the Pacific coast late in the day. I was looking for the foggy, misty, and somewhat gray conditions that are common this time of year, at least when the air has not been cleared by a passing storm. I wasn’t disappointed. While the sky was clear overhead, the air was very moist – my equipment became damp from condensation as I worked.

Since my time was a bit limited – the sun was going down! – I went more or less straight to this spot where I have photographed in the past. (At first I considered going a bit further north to shoot from high bluffs, but I realized that the shot I had in mind from that location would be better earlier in the day.) When I arrived the sun was just dropping below the horizon, but that is what I wanted – I wasn’t looking for one of those brilliant “sun dead ahead” shots. I wanted the post-sunset soft light and enough darkness that I could work with longer exposures.

I parked and walked the short distance to this spot at the head of this cove. The composition is sort of tricky. The “right” (in my view) arrangement of the offshore rock and the surrounding bluffs can only be seen from a very small area – too far right or left and elements start to collide. In addition I wanted that little bit of more distant shoal along the right side of the frame to suggest that the coast continues, and I wanted that flat bit of bluff with a bit of post sunset light at the left. It was a bonus when the two people – probably photographers! – showed up on the top of the left bluff and thoughtfully posed for me as I made long exposures!

This photograph is 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.