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

Morning, Beneath Desert Mountains

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Morning, Beneath Desert Mountains
Morning light comes to badland terrains beneath tall desert mountains.

Morning, Beneath Desert Mountains. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Morning light comes to badlands terrain beneath tall desert mountains.

On the final morning of my late-January visit to Death Valley National Park I decided to visit a location that I rarely photograph. I suppose there were two reasons for my choice. It wasn’t that far from where I was camped, and I wanted to get back to camp by mid-morning to take things down in preparation for my departure. In addition, it is a location that, frankly, hasn’t attracted me all that much for photography. I had been there before several times and came away with little to show for it. (Despite this, one client did purchase a number of prints from this location some years ago.)

An offhand comment by a friend had suggested a different way to look that the place, and as I looked at it from a distance earlier in the week I saw some things that caught my attention. So I headed out there before dawn on this final morning and followed a trail out to the edge of some interesting badlands country. As I worked that subject the light was working its way down the face of the bare desert mountains to the northwest, so I turned my camera that direction as the play of light and shadow evolved.

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: Southern California

Ridges and Light

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Ridges and Light
Morning light on curved ridges, Death Valley National Park.

Ridges and Light. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Morning light on curved ridges, Death Valley National Park.

There are many ways to tell the story of a landscape. One approach is to go for the whole thing, the epic landscape, the big view, and to put everything in the frame. This can work, and it may produce impressive and powerful images of great scale. And, to be sure, Death Valley National Park’s landscape lends itself to this with its expansive vistas, immense mountains ranges, and other striking features.

Another way to say something about a landscape is to go in the opposite direction and let small “excerpts” from the larger scene present aspects of it. The more I photograph a place the more I trend in this direction. You’ll still find me looking at those big views, but more and more I look for small bits and pieces. The texture of these rounded ridges is found all over Death Valley and is usually eroded into some combination of gullies and small, smooth hills. Here the warm-colored early morning light is sweeping across these hills, contrasting with the cooler tones of the shadows.

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

Sunrise Above the Badlands

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Sunrise Above the Badlands
Sunrise on desert peaks works its toward badlands.

Sunrise Above the Badlands. © Copyright 2022.G Dan Mitchell.

Sunrise on desert peaks works its toward badlands.

There are some landscapes that stump me. Even after returning many times, often over a period of years, I still find it hard to “see” them photographically. While I don’t generally have that issue with Death Valley National Park as a whole, there are a few locations where this comes up, and at least a couple of them are relatively iconic places that are visited by the majority of the park’s visitors. My feeling about both of them has long been… interesting places, but not my thing photographically. In the back of my mind, in both cases, I wonder if it is more that I still need to just figure out how to see them.

A chance comment that a friend made about one of these two locations recently stuck in my mind and I kept thinking about it on my January visit to the park. On the last morning of this trip I went to one of these place and poked around a bit. Perhaps surprisingly, this photograph includes a feature of the landscape where I have stopped in the past, looked, and kept going. This time, however, I went ahead and set up and then made a few photographs as the early morning sun was striking the high peaks to the east.

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.

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

Early Autumn Aspen Grove

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Early Autumn Aspen Grove
A small grove of Eastern Sierra Nevada aspen trees begins to take on autumn color.

Early Autumn Aspen Grove. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small grove of Eastern Sierra Nevada aspen trees begins to take on autumn color.

Over the past decade or so the fall color change in the Eastern Sierra Nevada has come to attract a lot of attention. It is not unwarranted, as the aspen color throughout the range can be quite spectacular. It is also pretty accessible, and as the state’s population has continued to increase and as social media has spread the word faster and more widely… some areas have become quite crowded and even overrun for a few weeks each year. A few well-known locations have become some famous that they literally attract mobs of photographers and others. I won’t name them here — they get enough attention already. (I sometimes wonder how much blame I share as the author of a book on this event — though my publisher went along with my vow to drastically limit naming places that can’t handle the traffic.)

Despite the crowds, I hinted at the good new in the first paragraph of this post when I wrote, “throughout the range.” Often folks head straight toward the Big Name locations (as is natural) and drive right past a whole bunch of other wonderful instances of fall color. Over the years, some of my favorite aspen trees have been in places that are distinctly non-iconic. There are many things to like about this development. It means that I have subjects everywhere! I frequently find myself alone while photographing these locations. And over time I’ve developed my own little collection of place with personal meaning. This photograph comes from such a place, a grove that I had literally driven past for years before I finally stopped one day to make photographs.

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.