Tag Archives: dawn

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Towers and Shadows, Sunrise

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Towers and Shadows, Sunrise
Red rock towers cast shadows on a cliff face in sunrise light, Zion National Park.

Towers and Shadows, Sunrise. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Red rock towers cast shadows on a cliff face in sunrise light, Zion National Park.

We have not visited Utah since before the 2016 election. I love Utah’s diverse and beautiful landscape, but once the state joined in the process of dismantling public lands I felt that the ethical — though painful — choice was to stay away until things were once again set right. Earlier this month we made it back and I can report that the state is as beautiful as it was before… and that I’m very glad to have been able to return. To a Californian, used to the mostly-gray landscapes of my beloved Sierra Nevada, the technicolor landscape of Utah is a revelation.

This photograph is another intuit combines planning and dumb luck. We got up a bit later on this morning. There was no need to catch the first shuttle into the canyon since our plan was to drive to higher country. This particular subject was on my list of sunrise possibilities, but when we arrived at the spot where I thought I could set up I could not find a place to pull over. That turned out to be good luck, as a few minutes later I figured out that a more elevated perspective was possible a bit further up the road. We found a place to pull over just. before the sun/shadow line reached the pinnacles, and I worked quickly to set up as the light continued to descend. I made a series of exposures starting with the first glimmer of direct light on the highest tower, and then I kept photographing as the light moved lower on the face, projecting the shadows of the ledge and towers on the cliff wall.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Basin Mountain, Dawn

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Basin Mountain, Dawn
A cloudy autumn dawn on Basin Mountain in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Basin Mountain, Dawn. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cloudy autumn dawn on Basin Mountain in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This is probably (maybe, likely, could be) the final photograph in the series from this beautiful autumn morning in the Eastern Sierra Nevada some years back. Since I’ve told the story previously, I’ll keep it short this time. I was there to photograph another subject up higher in the mountains, but I thought that the cloudy skies were making the eastern escarpment of the range a more likely prospect, so I changed plans at the last minute and headed to this spot that I had previously scoped out. Beginning with the pre-dawn glow, moving on to the sunrise light on the highest peaks, and continuing as it worked its way down the front of the range I was a very busy photographer for a short period on this morning!

This is a visually striking peak along the eastern edge of the range above the town of Bishop. It has long intrigued me with its east-facing basin on the upper slopes, where I presume that a glacier must have been active in a much earlier time. A close inspection of the face reveals an old trail/road climbing up into the basin, and from some maps I’ve looked at it appears that some mining or prospecting might have taken place there.

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

Sunrise in the Buttermilks

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Sunrise in the Buttermilks
Autumn dawn light on the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada above the Buttermilks.

Sunrise in the Buttermilks. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn dawn light on the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada above the Buttermilks.

This is a sort of new/old photograph. A question from a friend about the time period when I made it prompted me to make a return visit to some older photographs from that time. When I came to this on in my raw file archive I knew it looked familiar, but the raw file itself appeared to be little changed from the downloaded default settings. I soon realized that I had worked it up before, but using some older software and without using some techniques that I now apply on a regular basis. So it was back to the drawing board to come up with a newer interpretation that I like more than the old one. (I’m with the many other photographers who regard the original — whether it be a raw file or a film image — to be the score, not the only possible performance.)

It occurs to me that the title might well perplex some folks who are not familiar with this area of the eastern Sierra Nevada. “The Buttermilks” is (are?) an area of fascinating rock formations at the base of the Sierra above Bishop, California. Long a favorite location for climbers, I’m surprised that it hasn’t attracted more photographers. It isn’t that hard to get to, though to fully explore it you are going to have to drive on some gravel backroads and likely do a bit of hiking. I made this photograph on an autumn morning when I was in the Sierra to photograph fall color.

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

In the Panamints, Morning

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In the Panamints, Morning
Patterns or early morning light and shadow on the ridges of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

In the Panamints, Morning. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patterns or early morning light and shadow on the ridges of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

There do not appear to be any icons whatsoever in this photograph, and you might be hard pressed to identify the scene as being in Death Valley. There are no visible sand dunes, no salt flats, no devils playing golf. But the fact is that terrain like this is characteristic of more of this immense national park, a place full of beautiful and spare desert mountain landscapes.

This scene is high in the Panamint Range, the mountains that run roughly north-south to the west of Death Valley proper and which separate it from the Panamint Valley. This is truly amazing country once you get to know it, a place characterized by plenty of evidence of its mining past, lots of country that is rarely visited today, and incredibly long views across a vast landscape stretching from Nevada to the Sierra.

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.