Tag Archives: dawn

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

Dawn Light, Alkali Lake and the Minarets

October 1, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Pink dawn light illuminates the surface of an Alkali Lake and the Minarets, and Mounts Ritter and Banner

Although it has been almost a year since I made this photograph, I recall the morning very well. I had stayed at a cheap motel in Mammoth Lakes the night before, and when I got up well before dawn I had no specific shooting plan other than to head in the general direction of places where I would find aspens, most likely somewhat south of Mammoth. I drove down to highway 395 from Mammoth and spotted the steam from the hot springs along with some fog in Long Valley. Figuring that I wasn’t certain where I would find the aspen color I was looking for but that I was certain that interesting stuff was happening out in the valley, I changed plans and headed there instead.

I drove to small lake where I have photographed a number of times in the past, pulled off the road, grabbed my gear, and headed out to the bank of the lake opposite the still relatively dark Sierra crest. This was an unusual early October, and three relatively large winter-type storms had passed through during the previous week, dropping substantial early season snow all along the upper reaches of the Sierra. As a consequence, at a time of year when it usually looks more like summer, the range had taken on a very wintry appearance. As the first pre-dawn light came to the sky, it turned the slightly hazy atmosphere a beautiful shade of pink and this light was reflected in the surface of the small lake.

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.

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

The Organ and The Tower of Babel

April 16, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Organ and The Tower of Babel in early morning light, Arches National Park, Utah.

We had arrived in Moab, Utah the previous afternoon, and a quick reconnaissance into the Arches National Park in the early evening had impressed me quite a bit, to say the least! This was my first visit to Arches, and I had only a very general idea of what I might see, so coming upon the fantastic sandstone formations – towers, walls, fins, arches, and more – for the first time was a powerful experience. That evening I had a short time to photograph in conditions that were mixed – very nice light but tremendously strong winds that challenged my ability to use a long lens to pick out small sections of the landscape… and my ability to stay warm! In any case, the brief initial visit was enough to give me some ideas of what I might want to photograph early the next morning.

I was up early and into the park before sunrise the next day. Once again, it was cold – colder, actually – and very windy. I’m often fond of photographing big landscapes with long lenses that let me isolate elements from the larger scene and compress the distances, and I wanted to use that approach with some of the formations close to the “Park Avenue” and Courthouse Towers area of the park. With this in mind I stopped a an exposed spot that gave me a view of a number of these features, put on the long lens, set up the tripod… and then struggled with the tremendously windy conditions as the very beautiful light appeared. It was do-able, but not easy. This photograph includes the very early morning light on the faces of The Organ and the Tower of Babel, two huge sandstone fin-like sandstone towers, with high desert, a thin row of cottonwood trees, and more gigantic sandstone cliffs beyond.

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

First Light, Base of Tucki Mountain and the Panamint Range

February 25, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light on the rugged landscape of the base of Tucki Mountain and the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park, California

This photograph was made from a location a ways up from the bottom of Death Valley, from which I could look directly across at the lower slopes of gigantic Tucki Mountain as the first morning light worked its way down toward the lower ridges and the huge alluvial fan at the base of the mountain. At the moment I made the exposure the light was just beginning to fill this slanting area below the rugged mountains, and the light was softened by morning haze.

Tucki Mountain is a huge peak that almost seems to me to be large enough to count as its own minor mountain range. It rises above Stovepipe Wells, and extends a great distance east, south, and west of there. It is laced with deep canyons and its lower slopes are heavily eroded to reveal tilting and twisting strata. Another large valley lies on beyond the foreground spur ridge in this photograph, and beyond that the Panamint Range rises to its crest at 11,000+’ Telescope Peak.

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

Tundra Swans, Dawn

February 21, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Tundra swans in dawn light above the Central Valley of California.

This is the second photograph of this particular group of tundra swans that flew low over our position near the end of Woodbridge Road in the California Central Valley near the end of January. With all the challenges of photographing flying birds in limited light and with long lenses, it is no wonder that one gets a less than 100% success rate with these photographs. But every so often all the pieces fall into place and you end up with something that is not another slightly out-of-focus, slightly mis-aimed, over- or under-exposed photograph of the silhouettes of bird undersides. Seriously. ;-)

This group came over at a relatively low level, though not so low than individual birds would fill the viewfinder. By default, I usually begin with the camera in “landscape” (horizontal) mode for this sort of subject, but because these birds were almost directly overhead and lined up “vertically” rather than strung out in a line, I decided to quickly shift the camera to “portrait” (vertical) orientation after one initial exposure as they approached. Now the trick was to try to keep my eye on one bird that needed to be under the AF point, while simultaneously remaining aware of the entire flock so that I could keep them within the boundary of the frame and try to catch them at a point when they were not blocking one another. The fact that I got the beautiful morning light coming from below was partially due to being there good and early, and possibly due to the birds thoughtfully positioning themselves to allow this. Thank you, tundra swans!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: dawn

The Organ and The Tower of Babel

First Light, Base of Tucki Mountain and the Panamint Range

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