Tag Archives: dawn

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

Sunrise Dunes, Desert Mountains

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Sunrise Dunes, Desert Mountains
Sunrise light highlights sand dunes against a backdrop of desert mountains.

Sunrise Dunes, Desert Mountains. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Sunrise light highlights sand dunes against a backdrop of desert mountains.

Some of my recent Death Valley dunes photographs have featured a wild wind and sand storm — a very dramatic scene that was not easy to photograph. Here I switch to the opposite mood in the dunes, the quiet moment when the first sunrise light arrives. The light changes with incredible speed at this time of day, going from the soft blue tones of pre-sunrise to bright and harsh daytime colors in moments. I made this photograph during the first direct light, when distant mountains were still in shadows.

It is hard to convey the experience of the dunes at this moment. The landscape is immense and silent. Sometimes it feels like there is a dissonance between the profound quiet and stillness and the rapidity of the visual changes. We continued to photograph a bit longer, then the magical early light was gone.

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

Desert Mountains, Morning Storm

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Desert Mountains, Morning Storm
A morning storm drops snow and rain on desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Desert Mountains, Morning Storm. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A morning storm drops snow and rain on desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

In addition to being an example of beautiful morning light, this photograph is a reminder about an important principle of landscape photography. I’ll get to that point in a moment. I made the photograph on our final morning in Death Valley before packing and starting home. Things didn’t look promising when I got up before dawn — it was overcast and there was a small chance of rain. I headed out into the Valley to photograph where, indeed, it was cloudy and I did get rained on. But for a brief moment this beautiful light appeared over distant mountains.

The landscape photography principle? There might be more than one, now that I think about it. The first is that if something special happens and you are not out there, you aren’t going to photograph it. So even on days when the prospects seem unpromising, you go. It helps to remember that not all days are astonishingly beautiful, and you’ll have to deal with the less-amazing days if you expect to be there for the miracles of light. Another principle? The most interesting light often arrives in the least promising situations — for example, on a gray, cloudy morning when beams of light unexpectedly break through a gap in the clouds and light up desert peaks against that dark, dramatic background.

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

Red Cliffs, Dawn

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Red Cliffs, Dawn
Red Cliffs, in dawn light, in front of Death Valley and distant desert mountains.

Red Cliffs, Dawn. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Red Cliffs, in dawn light, in front of Death Valley and distant desert mountains.

During my January visit to Death Valley National Park I ended up exploring this scene over a period of several days. My ability to travel more widely in the park was limited by storm-related road closures, so I took a closer look than usual at areas nearer main attractions. The first time I was in this area I missed the good light but saw potential, so I returned later on scout more thoroughly. (That led to a lovely, solitary hike up a long wash that doesn’t seem to get many visitors.) I went back for a third time, arriving well before sunrise and photographing until the light became less compelling.

There’s a whole lot of “Death Valley stuff” in this photograph. The foreground includes eroded badlands terrain with multi-colored soils. Above this a band of rugged red cliffs catches the day’s first direct sunlight. Further in the distance immense salt flats are still in shadow, and near the limits of visibility another big mountain range rises through the atmospheric haze.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Three Winter Trees at Sunrise

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Three Winter Trees at Sunrise
Three winter trees in soft sunrise light on a misty Central Valley morning.

Three Winter Trees at Sunrise. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Three winter trees in soft sunrise light on a misty Central Valley morning.

This is another photograph from my first-week-of-March visit to the Central Valley. My objective was to photograph migratory birds one more time before their March departure for the far north. Once on the scene my goals shifted more towards landscape photography, as many of the birds had dispersed a bit more widely than usual and were in areas that were not accessible. Recent heavy California rains had produced pooling water nearly everywhere, so the birds were not all in their familiar locations. Fortunately, the trees had not moved.

In other recent posts I have mentioned the surprise appearance of tule fog on this morning. The day started out crystal clear, and lacking the expected bird subjects I decided to photograph these trees at sunrise. I was so intent on this that the slightly muted quality of the light didn’t trigger my “maybe there will be fog” instincts. But when I look at this photograph now I can see that the conditions were already starting to develop. But at the moment I made the photograph, all I saw was the soft, reddish sunrise light on the trunks of these trees.

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 | Twitter | 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.