Tag Archives: death valley

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Sunrise Light, Twenty Mule Team Canyon

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Sunrise Light, Twenty Mule Team Canyon

Sunrise Light, Twenty Mule Team Canyon. Death Valley National Park, California. April 2, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of eroded formations at dawn in Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Death Valley National Park, California.

This photograph is pretty much all about the light – though the interesting and varied patterns of the wildly eroded hills in Twenty Mule Team Canyon also help.

Twenty Mule Team Canyon is just a short distance up the road from the famous and iconic Zabriskie Point (a downright iconic photograph of which I recently posted here). But while the throngs gather at Zabriskie every morning before and at dawn – with good reason – almost no one is to be found here during this time of beautiful light, even though it is in some ways almost as amazing as Zabriskie. I made this photograph at that magic moment when the sun was just coming over a nearby ridge and we see full sun on the formations at the upper right but somewhat subdued light closer in the foreground.

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

keywords: twenty, mule, team, canyon, death valley, national park, california, usa, sunrise, dawn, light, erosion, folds, gully, ridge, hill, geology, colors, rock, dirt, gravel, pattern, shadow, landscape, detail, scenic, travel, stock, abstract

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Morning, Manley Beacon

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Morning, Manley Beacon

Morning, Manley Beacon. Death Valley National Park, California. April 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The iconic view of the morning sun striking Manley Beacon at Zabriskie Point with the Panamint Range in the distance – Death Valley National Park, California.

Yeah, it’s an icon… :-)

But I don’t think I’ve posted any photographs of similar landscape icons recently, so what the heck.

I shot this on the final morning of my early April, 2009 trip to Death Valley. I really didn’t go there to shoot this icon precisely – I originally thought that there might be some interesting clouds that morning (there weren’t) and my main goal was shooting detail photographs of the eroded landscape below and to the left of the camera position – actually more than 90 degrees to the left. But if you are at Zabriskie, there is a moment when the sun light finally makes its way across the valley and suddenly washes across Manley Beacon that is hard to resist – you’d have to be a stronger photographer than I am to not swing your camera in that direction.

In the end it is a pretty “vanilla” photograph of Manley Beacon – pretty much straight ahead lighting, no dramatic clouds in the sky, and I did not crank the contrast or saturation as you often see in photographs of this mountain. This is really pretty much what it looks like.

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

keywords: manley, beacon, zabriskie, point, icon, mountain, hill, ridge, sunrise, dawn, morning, distance, death valley, national park, california, usa, scenic, travel, landscape, shadow, light, folds, eroded, gully, color, wash, stock

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Sunrise – Telescope Peak, Amargosa Range, Bank Ruins of Rhyolite

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Sunrise - Telescope Peak, Amargosa Range, Bank Ruins of Rhyolite

Sunrise – Telescope Peak, Amargosa Range, Bank Ruins of Rhyolite. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise on Telescope Peak and the Amargosa Range of Death Valley with the ruins of the Rhyollite Nevada bank building in the foreground.

This photograph attempts to pull together three iconic elements of the Rhyolite ghost town experience: the ruins of the old bank building, the view across the Amargosa Valley to the Amargosa Range (just inside Death Valley National Park), and the snow-capped summit of Death Valley’s Telescope Peak in the first light of dawn. This photograph was made just a moment before one that I earlier posted that showed the first direct light hitting the front of the bank, and in this one I was trying to nestle the distant mountains in the curve created by the top of the old wall of the weathered bank building.

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

keywords: rhyollite, ghost, town, mining, abandoned, ruins, nevada, california, usa, death valley, national park, telescope, peak, amargosa, range, mountains, valley, desert, wall, brick, sage, sky, pink, firsts light, sunrise, dawn, stock, landscape, scenic, travel

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Rhyolite, Desert Mountains, Sunrise

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Rhyolite, Desert Mountains, Sunrise

Rhyolite, Desert Mountains, Sunrise. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise light on the ruins of the bank building and other old structures in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada with the Amargosa Range and snow-covered Telescope Peak beyond in Death Valley National Park, California.

I was very lucky to get almost (more on that in a moment) perfect conditions for photographing the ruins of Rhyolite, Nevada when I visited there at dawn on April 1 this year. I’ve visited twice, and both times high thin clouds were in the sky before sunrise. On the previous trip the clouds interfered with the sunrise light, but time beautiful warm light came beneath the clouds right at a dawn and washed the old ghost town with color. Better yet, this same light also illuminated the Amargosa Range across the valley and even snow-capped Telescope peak, the highest point in Death Valley National Park at over 11,000′ elevation. And there is more – the high clouds added a slightly dark texture to the early morning sky. There were only two of us there to witness this beautiful morning at Rhyollite – and I regret not getting the name of the other photographer. (I think he may live in the area. He started out shooting a Nikon SLR system and soon moved to a MF system. I’d love to see the photos he got of this scene!) So, what made it almost perfect as opposed to just plain perfect? In a word, “wind.” The wind was howling on this morning, to the point that camera shake was an issue even on the tripod!

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

keywords: sunrise, dawn, rhyolite, nevada, ghost town, ruins, bank, building, wall, tower, brick, door, window, rock, wall, abandoned, amargosa, range, mountains, desert, valley, panamint, telescope, peak, snow, capped, sky, clouds, blue, gully, light, death valley, national park, california, usa, landscape, travel, scenic, historic, stock