Tag Archives: death valley

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Blue Hour Sky, Lake Manly

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Blue Hour Sky, Lake Manly
“Blue Hour Sky, Lake Manly” — A cloud-filled blue hour morning sky above Lake Manly.

When I go out to photograph I often have ideas about what my subject will be and even how it may look. On this morning I was thinking of colorful dawn light, perhaps illuminating some early morning clouds, and the first direct light striking the peaks of the distant Panamint Range mountains. Instead, the cloud deck was thicker than expected, and instead of sunrise colors I had something more like morning blue hour light.

When photographing landscape, there is a lot that is out of our control — the light, the clouds, and more. We have to be ready to work with the conditions that we are given. So on this morning I decided to “go with the blue” rather than hoping for warm colors that were not going to appear.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Star Flowers

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Desert Star Flowers
“Desert Star Flowers” — Tiny desert star (monoptilon bellioides) flowers, Death Valley.

As I mentioned yesterday in the first post following our late-February visit to Death Valley, the main stories this time were wildflowers and Lake Manly. This post is about the former. We went to the place where I photographed these desert star (or Mojave star) flowers looking for sand verbena and desert gold, and we definitely found them. But there were lots of other flowers, too, including these tiny specimens.

I’ve always been aware of wildflowers — kind of hard to ignore them when they appear in large numbers and brilliant colors! But I’ve missed a lot about them, too, as I focused on other elements of the landscape. But my wife, Patricia Emerson Mitchell, wildflowers are her thing. And photographing with her taught me to look down and see things that I had missed before. This is especially true in the desert, where there are myriad tiny wildflowers underfoot in the most surprising places.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Lake Manly, Winter Sky

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Lake Manly, Winter Sky
“Lake Manly, Winter Sky” — Winter sky and its reflection in Lake Manly.

Yes, this is a desert! We are back from our second recent visit to Death Valley. On the first we experienced cool temperatures and rain at the end of December. Since the prospects looked good for wildflowers in the months ahead we booked a late-February return visit. There’s always a lot to photograph in Death Valley but, as a friend pointed out, the stars of the show right now are the wildflowers and Lake Manly. I photographed both, but I’ll start with Lake Manly.

For those who may not know, Lake Manly forms in the Badwater Basin during exceptionally wet years. It was deeper and larger last year, but it is still there and covers a lot of the salt flats. We visited early in the morning this time. The clouds suppressed any brilliant sunrise colors, but as a counterpoint they produced beautiful patterns in the sky which were reflected in the waters of Lake Manly.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

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

Death Valley Wildflowers

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Death Valley Spring Wildflowers
“Death Valley Wildflowers” — Hillsides covered with wildflowers after a wet winter in Death Valley.

We just returned from another visit to Death Valley National Park. Wildflowers are blooming in California’s deserts and the show is far from over. It has been an odd weather year in California, but desert areas received abundant well-timed rainfall that is producing an above average (and perhaps earlier than usual?) wildflower bloom. We saw the potential back in December and scheduled our return to the park accordingly. We were not disappointed.

Is this one of the proverbial “super bloom” years? Few are using that term at the present moment, but it is clearly an above average year. Some areas, like this gravel fan below desert hills, are covered with fields of desert gold flowers. Small flowers are underfoot everywhere. Other locations are green with sprouting plants that will continue to produce new blooms over coming weeks.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.