Tag Archives: death valley

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

Lenticular Clouds, Death Valley

May 2, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn lenticular clouds from above the Black Mountains and Death Valley

After a cold and windy final night camping in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley National Park this spring, I woke up early and headed to an overlook along the summit ridge for the range before dawn. The most typical experience here is to watch the sun rise into clear skies above the desert landscape, but this time a weather system was approaching. It was cold, extremely windy, and the sky was filled with dark clouds. The only sunrise color I saw was along a distant band of light at the horizon, produced by clearer skies far to the southeast.

I had seen the giant lenticular cloud forming the previous afternoon. These clouds are almost a part of the landscape at times, arising in predictable locations and formed by interactions between the atmosphere and features such as mountain ridges. Unlike other clouds, the lenticular can remain almost stationary for long periods of time — but this is the first time I’ve awakened to see clouds from the previous day still there. The choice to use a monochrome interpretation allowed me greater interpretative latitude in the final image, and this let me draw attention to certain shapes mirrored by the clouds and the geology in the scene.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Desert Hills, Evening

May 1, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on desert hills, wash, and alluvial fan, Death Valley National Park

Once again I traveled to this Death Valley location, this time for evening light, and climbed to the top of a small hill that was starting to feel like home to me! (I photographed from this spot on three occasions during this visit to the park.) The hill is not tall, but in the mostly flat terrain of this immense alluvial slope it was tall enough to put me above the landscape and reveal features not visible from down on the ground.

I discovered that at the start and end of the day this spot provided a great vantage point for viewing the light transitions of dawn and dusk. The valley is so immense and the elevations differences between low and high points so great that the light doesn’t appear (or disappear) all at once, but instead goes through a relatively lengthy transition. In the evening it fades on the valley floor before actual sunset, since in all directions the horizon is obstructed by mountains. But in this spot those mountains are many, many miles away and not that far above the horizon, so the light continues as it takes on the warm colors of sunset. The idea in this photograph was to photograph across the foreground wash, past the contrasting darker hills, over the continuation of the alluvial fan, and on into the rising hills in the far distance.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Panamint Valley, Wash

April 29, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large desert wash curves towards the Panamint Valley

I always associate this view, of this canyon and the valley and mountains beyond, with leaving Death Valley. For many years I always access the park via the road up from Ridgecrest that passes through the desolate town of Trona, coming up the Panamint Valley before entering the park, either over Towne Pass or via Emigrant Pass and Wildrose Canyon. At some point I decided to take what I later determined to be the route favored by many other visitors, route 190 across to highway 395 at Olancha near the dry desolation of Owens Lake.

This view lies along that route. Shortly after leaving Panamint Valley the road passes up a bit of a canyon, crosses a ridge, and then tracks along the slopes paralleling this wash that runs out into Panamint Valley. The wash itself has a beautiful quality, curving gracefully around toward its arrival in the larger valley between the two dark, rounded hills. Across the Panamint Valley, at the base of the far mountains, there are sandy stretches which develop into full-blown dunes just a bit to the left of the area shown in the photograph. On this morning a weather from was coming in, producing some dramatic clouds above the Panamint Range.

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

Sunrise Wave Cloud

April 27, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A wave cloud develops above Death Valley mountains at sunrise

When it comes to desert skies, it can be hard to find just-right conditions. Often the skies at Death Valley are simply clear, with few or no clouds aside from contrails from passing jets. And when there are clouds during the dawn and dusk hours when color potential is at its greatest, more distant clouds can block the light that would create the bright colors. This is especially true in the evening in Death Valley, where it is not uncommon for there to be thicker clouds in the moister regions to the west at sunset.

The latter situation was in play on this morning. In fact, I had originally planned to photograph south of this location. I had driven there and started to set up in the near darkness, only to realize that a fairly thick cloud deck was not going to clear and that it was going to block the morning light. I had a backup plan, and when I arrived at this spot a good distance to the north there was a break in the clouds. This color comes quickly and doesn’t last long — you more or less have to be ready for it before it is visible, though you may get a hint of developing color from clouds far off and near the horizon. Here a wave cloud is forming over Tucki Mountain, with a few more lenticular clouds out over the Cottonwood Range and beyond.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: death valley

Lenticular Clouds, Death Valley

Desert Hills, Evening

Panamint Valley, Wash

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