Tag Archives: death valley

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

Death Valley, Panamint Foothills, Morning

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Death Valley, Panamint Foothills, Morning
Morning sunlight on Death Valley hills and the foothills of the Panamint Mountains

Death Valley, Panamint Foothills, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning sunlight on Death Valley hills and the foothills of the Panamint Mountains.

One’s orientation to “landscape” may manifest in many ways — a focus on the large or the small, an approach that implies objective realism or one that embraces subjectivity, the discovery of new landscapes or the deeper exploration of those already known, an interest in ostensibly “untouched” subjects or attention to those affected by the human presence, and more. Death Valley is diverse enough for any of these, but I often find myself focusing on the largest scale subjects. The place is huge, and at the right hours, in the right seasons, and in the right places the park is a place of deep silence and immense stillness.

This was the last morning of my most recent visit, and I went out alone very early, heading to a place that afforded a somewhat elevated perspective. As I traveled there I was not optimistic about the prospects for the morning — the sky was mostly overcast, there was a bluish haze in the air, and even the earliest light was blocked by clouds to the east. But one thing I relearn nearly every time I go out is that if you go out enough and are persistent enough, things happen, and sometimes they happen at the least likely times. As this morning wore on, some time after the first light that could have been colorful, the sun began to break through the clouds, and areas of light and shadow moved across this immense landscape. As I made this photograph the light was shining on the foothills of the Panamint Range, many miles away and on the far side of Death Valley.

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 and Amazon.

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

Dune Curves, Morning Light

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Dune Curves, Morning Light
Early morning light and shadows on curving dune forms, Death Valley National Park

Dune Curves, Morning Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light and shadows on curving dune forms, Death Valley National Park.

Yes, it is one more in the never-ending series of sand dune photographs. As I have written previously, the dunes provide a seemingly endless photographic laboratory in light and shadow, color, texture, form, and more. They can be photographed on the large scale, where they comprise an entire monumental landscape, but they can also be presented on a smaller scale, where a photograph might feature a single gesture of sand, a plant, animal tracks, or some other small thing.

I think that you can look at many photographs of this type as having a dual nature. Looked at one way they are representations of “the real” in the natural world, though always with some degree of subjectivity and interpretation. Looked at in another way they can almost be abstract, divorced from their sources. I enjoy trying to see them both ways and in exploring the flexible boundary between the two ways of seeing. Here I was intrigued by mirrored shapes, in one case created by sunlight on a dune surface and in the other a shadow cast by a low ridge that is not within the frame.

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 and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Photographers, Photographs: Southern California

Three Photographers, Dunes And Mountains

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Three Photographers, Dunes And Mountains
Three photographers working the morning light atop a sand dune ridge, with desert mountains byond.

Three Photographers, Dunes And Mountains. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three photographers working the morning light atop a sand dune ridge, with desert mountains byond.

Five of us went out together to photograph in the dunes on this morning. It was only after I arrived in Death Valley that I discovered that a group of photographers and friends was down from the Yosemite area and camped nearby. We made a loose plan to meet up the next morning before sunrise and head out into the darkness early enough to be well into the dunes before the first good light arrived.

We made it out there and went to work, photographing in the predawn light, then as the sun came up, and continuing until the light began to lose its early hour magic. One fun thing about photographing with other photographers is that when things slow down a bit… we sometimes make photographs of one another! A side benefit of this is that almost all of us have in our collections photographs of some pretty interesting and talented people, and a second benefit is that sometimes they share photographs they made of us. Here my three friends are set up on the spine of a dune, working the early morning light against a backdrop of tall desert mountains.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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, Photographs: Southern California

Hikers, Desert Canyon

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Hikers, Desert Canyon
Two hikers entering the narrows of Titus Canyon

Hikers, Desert Canyon. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two hikers entering the narrows of Titus Canyon.

The stream beds of desert washes often seem to me to be the “freeways” of the desert. They can (but not always!) provide relatively easy walking through rougher terrain. The periodic flow of water, along with the mud and rocks caught in its flow, both clears the washes of vegetation and leaves a relatively flat surface of small stones and dried sediment. Over millennia the water flowing through the washes does the hard word of trail building, wearing down obstructions and leveling out the rough places. (OK, there are exceptions — those chock stones that fall into canyons and block them, along with the periodic “dry falls” that may be unsurmountable.)

This canyon is often used by motor vehicle traffic, but following heavy rains that made the route impassable to vehicles it turned into a much more pleasant place to hike, and a group of us walked up through the spectacular narrows in its lower reaches. Lower in the canyon it is sometimes quite narrow, though in this location it begins to broaden a bit. To understand the scale of the terrain look closely and you’ll be able to spot a couple of hikers.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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