Tag Archives: desert

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

Desert Hills, Evening Shadows

November 29, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light and shadows on desert hills and Death Valley salt flats

My first visit to the park was in the late 1990s, but I’ve been a regular since then. I visit Death Valley for about a week at least once each year, and have photographed all over the park. In a way, this first surprised me a bit, since when I was younger I was not attracted to the desert at all, having been brought up on the notion of the “desert wasteland,” and having been a huge fan of the high Sierra since I was young. So even though the desert was nearby I didn’t visit before a chance encounter that came about when I was one of the adult chaperones on a trip introducing high school and middle school kids to the place. Literally from my first view of the place (after crawling out of a tent in a high place at dawn to look across the valley), I was entranced.

The photographic subjects in this national park (and similar desert locations) range from intimate to immense, and several things always draw my attention. Because of the hot and dry environment, the landscape is laid bare in ways that are uncommon in other mountains. (Unless you go above tree line, into another of my favorite worlds.) The land-forming effects of uplift, mountain-building, water (!) and wind are easy to see. And this naked landscape is often painted and colored by the light in beautiful ways. This photograph, at least as I see it, offers several contrasts: between the low hills and the flatness of their surroundings, between the shadow and light, and between the small and the large.

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

Mud Hills, Evening Light

November 28, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mud hills near the mouth of a Death Valley canyon

On this evening I had taken a “random” walk into a canyon that I hadn’t visited before. It isn’t a tremendously popular place, so I had its narrow confines almost completely to myself, even though I wasn’t all that far from some rather popular Death Valley locations. The canyon itself was not the most visually striking Death Valley location I have visited, though its narrow dimensions and solitude were notable. I reached a blockage some distance up the canyon, and since the hour was getting late I decided to reverse course and head back out for early evening light.

As is so often the case with these canyons, I emerged from the dark and narrow canyon onto a broad wash that expanded onto an alluvial fan littered with boulders, cut by water courses, and open to more distant views. Golden hour light was beginning, so there was a lot to photograph, and it took me quite a while to work my way down from here toward the trailhead. As I walked, the surrounding hills became lower and more rounded as they gradually merged with the alluvial slopes that tend to line the valley. As the light faded with the already behind hills to the west, I made a final stop to photograph these folded forms, glowing in the filtered and soft light of early evening.

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

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Evening Storm Clouds, Mountains

August 3, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening thunderstorm clouds begin to break up above high desert mountains east of the Sierra Nevada at sunset

The Sierra Nevada, being more out of the path of the seasonal monsoonal flows that beset the Southwest, often experiences clear weather — sometimes too clear! Most photographers prefer a more interesting sky, and we can actually be heard complaining about too much nice weather at times. But periodically the atmospheric flows shift northward and westward a bit, and we do see thunderstorm weather in the Sierra. Most of us love this, and we look forward to “interesting skies” when it happens. The clouds often build up over the crest and they can then spread east or sometimes west as the day wears on. Mostly the clouds will clear out late in the day, but sometimes when they drift to the east of the range the electrical show may continue into the evening.

I experienced some of this “interesting weather” on my recent visit to the Sierra around the northeastern portion of Yosemite. It actually turned out to be more interesting than expected, when a forecast of clearing on day two of my trip morphed into a forecast to daily thunderstorm chances. On one afternoon I took a hike up an east side canyon, and on my return I was surprised to find that there was rain falling near the mouth of the canyon. Before long in rained and hailed on me, and these appeared to be the kinds of clouds that might stick around into the evening. I decided to forego dinner, instead finding a high overlook and photographing the cloud show right on through sunset and into the post-sunset blue hour.

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

July 30, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Predawn light above high desert mountains, reflecting on the surface of Mono Lake

Mono Lake is famed for several things, among them the remarkable tufa towers found in several locations along the shoreline of this great land-locked lake east of the Sierra Nevada. And, yes, this photograph includes a few of those towers — a small group that lies far enough from the shoreline to make them less accessible and interesting to most photographers. (No, that isn’t Nessie — or a band of Nessie lookalikes — at the lower left corner.)

But tufa towers are not my primary or strongest association with this place. Mine include more ephemeral things — the sense of huge space, the expanse of the sky (accentuated by the distance and smallness of surrounding mountains), the deep quiet that is broken only by the sounds of birds and wind. In my experience, to understand those things about this place you must find a quiet place away from other people and perhaps just “be” there quietly, long enough to let its stillness begin to affect you, too. On this morning I arrived in Mono Basin before dawn, ending up at a spot that is not typically regarded as being iconic. Being early, I was in no hurry, so I set up my camera and tripod and just looked for a while before beginning to make photographs of the predawn light from beyond the eastern mountains as it reflected on the breeze-ruffled surface of the lake.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: desert

Desert Hills, Evening Shadows

Mud Hills, Evening Light

Evening Storm Clouds, Mountains

From Tufa To Mountains, Dawn

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