Tag Archives: desert

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

Upper Titus Canyon

May 1, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Titus Canyon road descends into the upper canyon from Red Pass, Death Valley National Park

At first glance this landscape lacks a central focus and the colors are relatively unsaturated. The contrasts within the terrain are subdued, without the striking divisions between light and shadow that we might see in places like the alpine zones of the Sierra. In the past I have often not bothered to photograph such places, since they appear to lack the dramatic qualities that we often search out in a place like Death Valley. And there is no questioning the appeal of those subjects that possess starker lines, brighter colors, greater contrast, and perhaps towering geological forms. Yet, it occurred to me a year or two ago that the places like this are part of the true experience of the desert and of Death Valley, and that their character is a big part of what forms my sense of this terrain. To ignore them seems both a bit unfair and a bit dishonest. So I decided to try to see if I could find ways to photograph them, a project I’m still working on but also one on which I’m confident that I’m making some progress—and, in the process, learning to see the place more fully.

This photograph was made at Red Pass, the high point of the Titus Canyon road between the Amargosa Valley and Death Valley. (The source of the the name of this pass is probably obvious from one look at the color of the rocks.) The narrow, twisty, one-way gravel road is perhaps best known for traveling through very narrow slot canyon terrain near its lower end, but the whole thing is part of the experience. After a steep climb out of the upper reaches of Titanothere Canyon, the road tops the narrow ridge of the pass before descending steeply into the upper reaches of Titus Canyon. The view from the pass down into upper Titus Canyon is remarkable. The canyon drops away and the road is visible twisting and turning its way down the initial descent and then crossing flatter areas beyond. Barely visible in the upper left area of the image is the location of the historic ghost town of Leadville, a town built on the false promises of mineral wealth that great and then died in the space of about a year—in a place that could hardly be more remote or less hospitable.

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

Morning Light, Badlands Terrain

April 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Early morning light on tortured badlands formations, Death Valley National Park

I made this photograph at a truly iconic location (arguably the iconic location) at Death Valley National Park back in early April. While I don’t always photograph icons, and I make a point of looking for other things when photographing in well-known areas, I’m not anti-icon. My relationship with them is complex, but when I’m with someone who has not seen them before or when I visit a new place for the first time or when unusual and spectacular conditions arise… I’ll be there with everyone else. (Though sometimes I’ll be there without everyone else, since sometimes I go to these places in less likely conditions or an unusual times.)

All of this is my introduction to saying that I made this photograph at the famous Zabriskie Point area of Death Valley. I have photographed here quite a few times over the years, and while I don’t always revisit the spot, when I do I always find something interesting to photograph. It could be special conditions (clouds, full moon, haze, etc.), but more often I like to seek out smaller component elements of this famous landscape and see if I can make photographs of them. This terrain certainly provides plenty of opportunities! It is a rugged place where gully-riddled ridges are stacked one above the other, and at the right times of the day the light can glance across these elements in beautiful ways. The light in this photograph came well after dawn, when the sun had risen enough to begin to light the features more thoroughly, but on a morning when its intensity was diminished just enough by high, thin clouds.

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

Desert Mountains, Stormy Sunrise

April 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sun rises through the clouds of a developing storm over the Amargosa Range, Death Valley National Park

We arrived very early at this high overlook in Death Valley National Park’s Panamint Range, hoping to photograph a desert mountain sunrise. When conditions are good at this location, there is an almost 360 degree panorama of rugged and desolate mountain terrain, punctuated by deep valleys, especially the chasm of Death Valley itself which lies immediately below. Because the spot is so high, even further views abound—far out into Nevada to the east, and back to the crest of the Southern Sierra to the west.

But little of that happened on this morning. We arrived before dawn and I could tell that a cloud deck was coming over the Panamint crest behind us and extending out to the east over Death Valley. There was a gap in the clouds to the east, but it was a narrow one, and more clouds were beginning to build over the ridges in that direction. On a perfect morning here, beams of sunrise light play over the tops of the peaks and shine into valleys near and far. But on this morning things were rapidly tending toward gray. However, for a few moments there was a bit of brilliant color just over those eastward ridges, where the clouds had not yet closed down on their summits, and by using a very long lens I was able to isolate this scene just as the sun came up, backlighting the virga falling from the clouds above the silhouetted forms of the ridges.

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

Dissipating Rain, Cottonwood Mountains

April 18, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last vestiges of dissipating afternoon rain showers fall over the Cottonwood Mountains, Death Valley National Park

I have written in the past, here and elsewhere, about how I “see”—which is a very complicated subject and one that I sometime struggle to explain. (Here I think of the quote attributed to Ansel Adams: “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” Those who know me may scoff at the possibility of the “silence” part of this, but still…) One aspect of my seeing, and one that I know I share with other photographers, is that I carry around a sort of mental library of visual bits and pieces, light and color and things that I want to see and, in fact, expect to see at some point. I am aware that some of these come from far back in my memory, and I can even associate them with experiences when I was quite young. One category of these “bits and pieces” has to do with curtains of rain falling across mountain ridges. When I was quite young, my family went on a drive to Southern California and on the way we drove across an agricultural valley, and still today the image I saw of rain falling in the mountains we were about to cross is still clear in my mind as is the magical impression that it made on my young mind.

So, in a sense, this is yet another working out of that category of subjects from the mental image library. These are very different mountains from those I saw so many years ago, but the them of semi-transparent sheets of rain falling in front of mountain ridges and obscuring the details is the same. These ridges are in the Cottonwood Mountains, a sub-range of Death Valley National Park’s Panamint Range. The rarely look quite like this, being a very arid, rugged, and austere desert range. But this was a day of rain (and snow!) and late in the day, as we photographed from an elevated location out in Death Valley, the weather began to clear and the clouds dissipated, leaving behind final backlit curtains of falling rain above the mountains.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: desert

Upper Titus Canyon

Morning Light, Badlands Terrain

Desert Mountains, Stormy Sunrise

Dissipating Rain, Cottonwood Mountains

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