Tag Archives: desert

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Sunrise – Telescope Peak, Amargosa Range, Bank Ruins of Rhyolite

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Sunrise - Telescope Peak, Amargosa Range, Bank Ruins of Rhyolite

Sunrise – Telescope Peak, Amargosa Range, Bank Ruins of Rhyolite. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise on Telescope Peak and the Amargosa Range of Death Valley with the ruins of the Rhyollite Nevada bank building in the foreground.

This photograph attempts to pull together three iconic elements of the Rhyolite ghost town experience: the ruins of the old bank building, the view across the Amargosa Valley to the Amargosa Range (just inside Death Valley National Park), and the snow-capped summit of Death Valley’s Telescope Peak in the first light of dawn. This photograph was made just a moment before one that I earlier posted that showed the first direct light hitting the front of the bank, and in this one I was trying to nestle the distant mountains in the curve created by the top of the old wall of the weathered bank building.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: rhyollite, ghost, town, mining, abandoned, ruins, nevada, california, usa, death valley, national park, telescope, peak, amargosa, range, mountains, valley, desert, wall, brick, sage, sky, pink, firsts light, sunrise, dawn, stock, landscape, scenic, travel

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Rhyolite, Desert Mountains, Sunrise

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Rhyolite, Desert Mountains, Sunrise

Rhyolite, Desert Mountains, Sunrise. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise light on the ruins of the bank building and other old structures in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada with the Amargosa Range and snow-covered Telescope Peak beyond in Death Valley National Park, California.

I was very lucky to get almost (more on that in a moment) perfect conditions for photographing the ruins of Rhyolite, Nevada when I visited there at dawn on April 1 this year. I’ve visited twice, and both times high thin clouds were in the sky before sunrise. On the previous trip the clouds interfered with the sunrise light, but time beautiful warm light came beneath the clouds right at a dawn and washed the old ghost town with color. Better yet, this same light also illuminated the Amargosa Range across the valley and even snow-capped Telescope peak, the highest point in Death Valley National Park at over 11,000′ elevation. And there is more – the high clouds added a slightly dark texture to the early morning sky. There were only two of us there to witness this beautiful morning at Rhyollite – and I regret not getting the name of the other photographer. (I think he may live in the area. He started out shooting a Nikon SLR system and soon moved to a MF system. I’d love to see the photos he got of this scene!) So, what made it almost perfect as opposed to just plain perfect? In a word, “wind.” The wind was howling on this morning, to the point that camera shake was an issue even on the tripod!

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: sunrise, dawn, rhyolite, nevada, ghost town, ruins, bank, building, wall, tower, brick, door, window, rock, wall, abandoned, amargosa, range, mountains, desert, valley, panamint, telescope, peak, snow, capped, sky, clouds, blue, gully, light, death valley, national park, california, usa, landscape, travel, scenic, historic, stock

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Detail, Zabriskie Point Folds in Morning Light

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Detail, Zabriskie Point Folds in Morning Light

Detail, Zabriskie Point Folds in Morning Light. Death Valley National Park, California. April 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on variously angled curving ridges below Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park.

This is another in the series of photographs of details of the geology surrounding Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park – for the most part the interesting patterns of folded and twisted earth rather than the grand epic landscape to the west.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: zabriskie, point, fold, gully, angles, wash, ravine, morning, light, sun, death valley, national park, california, usa, desert, dry, landscape, scenic, travel, stock, shadow, geology, colors, shape, form, hill

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert

Gully, Morning Light, Zabriskie Point

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Gully, Morning Light, Zabriskie Point

Gully, Morning Light, Zabriskie Point. Death Valley National Park, California. April 3, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning sun lights the folded earth of a gully at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.

I know Zabriskie is an “iconic” photographic location, and it has “been done” many times, but somehow I find myself unable to complete a Death Valley trip without an early morning visit to shoot a Zabriskie sunrise. (When I think of photographing Manley Beacon I’m reminded to the joke about photographing Yosemite’s Half Dome – it goes something like this: “When you photograph Half Dome be sure to open up about one stop to compensate for all of the light that has been used up by previous photographers.”) But for me the real interesting subject at Zabriskie is found in the nearly infinite variety of shapes, textures, and shadows of the tortured terrain below and to the left of the Point. Long after the sunrise is over and almost all the other photographers have left, I’m still there photographing the continuously changing light as it picks off the top of this small ridge, creates a reflection that lights up that fold, and so forth. I’ve photographed the gully that is shown in this photograph as late as 9:30 in the morning.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: gully, valley, fold, texture, pattern, wash, runoff, zabriskie point, death valley, national park, california, usa, land, form, geology, scenic, travel, nature, desert, stock, shadow, morning, light, bend, twist, icon