Tag Archives: dunes

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

Creosote, Early Evening Light

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Creosote, Early Evening Light
Soft evening light on creosote growing in windblown unes at Death Valley National Park.

Creosote, Early Evening Light. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on creosote growing in windblown unes at Death Valley National Park.

Desert light (like that in quite a few other places) can go through a remarkable transformation late its the day, a transformation that mirrors the one taking place in the morning. In the middle of the day, the light is often quite intense, rather bluish (from that gigantic light panel we call the “sky), and the landscape is full of harsh contrasts between highlights and shadows. At some point in the very late afternoon, assuming a cooperative surrounding landscape and the right weather conditions, the light imperceptibly begins to soften and warm in color. If you were not attuned to this you might not notice at first, but eventually it becomes obvious as the process accelerates and intensifies, producing a sort of “crescendo of light” that often peaks just before it ends.

I made this photograph somewhere in the middle of that cycle — far enough along that the color has definitely warmed, but not so late that the full sunset redness has arrived. At this point the light changes rapidly, and features that I had not noticed suddenly become interesting. I often find myself working quite quickly at this point — perhaps in contrast to how some people imagine landscape photography works. In these situations I often like to work with zoom lenses with long focal lengths. This allows me to quickly respond to things I see at varying distances, to isolate smaller sections of the landscape, and to quickly try out different compositional ideas.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Sand Dunes, Light and Shadow

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Sand Dunes, Light and Shadow
A curving sand dune boundary between light and shadow, Death Valley National Park.

Sand Dunes, Light and Shadow. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A curving sand dune boundary between light and shadow, Death Valley National Park.

This particular curving dune section became the subject for a series of photographs I made on this morning. It is a remarkable form, traveling higher and lower on the dune that what you can see in this photograph — a sort of “s-curve plus.” I have previously shared a couple of other photographs of it that were interpreted in color, photographs that show a larger portion of the dune. This one focuses on a small area near its base.

The light here was fascinating. The dunes are backed by a taller ridge, so the morning light does not arrive here until some time after dawn. At sunrise the light on these dunes is fully shadowed, and it has the blue tones of reflected sky. But as the sun rises it eventually sends its light across that ridge behind the dunes, and streamers of light being to slant across the dunes features, creating quickly evolving patterns of light and shadow.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

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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

Last Light, Sand Dunes

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Last Light, Sand Dunes
Desert winds blow sand across the lip of sand dunes in sunset light.

Last Light, Sand Dunes. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert winds blow sand across the lip of sand dunes in sunset light.

Some things are only at their best for a brief moment. Think of a fresh espresso, a soufflé, or perhaps the half hour of beautiful spring snow between ice and slush. The light in the moment when shadows from distant hills arrive at the edge of sunset light (or its inversion at sunrise) is another such thing. This light does things to the landscape that aren’t seen at any other time of day, but the event may last barely a few minutes.

Near the end of my shoot at this location I turned and saw the colorful, low-angle light coloring the sand and bringing relief to its features. I quickly went to work photographing it, working quickly and instinctively, as I knew that the moment would be brief. In fact, along the left side of this photograph is the the shadow marking the edge of light. A moment after I made this photograph, the light was gone.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Layers, Sunset Dunes

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Layers, Sunset Dunes
“Layers, Sunset Dunes” — layers of desert sand dune formations in the last sunset light of the day.

When photographing dunes that are new to me, I have little to go on when I first venture into them. I typically start walking toward them when the light is still somewhat flat and harsh, or before dawn when it is dark. It is difficult to imagine the details of how the light will evolve. I make some guesses based on the direction of the sun, how I think distant ridges may affect the arrival of shadows, and what I can see of the dunes’ features in the less-than-ideal light. In the end, I’m almost always surprised by how these first visits play out.

I approached these dunes in the late afternoon in preparation for sunset and evening light. I picked out a destination along the base of a particular dune where I saw some potentially interesting plants. Because the ridges to the west are quite low here, I guessed that I’d have a bit longer period of colorful light and longer shadows later on. Initially I walked past the location of this photograph because the textures of the successive ridges had little contrast in the daytime light. Later, as I finished photographing other nearby features that fell into shadow, I happened to look back in this direction, where the very last bit of colorful light was now delineating these shapes as evening shadows approached.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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