Tag Archives: dunes

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Balanced Rock and Cliff, Sunrise

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Balanced Rock and Cliff, Sunrise - Dawn light on Balanced Rock and cliff face, Arches National Park
Dawn light on Balanced Rock and cliff face, Arches National Park

Balanced Rock and Cliff, Sunrise. Arches National Park, Utah. October 10, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn light on Balanced Rock and cliff face, Arches National Park

When I first visited Utah for photography, only in April of this year, I think that Arches National Park probably provoked the most serious “wow” response from me. I loved each of the parks we visited in different way, but the first-impression of Arches was, for me, stunning. It probably helped that I had more or less intentionally done no research on the place before our arrival. It also helped that my first view of the park was on a spontaneous golden-hour drive into the park from Moab late in the day, when we found ourselves with more time after arriving than we had planned on. I was stunned to see what seem to be essentially impossible formations throughout the park – the arches themselves, of course, but also the tall thin towers, long and narrow fins of sandstone, large rocks balancing on pedestals, and more.

On the second visit, this fall, I was still impressed by these amazing formation, but I also began to look past them a bit more and start to see a few of the subtle things that are there as well, and to begin to understand a few of the patterns of the place – where and when certain types of special light or atmosphere might occur. On this morning I had returned to re-shoot something that had not worked out quite the way I planned on the previous visit. Having completed that task, we moved on up the road, looking for other opportunities, of which there were many. Here, as we passed one of the large towers in the Courthouse area, I saw a photograph that juxtaposed several things: the silhouetted shape of the balanced rock on the far ridge, the brilliant morning sidelight on the nearby sandstone tower, and the early morning sun slanting across the petrified dunes area, picking up the higher points on the terrain.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Eureka Valley, Twilight

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Eureka Valley, Twilight - Twilight on plants and sand flats in Eureka Valley, Death Valley National Park.
Twilight on plants and sand flats in Eureka Valley, Death Valley National Park.

Eureka Valley, Twilight. Death Valley National Park, California. January 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Twilight on plants and sand flats near the edge of the dunes, Death Valley National Park.

Some might accuse me of being a bit of a contrarian with this photograph, I suppose. I made it at the base of the some very spectacular sand dunes, purportedly the tallest sand dunes in the USA – but I have the dunes to my back and the photograph doesn’t show them at all. This is also an area with very interesting and somewhat dramatic surrounding hills and ridges, but I intentionally cut the upper border of the photograph so as to not include these ridges or the sky. Speaking of the sky, I shot this just after sunset, when sky color is at its peak… but no sky here! And in a time when pumped up, saturated photographs are very common… this one goes with a very different palette, one that includes a lot of tones that are basically tan, along with some bluish color on the far mountains.

I hope that some who know places like this might understand. This is a very desolate place, and I wanted to just accept and try to photograph that. And in the early evening, when the sun has dropped behind the western hills, the blue-tone light comes on and the contrast lowers, and the colors drain from the landscape. In addition, it was cold! For me, the coloration of this scene suggests that aspect of the scene, which is perhaps not what first comes to mind when we see desert sand and plants.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Photographer, Sand Dunes, Evening

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Photographer, Transverse Dunes, Evening - A lone photographer at work among sand dunes, Death Valley National Park, California.
A lone photographer at work among sand dunes, Death Valley National Park, California.

Photographer, Sand Dunes, Evening. Death Valley National Park, California. January 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lone photographer at work among sand dunes, Death Valley National Park, California.

This is a sort of “Where’s Waldo?” photograph – and, yes, there really is a photographer in this scene. There is not much to give you an accurate sense of the scale of the components of this scene, and there are even a few details that might throw you off. Hint: That bush near the upper left is a lot larger than you might imagine. If you look closely, I’m pretty certain that you can spot the photographer, but I won’t spoil the fun by telling you where to look.

These dunes extend over a large areas in Death Valley National Park, and I’ve come to find some of the smaller dunes of the park to present interesting relief among the closely spaced ripples and waves of sand, and late-day color variations that only get better after sunset. To make this photograph I used a long lens and found a vantage point that was elevated above the sand.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Eureka Dunes and Last Chance Range, Morning

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Eureka Dunes and Last Chance Range, Morning - Morning light on the Eureka Dunes and the hills of the Last Chance Range, Death Valley National Park.
Morning light on the Eureka Dunes and the hills of the Last Chance Range, Death Valley National Park.

Eureka Dunes and Last Chance Range, Morning. Death Valley National Park, California. January 6, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on the Eureka Dunes and the hills of the Last Chance Range, Death Valley National Park.

While I love – who doesn’t? – the golden hour light on the desert dunes and hills and valleys, I also like to seek out the subtler and more “atmospheric” effects that are often frequently seen in this terrain. I had spent the (very cold!) night alone out here in Eureka Valley. I woke up fairly early, though with the sun having to rise past the ridge of the Last Chance Range, the light did not come early. I soon packed up my camp – which largely meant rearranging stuff in my vehicle – and before long started the drive out toward Lone Pine and my trip back home over Tioga Pass.

But first I planned to stop just a ways away from the camping area so that I could use a long lens to photograph the dunes against the background of the higher surrounding peaks. By the time I did this it was after 9:00 a.m. and the early morning golden hour light was long gone, replaced by the soft and hazy bluish light that is more typical during daylight hours. However, the sun was still low enough to glance across the dunes at a fairly low angle and to backlight the dunes and the mountains behind them. The idea here was to juxtapose some of the different textures, lines, curves, and angles of this landscape – the curving forms of the dunes near the bottom of the frame, the sharply delineated sunlit ridges of the upper dunes, the faint view of jagged and stratified rocks in the low peaks beyond them, the further ridge inclining the opposite direction from the dunes, and the much fainter texture of the huge valley in the distance.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.