Tag Archives: dusk

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lakeshore, Evening

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Lakeshore, Evening
A few sunset clouds reflected in the quiet surface of a backcountry Sierra Nevada lake.

Lakeshore, Evening. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A few sunset clouds reflected in the quiet surface of a backcountry Sierra Nevada lake.

Periodically I find myself going back to my archives and looking through older photographs, typically images that I made years ago and sort of left behind as I went on to work on newer things. These reviews often have a couple of wonderful consequences. Often I rediscover a photograph that I had originally neglected, perhaps because it worked in a different way than what I originally imagined or possibly because I wasn’t patient enough at the time. The distance provided by a few years of time often allows me to see the image in ways I missed at first. In addition, these older photograph bring back wonderful memories — of the subjects, for sure, but also of the trips themselves and the people I traveled with.

I made this photograph on a long southern Sierra backcountry trip with a group of long-time backcountry buddies — folks I have backpacked with many times over the years. On this trip we were down to our core group of four, and we traveled into one of the highest, alpine regions of the range, into the upper Kern River drainage of Sequoia National Park. Those who know this region won’t be surprised to hear that we had to cross several very high passes, that we were out for over a week, and that we got into places where we saw very few other visitors. I made the photograph on a lovely, lazy evening, near a lake we ended up at almost by accident — a place that turned out to be utterly scenic, extremely quiet, and almost devoid of visible signs of humans.

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 and Amazon.

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

Dusk Dunes

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Dusk Dunes
Soft evening light on low sand dunes

Dusk Dunes. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on low sand dunes.

Sand dunes are perhaps the most classic “desert” photography subject. For most people, they are their first association with these places, and their dry, bare (or so it seems), and utterly dry features are some combination of beautiful, intriguing, and dangerous. I am certainly not immune to their appeal, and photographing them can be an endlessly challenging activity. One reason is that as photographic subjects they are much more varied than you might initially imagine. While they have their own shapes and colors, these are changed radically by wind, color and intensity of light, and more. They provide one other challenge, too — when I first look at them it always seems like they will be easy to photograph, but they always end up presenting more challenges than I expected.

I love photographing dunes in the marginal light at the start and end of the day, and especially the time right around and just after sunset. At these times the dunes undergo sometimes-astonishing color transformations. The warmer tones, which are sometimes sun-blasted into neutrality during the day, begin to emerge in the softer light. And the dunes pick and reflect a wide variety of colors — blue from darker sky; reds, yellows, and even purple from sunset clouds. I photographed these smaller dune formations from a distance in the early evening.

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Evening Clouds, Winter Wetlands

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Evening Clouds, Winter Wetlands
Dissipating rain clouds at dusk above winter wetland landscape

Evening Clouds, Winter Wetlands. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dissipating rain clouds at dusk above winter wetland landscape.

This past weekend I was doing the long drive back from Death Valley National Park to the San Francisco Bay Areas. This is quite a drive — a long one that takes the better part of a full day, and a route that begins in one of the most arid locations in North America and ends in the cool and moist Bay Area. I have various ways to break up the long drive, and one of them is often to make a final stop at one of the great Central Valley wetland areas a couple of hours from my destination.

In fact, that was my plan on this trip. I wasn’t sure of the weather of my timing, but as I came to the base of Tehachapi Pass in Bakersfield it looked more like my schedule and the weather might cooperate, so I eschewed the usual I-5 homebound route and instead headed up Route 99, with a plan to cut over to wetland further up the Valley. I arrived to find… not too many birds (it was, after all, late in the season) but ponds full of welcome water reflecting a sky filled with dissipating rain clouds.

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 and Amazon.

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

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: People, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Photographers

Three Photographers, Evening Dunes

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Three Photographers, Evening Dunes
Three photographers deep within evening sand dunes

Three Photographers, Evening Dunes. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three photographers deep within evening sand dunes.

In early March I had the opportunity to spend a few days back in Death Valley National Park. Although I was primarily there to meet up and camp with siblings, this was also a photographic opportunity. There were both pluses and minuses to the timing of this visit. Recent heavy rains and creating flooding everywhere, and many routes were closed by the flooding or wash-outs — there simply were quite a few places that one couldn’t go. At the same time, these are “special conditions” in this desert landscape, and there were quite a few unusual opportunities.

Once in the park I discovered that some friends from the Yosemite area were also their to make photographs. We managed to meet up on my second full day, and we combined forces to photograph Mesquite Dunes early one morning. Later I returned to this area of the Vally to photograph in fading light as clouds tried to clear. Right at sunset there was a break in the clouds just above the western horizon and brighter light came through to shine on the geography. I found myself a high place with a commanding view over a large swath of the landscape and began to photograph whichever areas momentarily picked up the light. As I looked down I spotted my three friends again, this time dwarfed by the large shapes of desert dunes.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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