Tag Archives: dust

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

Mountain Silhouette, Dust Storm

April 16, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dust storm obscures desert mountains

Those who have been in a desert dust storm (not fun) or sand storm (worse!) will already know about this, but I wanted to share a photograph that shows a bit of how the desert environment is transformed by these conditions. The weather conditions on the first part of this visit to Death Valley had already been strange — the previous morning I had traveled to a high ridge top overlook before dawn, only to discover the atmosphere filled with such haze to a depth of perhaps 7000′, despite the fact that there did not seem to be a source of the dusty air nearby. On the day I made this photograph I took a long drive over a different ridge and then down into and through a long and deep canyon. The trip through the canyon as beautiful, but it is so narrow that my world was confined to what the interior of that canyon — I had little awareness of what might be going on outside.

Eventually I reached the end of this canyon after passing through a narrow slot area, and I emerged at the top of the canyon’s gigantic alluvial fan, hundreds of feet about the valley floor. I was surprised to find that the other side of the canyon was almost completely obscured by the backlit, dust-filled atmosphere. The far hills were visible, but only barely, and almost all details were gone. Such views carry an odd mixture of awe at the immensity of the glowing atmosphere and a kind of resignation to the uncomfortable and difficult aspects of working in such an atmosphere. As a photographer I try to focus on the visual power of the scene (while protecting my gear!) and I make photographs. As I made this one I felt that it was going to be a bit of a stretch since the contrast was so low and the details washed out so much — but this is, in fact, what one sees on an afternoon like this one.

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

Sunrise Haze, Panamint Mountains

April 7, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Haze from airborne dust above the crest of the Panamint Mountains at dawn

I suppose that I was the “victim” of a sort of natural April Fool’s joke on this April 1 morning. I woke up very early, thinking I might photograph from high along the spine of the Panamint Mountains east of Death Valley. I was on the road in the dark, and as I got closer to my goal and the light began to increase enough to see a bit I noticed that it was hazy — the sort of haze that I associate with dust storms in this part of the world. But there was no dust storm, at least not where I was — just a lot of stuff in the air. Since there were no clouds, I figured that I would get above it by the time I reached my goal at over 6000′ of elevation. I topped the final climb onto the ridge where I could look into Death Valley… and was greeted with haze so thick that it almost looked more like fog (almost an impossibility here), and the floor of the Valley was completely invisible.

Such conditions could be disappointing for someone looking for a “sunrise shot,” but I actually love unusual conditions, especially when they involve mist and haze and fog and clouds. I covered the short distance remaining to reach the end of the road, parked and unloaded camera gear, and looked around to try to figure out how to photograph in these unexpected circumstances. A few minutes later the sun rose thought the haze, and I made a few photographs. I decided that I would likely have to remain here a while and observe the landscape gradually become visible as light penetrated down to lower elevations and as the dust-filled atmosphere thinned a bit. I turned my attention away from the deep valley and towards the ridge leading away to the north, where the thin light illuminated a landscape of shadow and light gradually fading into the distance.

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

Trail Canyon, Dust Storm Haze

April 5, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trail Canyon and Death Valley obscured by dense morning haze from desert dust storms.

I had never seen a view quite like this one from this spot before, and I don’t recall seeing conditions quite like this in Death Valley National Park. I awoke very early — well before dawn — and headed up into the Panamint Mountains to the west of Death Valley, aiming for a familiar high location with panoramic views. I had several sorts of photographs in mind, including detail photographs of very small components of the larger landscape, the possibility of shooting directly into the light of the rising sun, and photographs of this deep canyon cutting down from the ridges toward the valley floor.

As I headed toward this spot I was surprised by the amount of haze in the air as the first light arrived. When I’ve seen such conditions before dust storms almost always followed, but I didn’t see any evidence of their development on this morning. (Later someone suggested to me that high winds farther to the west might have raised dust there and that it may have travelled over this direction.) I arrived at the summit ridge at around 6000′ expecting to see the view across and perhaps down into Death Valley, but instead I found myself looking down into a soupy haze that filled the Valley to this level and perhaps a bit higher. A short time later the sun rose through this murk and began to backlight it, creating an intense glow in the atmosphere and muting the small details of the mysterious landscape. The great Valley itself was virtually invisible in the thick haze, luminous with the morning backlight slanting in from the east.

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

Dunes and Sandstorm

April 26, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Towering clouds of wind-blown sand rise above desert sand dunes, Death Valley National Park

In the early afternoon, a bit to my surprise and somewhat to my consternation, after returning to camp from shooting in another area of the park I got my first hints of the upcoming afternoon and evening sand storm when I noticed an increasing number of dust devils out by the dunes and when blowing dust began to rise along the far eastern side of the Valley. Although these events can be photogenic (and a bit dangerous to camera gear!) they are not very pleasant to be in, a fact that I know from previous experience. However, given that the weather otherwise had been pretty boring – too much blue sky! – at least this promised something a bit out of the ordinary.

So as the afternoon wore on I headed out, driving toward the eastern side of the Valley. As I passed this classic view of what is probably the most famous set of dunes in the Valley, large and thick dust clouds were rising behind the dunes. Oddly, there wasn’t all that much sand blowing on these dunes – just behind them on lower dunes farther north and east. So I paused to use the long lens to isolate the dunes, with their sparse plants, in the afternoon light with clouds of blowing sand mostly obscuring the peaks of the Grapevine Mountains in the Amargosa Range.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: dust

Mountain Silhouette, Dust Storm

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Sunrise Haze, Panamint Mountains

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Trail Canyon, Dust Storm Haze

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

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