Tag Archives: evening

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Winter Desert Evening

Image Leave a comment
Winter Desert Evening
Evening quiet comes to a wide desert valley in the northern reaches of Death Valley National Park.

Winter Desert Evening. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening quiet comes to a wide desert valley in the northern reaches of Death Valley National Park.

Mostly this scene brings back a memory of utter silence and solitude at the end of a day that had been quite full. I had started far away in a very different part of Death Valley National park, photographing in locations where there were quite a few other people. In the late morning I broke camp and headed north, eventually driving many miles on a long gravel road, over some hills, and out on another road across flats to arrive at this place. There were a few people there when I arrived, but they soon departed.

So I had this entire immense valley to myself for the evening, the night, and the following early morning. I wandered slowly, making photographs along the edge of dunes, until the sun set. I continued photographing as the light became soft and everything became utterly still.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Sand Waves

Image Leave a comment
Sand Waves
Rising waves of sand in soft light, Death Valley National Park

Sand Waves. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rising waves of sand in soft light, Death Valley National Park.

This photograph comes from a memorable visit to a remote location in Death Valley National Park about eight years ago. I was in the park during the first few days of January. I saw far fewer other visitors than I usually encounter there these days, and I experienced some very cold temperatures! A few days earlier the thermometer in my vehicle registered at freezing as I drove below sea level very early one morning. On the morning after I made this photograph I finally got around to checking the temperature at around 9:00AM after the sun had come up, only to discover that it was still in the low twenties!

When I arrived at this location in the late afternoon there was only one other small group of visitors. (They were gone when I came back from photographing, and I had the place completely to myself that night.) I figured out where I would camp that night, and then I grabbed my photography gear and headed out into the nearby landscape of sand with distant vistas of playa and mountains. It was late enough the I soon found myself photographing the dunes in soft, post-sunset light.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Mustard Canyon

Image 4 Comments
Mustard Canyon
Evening light on the Mustard Canyon area in Death Valley National Park.

Mustard Canyon. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on the Mustard Canyon area in Death Valley National Park.

This is a place that I photograph from time to time. It isn’t far from spots where I camp, so it isn’t unusual to pass by as I head out or return from some more distant location. A few years ago I stopped and climbed a low hill there late in the day, found it magical, and the hill — which might seem like nothing special to others — is one of my little personal spots in Death Valley. From here the panorama is expansive in all directions, and the slight elevation of the place lets me see even farther.

The view here begins in the foreground with the Mustard Canyon area. The mustard part of the name makes sense — in the ideal light the formations are strikingly yellow. The canyon part seems a bit of a stretch. I’m sure that there is a route followed by water heading out into the valley, but it seems more like a wash than a canyon. The rugged foreground, filled with alternating yellow and reddish material, eventually gives way to giant alluvial fans, and in the far distance the terrain rises to the Amargosa Mountains.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Dunes and Mountains, Evening

Image 2 Comments
Dunes and Mountains, Evening
Soft evening light on Death Valley sand dunes and desert mountains.

Dunes and Mountains, Evening. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on Death Valley sand dunes and desert mountains.

This is (yet another) end-of-the-day photographs from Death Valley National Park, made during the soft light time after the sun had dropped behind the Cottonwood Mountains behind me to the west. As wild as the sunset light is, I think I’ve come to love the softer and more subtle quality of this time of the day.

The photograph looks east across low dunes that stretch across a wide section of the valley here, in a place where nearby mountains disrupt the wind patterns and cause the winds to drop their load of sand. Beyond the dunes lie arid desert mountains, with strata and erosion laid bare.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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