Tag Archives: evening

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

Sand Waves

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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.

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

Mustard Canyon

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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.

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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

Dunes and Mountains, Evening

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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.

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

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

Photographer In The Landscape

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Photographer In The Landscape
A solitary photographer works the evening light in a dust storm, dwarfed by an immense landscape of dunes and desert mountians.

Photographer In The Landscape. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A solitary photographer works the evening light in a dust storm, dwarfed by an immense landscape of dunes and desert mountians.

You may wonder about the title of this photograph: “What photographer?” You’ll need to look closely, especially if you are looking at a smaller version of the photograph. The photographer is small! Or, more accurately, this landscape is very big.

There are some experiences in the landscape that are particularly powerful. Some are hard to articulate. Once, many years ago, I wandered away from the rest of my party at a timberline camp, sat on the ground and just looked, and I experienced a sudden sense of connection and content in that landscape that I’ve been unable to describe in words. On another occasion — halfway through a two-week solo backpack trip — it seem like the right thing to just sit atop a 12,000′ pass for a couple of hours. Many of these moments seem connected to the experience of being a very small figure in a very large landscape like this one.

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.

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