Tag Archives: evening

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

Buttes, Evening Light

May 3, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light into Blackwater Wash illuminates buttes above Death Valley

These buttes or hills have fascinated me for a long time. They project out of the gigantic gravel fields of the alluvial fan at the base of the Panamint Mountains known as Blackwater Wash. They are visible from the floor of Death Valley, across its wide expanse to the west, often partially obscured by haze late in the day. From a few high points in the Panamint range they are also visible from above, often poking up above ridges or framed by v-shaped canyons.

I made this photograph from one of those higher positions, a location along the summit ridge of the Panamint Mountains that provides views in all directions, including down into Death Valley itself. This time I was there near the end of the day, as haze filled the valley and the last sunlight of the day came over the summit of the mountain range, casting beams of light down into the canyon and lighting these hills.

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

Desert Hills, Evening

May 1, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on desert hills, wash, and alluvial fan, Death Valley National Park

Once again I traveled to this Death Valley location, this time for evening light, and climbed to the top of a small hill that was starting to feel like home to me! (I photographed from this spot on three occasions during this visit to the park.) The hill is not tall, but in the mostly flat terrain of this immense alluvial slope it was tall enough to put me above the landscape and reveal features not visible from down on the ground.

I discovered that at the start and end of the day this spot provided a great vantage point for viewing the light transitions of dawn and dusk. The valley is so immense and the elevations differences between low and high points so great that the light doesn’t appear (or disappear) all at once, but instead goes through a relatively lengthy transition. In the evening it fades on the valley floor before actual sunset, since in all directions the horizon is obstructed by mountains. But in this spot those mountains are many, many miles away and not that far above the horizon, so the light continues as it takes on the warm colors of sunset. The idea in this photograph was to photograph across the foreground wash, past the contrasting darker hills, over the continuation of the alluvial fan, and on into the rising hills in the far distance.

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

Desert Mountains, Evening Light And Haze

April 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft light and haze in the evening high in the Panamint Mountain Range, Death Valley National Park

From a high point along the ridge of the Panamint Mountains, there are stupendous views in all directions — north and south along the spine of the range, east into Death Valley and on to Black Mountains and beyond, west across the lower Panamint hills as they drop toward the Panamint Valley only to rise again and eventually culminate in the Sierra Nevada crest. Early and late in the day the low angle light sweeps across the terrain and reveals large and small features of the landscape.

On this evening it was quite hazy, probably because high winds had whipped up sandstorms in lower elevation areas. This dust filled atmosphere can seem to glow from within when back-lit, and as I pointed my camera down toward these western slopes I began to see that luminescence. In a way there is nothing special in this photograph — a nearby ridge, and intervening valley, and more ridges in the distance. But the further ridge is still in the warm-colored, evening light, whose color contrasts with the cooler blue tones of the shadowed ridges.

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

West From The Panamints

April 23, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early evening view looking west from ridge of the Panamint range, Death Valley National Park

I made this photograph on the evening of my arrival in Death Valley. The drive is always a long one, taking most of the day when I come straight from the San Francisco Bay Area. This time I had started in the Carrizo Plains National Monument, where I had stopped overnight to join friends for some photography of this year’s extraordinary wildflower bloom. That meant that even though I had a slightly shorter drive I got a later start — I wasn’t about the leave the Carrizo without making some morning photographs, and then I explored a slower route through the Temblor Range on my way out to the Great Central Valley before continuing on to Death Valley.

My Death Valley plans were not set in stone, so when I arrived in the park I wasn’t quite sure where I would go the first night. I had some thoughts of heading out to a remote canyon area to camp, but given the late arrival I started to consider simply camping at Stovepipe Wells. When I got there and it looked like the wind might kick up a dust storm I changed my mind again and headed up into the Panamint Mountains. (Anyone who has endured a Stovepipe Wells dust storm will sympathize!) In any case, I set up a camp in the mountains and then headed out to this remote ridge top location, a place from which I have often photographed in the early morning. The haze was a bit thick looking to the east, but what a view there was to the west! In that direction the same haze glowed in the backlight of the evening sun with ridges receding into the distance and culminating at the crest of the Sierra Nevada.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: evening

Buttes, Evening Light

Desert Hills, Evening

Desert Mountains, Evening Light And Haze

West From The Panamints

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