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

Afternoon Light, Lake Manly

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Afternoon Light, Lake Manly
“Afternoon Light, Lake Manly” — Light beams above the snow-capped Panamint Mountains and Lake Manly.

These beams of light — sometimes known among photographers as “God light” — are a common afternoon feature in Death Valley. The valley runs roughly north-south, and there are tall mountain ranges on either side, with summits rising up to 11,000’+ at Telescope Peak on the west side. Consequently, direct sunrise and sunset are blocked from much of the valley floor, However, some time after sunrise and before sunset the light passes though canyons and gaps in the mountains, and this is the effect when it illuminates atmospheric haze.

If you visit Death Valley, it s good to keep this geography lesson in mind, since it can affect your experience and photography potential. If you want to photograph sunrise/sunset, you can see sunlit peaks on west side mountains in the morning and the east side mountains late in the day. If you want light down in the valley, you’ll have to find it a bit after sunrise and well before chronological sunset. What to do in the middle of the day when the sun is harsh? I like to head for canyons, the deeper and narrower the better!

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Salt Pond

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Salt Pond
“Salt Pond” — A salt pond and surrounding playa terrain near Lake Manly.

Lake Manly is not the only body of water on the Death Valley playa during this unusually wet year. That lake occupies the lowest area near Badwater, but there is a lot of water in other locations up and down the valley. I photographed this pond from Damte’s View, high in the Black Mountains. I was there before dawn, but I made this photograph much later when the early shadows had retreated back across the valley and the playa was in sunshine.

The water and the bright morning light reveal a lot of details on the playa. Not only do we see the pond, but we can see the submerged salt formations around its edge. There are channels and waterways everywhere on the playa, in comes cases separated by slightly higher bits of land where sandstorm dust has collected. At the very lower edge in this photograph we see fans spilling down from the base of the mountains and sending gravel toward the playa’s edge.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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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: Macro, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Mountains, Wash, and Reflection

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Mountains, Wash, and Reflection
“Mountains, Wash, and Reflection” _ A large wash near the base of the Panamint Mountains is reflected on the surface of Lake Manly.

This is a kind of Death Valley photograph that you won’t often see — mountains reflected in the quiet surface of a huge lake. This is Lake Manly, the reconstituted remnant of a much larger lake that filled the valley long ago. Between a historic tropical storm late last summer and better-than-usual rainfall since then, the lake reappeared and persisted. It currently covers many square miles in the Badwater area of the valley.

This photograph is (yet another) illustration of the vast distances encountered in Death Valley and how deceptive they can be. You might look across this landscape and imagine walking to the base of that wash leading into the mountains. However, even if the lake wasn’t there, you would be hard pressed to reach that spot with even a very long day of walking.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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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, Photographs: Southern California

From Dunes to Mountains

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From Dunes to Mountains
The view across the floor of Death Valley to eroded hills.

From Dunes to Mountains. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

The view across the floor of Death Valley to eroded hills.

I made this photograph in the very late afternoon, just before sunset, on a relatively quiet and calm evening. These short dunes lie near the end of a large dune field that is quite popular with visitors, but their small size gives them a kind of landscape anonymity, and not many people visit or photograph them.

There is a lot of interesting geography/geology in this little scene, and it is part of what caught my attention. The bottom half of the photograph includes the valley floor, a large, sandy playa that, in places, gets enough blowing sand to form dunes. Beyond that, many miles in the distance, a large alluvial fan rises from the playa to the base of the hills, where valleys have spilled material over millennia to form this massive tilting structure. At the very top is a range of short, rugged hills. Out of the photo above them is a very tall range of 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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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