Speaking as a complete non-expert, I think that what we’re looking at here is a boundary between the low point of a small playa-like section of dried earth and a slightly higher area with black pebbles. The pebbles appear to be volcanic material from a nearby eruption that took place hundreds or thousands of years ago. (The particular feature may have erupted as recently as 800 years, though it has also possibly been longer.)
Continue reading A Boundary
Lake Manly, the ephemeral lake that appears in Death Valley’s Badwater Basin in unusually wet seasons, is gradually shrinking once again. It was very large in early 2025, and again quite large early this year. It is starting to dry out and it will likely begone soon. For now though, it is still impressive, especially if you stand at its edge early in the morning, and doubly so when clouds fill the sky.
I chose black and white for this photograph of the lake because monochromegives me a great deal of interpretive freedom, in many way s more so than with color. As a starting point, black and white never can claim to be an accurate representation of the world of colors, and this frees us from notions that a photograph must always aspire to look like what we saw. In this case, monochrome allows me to draw attention to this remarkable winter desert sky.
Leave a comment or question using the form. (Click the title to see the full article and to comment if you are viewing it on the home page.)
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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.
This view is from the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley. We were fortunate that it was accessible at all. The initial access road reopened days before our arrival after being closed for most of the year… and a storm closed it again on the day we left the park. The dark foreground mountain is part of the range from which I made the photograph. In the middle ground we see the still-shadowed floor of the valley with the Amargosa River passing through salt flats. Beyond that are several more desert mountain ranges disappearing into distant haze.
Some of the most spectacular sites in Death Valley National Park lie far from the familiar tourist hot spots. Reaching them may require hiking or long droves on rough desert roads. (This is a very big park!) And seeing these places at the best time often means traveling to them in predawn darkness or returning late at night. To arrive at this location we started driving a couple of hours before sunrise, and the last part of the drive was on a narrow gravel road.
Leave a comment or question using the form. (Click the title to see the full article and to comment if you are viewing it on the home page.)
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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.
During my late-February visit to Death Valley National Park, I spent two early mornings photographing the Panamint Mountains in the first light, with the salt flats and shallow water in the foreground. The water is not the ephemeral “Lake Manly” phenomenon that we saw in 2024. This is a slow, shallow flow of water that seems to continue all year, regardless of conditions. It is just enough water to produce these reflections.
These days I photograph almost exclusively with a full frame digital system. (Sometimes I use a smaller APS-C system, often for my street and travel photography.) I usually use a pretty straightforward set of lenses that work well for my landscape photography, but occasionally I bring out an adapted medium format zoom lens and mount it using the Mirex tilt/shift adapter — yes, movements with a zoom lens! That was pretty useful for this photograph given the low light and the extreme distance between the foreground and the distant 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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
(All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.)
Join the discussion — you are welcome to leave a comment or question. (Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately.)