Tag Archives: formations

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

Badlands and Valley, Morning

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Badlands and Valley, Morning
Eroded formations and Death Valley in morning light.

Badlands and Valley, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Eroded formations and Death Valley in morning light.

This is a location that I often go to in Death Valley when I want to photograph in the early morning… and I’m feeling a bit lazy and trying to avoid a long drive. The area is, for many folks, more or less a “drive through” site, but I’ve been going back there for years, lingering and exploring on foot and with my camera.

For the most part in this place you’ll find close-up views of beautifully eroded formations of contrasting colors, with lots of opportunities to photograph the “intimate landscape” of close to medium distance subjects. But in a few spots you can obtain a wider view and see far beyond this hills. To make this photograph I climbed a bit so that I could look over the nearby hills and out into the vast expanse of Death Valley in the early morning 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

Pinnacles And Desert Mountains

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Pinnacles And Desert Mountains
Distant desert mountians rise beyond rocky pinnacles in midday light.

Pinnacles And Desert Mountains. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Distant desert mountians rise beyond rocky pinnacles in midday light.

Photographers would typically not photograph a subject like this one on a day like this or at this time of day — close to the middle of a perfectly clear day, with stark desert light. But that’s when I typically pass through this area, always on my travels to and from Death Valley. On this spring day I had gotten on the road very early to start the long drive, planning to arrive in the park by mid-afternoon, so being in this spot was a secondary effect of that planning

But this challenging midday desert light is perhaps more typical of such scenes, with their stark contrasts between bright light and deep, sharp-edged shadows. Here the foreground pinnacles are backlit and almost in silhouette, while in the distance the lower reaches of a giant desert mountain range begin to rise from this broad valley.

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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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

Desert Holly, Dry Wash

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Desert Holly, Dry Wash
Desert holly plants grow along the curves of a small desert wash

Desert Holly, Dry Wash. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert holly plants grow along the curves of a small desert wash.

Among plants that manage to eke out an existence in dry landscapes, such as that of Death Valley National Park, there seems to be a spectrum of accommodations to dryness. Out near the sharp edge of that bell curve is found the desert holly plant. In some of the locations where I see it, the plant seems to be just about the only thing that is still able to live on the driest and rockiest soils.

The specimens in this photograph are growing along the course of a dry wash, and they probably get a good portion of whatever small amount of water that sustains them during brief periods when water flows following rainstorms. (It had rained heavily during the previous month here… and there was no visible water in this wash.) The plants present a sometimes surprising bit of green in this otherwise arid and bare landscape.

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.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Red Rock, Tree

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Red Rock, Tree
A tree grows among eroded sandstone formations, Bryce Canyon National Park

Red Rock, Tree. Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. October 6, 2012. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tree grows among eroded sandstone formations, Bryce Canyon National Park

Recently I spent some time going back through older photographs from some visits to the Southwest, notably Utah, a few years back. I suspect that three things provoked me to do this. First, I have found that I’m not always able to completely understand my own photographs right away. Some are obviously “keepers” from the very beginning, but others only make sense after I have not looked at them for a while — so I build this periodic visit to older subjects into my workflow. Secondly, I love the Utah landscape, from its most intimate to its grandest subjects. It is a place I think about a lot, and a place that I would like to revisit often. Third, I’m acutely aware of the existential dangers to this very landscape posed by the ascendance of short-sighted, self-interested, hyper-partisan political forces in Utah right now. As a matter of principle, I have decided to not visit that state until their representatives stop trying to ruin it. (I urge you to consider contributions to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance or other local groups working to protect Utah’s public lands for all Americans, and to join me in boycotting the state for now.)

This photograph comes from Bryce Canyon National Park, a place of great beauties… that I still haven’t quite gotten my mind around. The rugged red formations facing the rising sun certainly present a striking appearance, but working from along the main road and its offshoots I still haven’t found my vision of the place. Oddly, some of my strongest visual recollections of the place are looking back at it from the east and from a great distance. In this photograph a single small tree peeks out from behind some of the sandstone structures.

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.