fractal | G Dan Mitchell Photography

Fractal Landscape, Death Valley National Park — “Fractal Landscape” — A Death Valley landscape of layers of eroded ridges.

This view has intrigued me for years. At one popular Death Valley National Park location, one comes upon it quickly and often briefly. Because it is the coda of visits to this area that has many other attractions, it is easy to overlook it. It is harder to photograph than it seems that it should be — there are some compositional challenges, and unless the light is right the scene can have very low contrast and tricky colors.

The variety of pattens and details in the scene is remarkable. The first four ridges are low and consist of soft, easily eroded material. The more distant ridge is far away, across an intervening valley, and its details are almost always muted by haze. The foreground formations are deeply eroded and cut by gullies — which might seem like an odd thing at first when you consider that you are in an extremely hot and arid desert.

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.

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

Fractalscape — Complex and highly detailed erosion patterns combine with pastel colors in a Death Valley landscape.

Complex and highly detailed erosion patterns combine with pastel colors in a Death Valley landscape.

I could probably write a chapter about this photograph, including ideas about color, geology, light, figuring out how to “see” particular places, and more. I’ll keep it simple though, and only briefly mention a few things. This is a photograph from an area of Death Valley that I had previously written off as being — wait for it! — “uninteresting.” This is not the first time that I’ve had to eat my words about such evaluations after going back and realizing that the problem wasn’t the landscape — it was me!

The light was rather special — the “first light” of early morning, with its warm tones, but it was also softened and diffused by high clouds. This briefly revealed some unusual pastel colors in the formations They contrasted with the blue tones in the shadows. The scene also reveals the highly detailed and “fractal” nature of landscapes like this, where the bigger elements can be seen as larger versions of the smallest details.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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