Tag Archives: glow

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

Morning Light, Alluvial Fans

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Morning Light, Alluvial Fans
Morning light and haze over vast alluvial fan landscape, Death Valley National Park.

Morning Light, Alluvial Fans. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning light and haze over vast alluvial fan landscape, Death Valley National Park.

This is probably not the most traditionally “scenic” subject in Death Valley, and it is possible that it may not speak to everyone, especially those unfamiliar with the immense scale of the place and its potential for deep silence and stillness. But this is a spot that I keep going back to on mornings like this, when the first sunlight breaks over ridges to the east and shines through glowing haze is a slants cross these gigantic alluvial fans.

When you stop to consider the nature of the landscape in this park, you’ll eventually have a moment when it hits you just how much of the place consists of material that has been eroded and washed down from high places. The eroded material forms these gigantic washes, which can be miles long and wide.

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Trail, Winter Haze

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Trail, Winter Haze
A trail winds past oak trees on a hazy winter day.

Trail, Winter Haze. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A trail winds past oak trees on a hazy winter day.

This is not a place where I typically stop to make landscape photographs. It is along a trail that I often head to when I want to get out for a local hike, and this section of the trail is one that I usually think of as “on the way to other interesting places.” The trail is actually a fire access road, and off to the left and out of the frame there is a ramshackle farm and beyond that a roadway. But the winter atmosphere can make almost anything look better!

The sun was just barely out when I made the photograph on Christmas Eve Day. It was very hazy day of the sort that develops in the Bay Area in the winter when air circulation is poor. In many cases it isn’t exactly an attractive effect. However, when the sun is behind subjects the haze can glow and produce fascinating silhouette effects — and sometimes turn a familiar scene into something quite different.

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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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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Oak Silhouette

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Oak Silhouette
A dormant oak tree silhouetted against glowing winter light and hzae.

Oak Silhouette. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A dormant oak tree silhouetted against glowing winter light and hzae.

As the grand alpine landscapes of the Sierra backcountry become mostly inaccessible to me in the winter, my attention inevitably turns to the low country — the Pacific coast, the inland valleys, and the oak/grassland hills not far from where I live. This photograph comes from the latter, a small county park less than a half hour from my home, a place where I have hiked for many years. There are still surprises there, though, including this tree, which I had not noticed before this hike on Christmas Eve Day.

At first glance the conditions might not have seemed to promising for photography. A period of stagnant winter air around here had produced a lot of haze — so much that there were prohibitions on fireplace use and some warning about particulate levels. But that same haze glows in a luminous fashion when the light is right, and here it mutes the background details and sets off the form of this old oak tree.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Autumn Morning, Big Sur Coast

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Autumn Morning, Big SurCoast
Spray and mist glow in morning light along the Big Sur Coast.

Autumn Morning, Big Sur Coast. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Spray and mist glow in autumn morning light along the Big Sur Coast.

Every time I visit the Big Sur coast — which I’ve been doing for decades — I manage to find something new. Sometimes it is just a different view on something that I’ve seen before — perhaps a different sort of light, unusual conditions of surf or weather, or a slightly different vantage point. Occasionally it is something that I did not know about — an obscure overlook, a juxtaposition of landscape elements, and so forth.

This location falls between those extremes. I have stopped to photograph this general area quite a few times. But there are innumerable little access points and foot paths that head out along the edge of the coastal bluffs, and this time I took one that I’ve seen many times but never followed. It took me to this overlook above a small cove backed by a series of small ridges running down to the waterline, with a taller hill in the distance.

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.

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

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