Tag Archives: golden

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

Dune Shadow

Image May 15, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

On some of my Death Valley visits I photograph dunes many times — at dawn and at sunset, and especially if there is a dust storm or interesting clouds. But on this trip I really only made one serious foray into the dunes, since other rarer features distracted me — most notably the reemergence of a remnant of prehistoric Lake Manly. But it wouldn’t have seemed like a real Death Valley visit without at least one dune adventure.

I made this photograph late in the day, just before the shadows of the Cottonwood Mountains angled across the valley and” dimmed the lights.” (No matter how many times I photograph there, I am still always surprised by how quickly this happens.) Despite first appearances, things do live in the sand, and here an old plant (barely) grows in the shelter of a small dune. Beyond, more dunes stretch across the valley floor, then a gravel fan rises toward desert 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.

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

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

Desert Clouds, Evening

Image April 18, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Let’s call this a moment of peace and calm in a world that sometimes seems too tumultuous. I photographed this cloud formation above Death Valley on a quiet evening, alone in a high place above the valley as the day ended. I was there to photograph the landscape, but at this moment it was the cloudscape that caught my attention.

It isn’t news that clouds are fascinating. While they often appear as supporting acts in landscape photography, sometimes they form temporary “cloudscapes” on their own. That ephemeral quality is part of their magic — one moment there might me nothing there, but soon they silently assemble into fascinating shapes and juxtapositions, only to dissolve and re-form a moment later.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Autumn Oaks, Morning

Image December 11, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn oak trees silhouetted in morning light, against the backdrop of smoke from a managed fire, Yosemite Valley.

This photograph comes from the my November 1 visit to Yosemite Valley on a day when a managed fire filled the air with smoke. It was especially thick here, as the fire was burning more or less around the meadow containing these trees. In the photograph you can probably see the thicker smoke in the shaded distance, though where I was standing it was not quite as bad.

There were several key features making this photograph work. The slender trunks of these trees are always interesting, but here they were backlight by intense sunlight coming over the top of the Valley walls, increasing the saturation of the fall leaf color. This light also left the trunks in silhouette while lighting up some of the dry autumn grasses, and the smoke muted background distractions.

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

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Aspens, Rocky Face

Image November 18, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small group of autumn aspen trees grows against an Eastern Sierra Nevada rock face.

Aspen trees present in all sorts of fascinating ways — individual trees, huge groves, short, tall, straight, bent, in full color, still partially green, almost bare, in valleys, on ridges, among other trees. I think they are all photographable, but I am especially attracted to colorful trees set against rocky slopes. The contrasts are fascinating — the bright yellow of the trees and the blue-gray of rocks, the slender fragility of aspens and the solid character of stone.

This photograph was almost — but not quite — an afterthought. I had gone to a location to photograph a different subject, but conditions were not favorable for that original plan. So I looked around and saw small groups of trees across the valley, each of them standing at the base of rocky slopes. Working quickly before the bright direct sun arrived, I photographed them in the soft, shadow light.