Tag Archives: haze

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

Towers, Windows, Mountains

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Towers, Windows, Mountains
Arches National Park towers and windows, backed by distant mountains in morning haze.

Towers, Windows, Mountains. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Arches National Park towers and windows, backed by distant mountains in morning haze.

The first time I visited Arches National Park, I was intentionally almost completely ignorant of the place. I had sort of connected it with Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire,” but only as a sort of vague background to the larger points of that book. I knew that so-called Delicate Arch was located in this par. But that was pretty much it. So the first time we drove into the place late one afternoon I was almost completely unprepared for the otherworldly quality of the impossible formation in the park.

I made this photograph a few days later, on a morning of oddly hazy atmosphere that muted the details for the landscape, simplifying it and bringing attention to the larger forms. While this is red rock country, that is barely visible in this light. The solitary pinnacle is silhouetted against a panorama of other-worldly towers and windows backed by the barely visible outline of the La Sal 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 and Amazon.

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

Canyon and Mountains, Morning

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Canyon and Mountains, Morning
A Death Valley canyon and mountains, backlit by early morning winter light.

Canyon and Mountains, Morning. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Death Valley canyon and mountains, backlit by early morning winter light.

I have a bit of a long relationship with this spot in Death Valley. I stop there on almost every visit to the park, typically either very early in the morning (arriving before dawn) or else for last light in the evening. I’ve been there when the wind was strong enough to make it difficult to walk, when it was unbelievably cold, on still warm days, in blah conditions that made me ask “why?,” — and on one memorable occasion I had to turn back because there was too much snow!

As a photographic subject this landscape is greatly dependent on conditions of atmosphere and light. in “normal” light in the middle of the day it is a gigantic vista but rarely a compelling photograph. But early in the morning very interesting things can happen, especially when the backlight is strong and there is just enough haze in the air to make the atmosphere glow.

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

Dust Storm, Desert Hills

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Dust Storm, Desert Hills
A dust storm begins to envelope desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Dust Storm, Desert Hills. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dust storm begins to envelope desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Last year we spent nearly a week in Death Valley in the Spring, photographing landscape and plants and flowers. I go every year, usually camping, but this time we stayed in one of the lodging facilities in the park, heading out from there on various one-day adventures. (I like camping in the park… but I don’t mind sleeping in a bed and eating good food either…)

We experienced some fairly big dust storms during this visit — not the biggest I’ve seen by far, but powerful enough to make an impression. One was building on this afternoon, so we headed in that direction to see what photographic opportunities might arise. Near the end of the day the sky was almost apocalyptic, with clouds above, raging dust storm below, and sunset color. But this photograph comes from earlier in the day when the effect was more subtle. We stopped close to these rounded desert hills and photographed the landscape as the more distant mountains gradually were obscured by the increasing dust.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Sunrise, Fog, Spring HIlls

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Sunrise, Fog, Spring HIlls
Soft dawn light and drifting fog above springtime California hills.

Sunrise, Fog, Spring HIlls. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft dawn light and drifting fog above springtime California hills.

This morning completely surprised me. I was in the inland hills of California, between the coastal valleys and the Central Valley, primarily to photograph the spring wildflowers. I had arrived late the night before, setting up my tent in a campground up in the hills before doing some late-day photography. I returned to my camp, made dinner, set my alarm for way before dawn, and went to sleep with a plan of driving down into the large valley nearby to photograph vast fields of flowers.

I got up well before dawn and tried to sneak quietly out of camp without disturbing the normal people who sleep in, fix coffee, have a nice breakfast, and only then head out. As I drove down the gravel road toward that valley I could see that it was completely covered by tule fog, much to my surprise given the arid nature of the place. However, off in the distance, in the direction of the rising sun, haze and drifting fog and soft dawn light produced an entirely different landscape than the one I had been looking for.

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.

Blog | About | 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.