Tag Archives: layers

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

Layers and Folds

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Layers and Folds
The complex geology of badlands terrain, Death Valley National Park.

Layers and Folds. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

The complex geology of badlands terrain, Death Valley National Park.

The landscape of Death Valley National Park is extremely varied. The popular imagination first focuses on scenes of sand dunes, the classic signifier of “desert.” But the place is full of canyons, stream beds, surprising instances of water, mountain peaks, and even forests of several types. All of these are special, but scenes like this one may embody one of the the most common elements of this landscape, the exposure of its underlying geology.

The area of this photograph is incredibly complex. It is a maze of small, eroded formations and canyons, all of them interconnected. Underlying this are uplifted layers of material in colors ranging from nearly black to nearly white, interspersed with surprising bits of red, blue, and green. I photographed here early in the morning because the light was softer and richer and because the low angle of the sun entering the scene from the side delineated the eroded features.

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

Desert Mountains and Valley

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Desert Mountains and Valley
Badlands, mountains, and a valley, Death Valley National Park.

Desert Mountains and Valley. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Badlands, mountains, and a valley, Death Valley National Park.

As I continue (still!) working my way though this year’s Death Valley photographs, a familiar process is at work. I first go to images that jump out at me or which I specifically recall making. In some ways, this is the easiest part of the process. Then I dig into the archive more carefully, considering photographs that seem less obvious, but which “work” once I spend time with them. At about this point I imagine that I have finished, but the thought that I’ve missed something gnaws at me, and inevitably I head back into the files again and gradually find subtler images that I like.

This is one of those later-stage photographs. On this morning I made several exposures from this spot, and two others initially jumped out at me as “the shots” from this place. When I looked at this one, there were things I liked about it, but I had other photographs that I wanted to deal with first. When I finally came back to it I think I started to realize what I must have instinctively found interesting about this scene when I pushed the shutter button. It is a large landscape, looking across bare foreground hill into a large valley, and toward desert mountains distant enough to introduce the effects of atmospheric haze.

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

Canyon and Strata

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Canyon and Strata
A desert wash in a winding badlands canyon leads toward contrasting strata, Death Valley National Park.

Canyon and Strata. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A desert wash in a winding badlands canyon leads toward contrasting strata, Death Valley National Park.

This juxtaposition of very dark and very light layers in this badlands terrain has long fascinated me. Often the contrasts among the various layers are relatively subtle, even where obvious colors are involved — but here we see nearly the darkest forms right next to some of the lightest. The material in the foreground is perhaps closer to the typical coloration.

There is a lot to look at in terrain like this, especially when viewed from a slight elevation. In some ways the largest forms mimic and expand on the smallest. Tiny irregularities combine to produce larger versions of themselves, and then these combine to produce larger gullies, which themselves collect together to form that great washes that drain the 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, 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.

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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 Mountains and Wash, Evening

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Desert Mountains and Wash, Evening
The last of the day’s light illuminates a wash descending though desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Desert Mountains and Wash, Evening. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

The last of the day’s light illuminates a wash descending though desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

This feels like a “quiet photograph” to me — a desert scene that appears to be almost entirely static. In fact, one of the most powerful desert experiences I have had in the desert comes from moments in lonely, quiet places where it seems that nothing is moving and that it has been that way for a very long while. It is as close to the feeling of time stopping as we’re likely to experience.

The truth is that I made this photograph in a location that is not exactly quiet and still. Very close to my position there were dozens of people lined up to photograph one of the icons of Death Valley. (This particular icon is interesting but not photographically compelling to me, but as I mentioned in another recent post… my perspective can change!) The photograph illustrates another useful idea in photography, that when you are faced with an obvious subject it is still good to look around at all of the other things that might be worthy of your attention.

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.)

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