Tag Archives: license

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

Rain, Cottonwood Mountains

April 14, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Afternoon showers from a clearing storm fall on receding ridges of the Cottonwood Mountains, Death Valley National Park

This had been a “weather day,” with several hours of snowfall high up in the Panamint Range, where we had photographed sunrise—such as it was— and wildflowers and, of course, snow. We spent the morning and half the afternoon kicking around up high in these mountains, enjoying the late-season surprise cold weather, finding tons of wildflowers, and visiting various historical remnants of the mining days in Death Valley National Park. My typical shooting day in a situation like this starts well before dawn, includes a midday break, and then moves on to late afternoon and evening shooting until it is dark. But it was well past mid-afternoon when we finally descended from the Panamints.

There was no time for a real break, so we headed right on out to find an evening subject. We had not yet photographed in the Mesquite Dunes, and my initial thought was to photograph there in late afternoon and evening light. In the right conditions there can be wonderful light late in the day, especially during the final few minutes before the sun leaves the dunes. But there were still clouds floating around, especially to the west, and I wasn’t at all sure that we would see the good light out among the dunes. So I decided that it might make more sense to go to a higher spot where the wider panorama would let me pick out various areas of the Valley and surrounding mountains as the light changed. Arriving at “the spot,” I looked west and saw that showers were still falling over the Cottonwood Mountains and glowing with backlight from the late afternoon sun, so I put on the long lens and made some photographs of portions of the range where the falling rain masked the details and turned the mountains into abstract shapes.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shadow on Door 4

April 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A night scene from the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

This is another night photograph from the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard near Vallejo, California. It is hard to explain what attracted me to this specific subject, though the photograph is one of a small series I shot of this wall and the white building. (A “series” of night photographs often comprises a small number of photographs, since it often takes many minutes to complete a single exposure.)

I began by photographing from a position far to the right, where there was a large puddle of reflecting water between my position and the two buildings, and then I worked my way around the scene to finally shoot it straight on. In addition to the water, I was intrigued by the color contrast between the salmon colored wall and the stark white shack in front of it. (Though, to be honest, in the near darkness I had to make some assumptions about what the colors might actually be!) This photograph contains a number of elements that are common at Mare Island, especially at night. The architecture itself is typical—mostly quite utilitarian, with many very large buildings that were constructed for ship-building industry. There are often exposed pipes and wires and other elements. It is common to see weathered paint and rust. Windows are everywhere, often comprising surprisingly extensive portions of the exterior walls. I’ve never asked anyone, but my assumption is that it was less expensive to “light” the interior naturally than to use artificial light to illuminate such large spaces. The photo also illustrates a much more modern feature. Not long ago, when I first photographed here, the lights were often quite colorful, including sodium vapor, tungsten, fluorescent, mercury, and more. This often produces wildly colorful images at night. But today, for energy efficiency reasons, neutral colored LED lighting is being installed everywhere, and the color balance is more like that of daylight.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

No POV Parking

April 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Glowing lights inside a shop building at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, reflected in a pool of rainwater

I have now been doing night photography at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard near Vallejo, California for perhaps a decade. Back when I visited for the first time I would not have expected that night photography or this particular location would still occupy me today, but they do. In many ways, photographing this location at night is an almost meditative experience. I’m long past the initial surprise to find such a place exists—with its long history and old structures in varied states of decay—and I now regard it as a familiar place. The photography itself is part of the attraction. I continue to find new subjects and to see old subjects in new ways and to watch how the place changes over time. But it is also about the slow, quiet, and methodical work of photographing at night. In many places I can barely see my subjects, and I have to wander around slowly and carefully, taking time to look in places that might initially not seem to offer anything of interest. When I think of this photography, the damp air near the waterfront and the deep quiet form as great a part of the experience as anything else.

This visit followed a week when several rain storms had passed over the Bay Area. (I had missed the actual storms, as I was away photographing in Death Valley.) As soon as I arrived at Mare Island I noticed that there were puddles everywhere, so I was on the lookout for reflections. This building is absolutely huge, but in other ways not all that exciting in daylight—but at night, with interior lights glowing, it can become a bit mysterious.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Rhyolite, Amargosa Valley, Telescope Peak

April 11, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I first visited the fabled ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada perhaps a decade ago. I lies outside of Death Valley National Park, not too far from Beatty, Nevada. The place has existed in a state of mostly natural decay in the decades since it was abandoned. The story is that it was once a very successful and busy mining town, but as happens to virtually all such places, the mines played out and the town died. Not a lot is left at this point, though there are a few very interesting structures. Their size gives evidence of what the town must have been: a railroad station, a crumbling bank building, the remains of a large schoolhouse, and more.

When I first visited Rhyolite the place was pretty much what it was, and you could go just about anywhere you wanted to go. Within a few years fencing began to appear around some of the more dangerous structures—tall ruins of stone walls that are eventually going to fall. As time passed more and more fences were erected, and today many of the old buildings are off-limits. In a way this disappoints me, but given the increasing number of visitors and the increasingly fragile state of the town and its structures, I’m will to accept these limitations as a way to slow the eventual decay of the place. I’ve photographed at various times of day and in a range of conditions, but I still like dawn the best here. When the conditions are right, the sun comes up over a low ridge to the east and its light strikes the old bank building and other structures in the town just after it reaches the Amargosa Range and the summit of distant Telescope Peak, the highest point in Death Valley National Park.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: license

Rain, Cottonwood Mountains

Shadow on Door 4

No POV Parking

Rhyolite, Amargosa Valley, Telescope Peak

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