Across the Canyon. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.
Morning light on a desert canyon and eroded hills, Death Valley National Park.
Weeks ago I thought I was “done” with the photographs from my January visit to Death Valley National Park. As usual, I was wrong. I almost always end up returning later to files that I think I’ve picked over, and I inevitably find something that I missed. (I have a theory about this that has to do with how we see photographs right after we make them versus how we view them later on with some aesthetic distance.) I made this photograph on a morning when thick haze to the east softened the light.
The impetus for this return to the file archive was a posted by a friend who was photographing in the park just before the first day of spring. I recognized her camera position as being very close to a place that I had used in January, and when I went back to my files to verify my hunch I ended up plowing through the archive again. The fact that this photograph sees the light of day now is the result of multiple bits of serendipity. I was there to photograph an entirely different subject, and I only spotted this scene by turning away from that subject. I might never have “found” it again if it hadn’t been for the coincidence of seeing my friend’s photograph.
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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