Tag Archives: light

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

Dune Patterns, Evening

Image Leave a comment
Dune Patterns, Evening
Evening light on layers of Death Valley sand dunes.

Dune Patterns, Evening. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on layers of Death Valley sand dunes.

This photograph provides an opportunity to tell a little story on myself. Sometimes I’m very good at getting going early enough to arrive at a location in plenty of time. But sometimes I’m not. This was almost one of those times. The right way to photograph here would have been to arrive perhaps an hour earlier, at a time when the light would have seen fairly uninteresting to me, and then to set up and wait. That’s not what happened.

I did have a plan to be in this spot, but I may have underestimated the time it would take to get to the exact location. We arrived before the beautiful light arrived… but I had a bit of a hike to get in position. I started walking and quickly realized that I was cutting it close. I put my head down and took off in a beeline for this spot where I knew I would fine sequences of rising dunes, building one upon the other. I did not stop or slow down until I got to “the spot,” at which point I immediately picked a first composition, set things up, and went to work. I was on time, but only barely, and I had perhaps ten minutes of lovely, colorful light before sunset.

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.

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

Sand Storm, Sunset Virga

Image Leave a comment
Sand Storm, Sunset Virga
Virga drops from sunset clouds above a desert sand storm

Sand Storm, Sunset Virga. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Virga drops from sunset clouds above a desert sand storm.

This photograph represents Death Valley as a place of “apocalyptic beauty.” Most of the time this landscape is quiet, and the predominant impressions it makes on me are about stillness and immense space. But it can also produce incredibly dynamic, powerful, and even intimidating conditions, sometimes without a whole lot of prior notice.

This scene is a conjunction of three conditions that I’ve only experienced together a few times there. A weather front was moving through and trying to drop rain on the landscape — here the clouds are releasing virga, curtains of rainfall that don’t make it to the ground. Extreme winds from the southwest were whipping up a sand storm that was rising into the Amargosa Mountains to the east of the valley. (I was standing in tremendous winds and blowing sand when I made this photograph.) Then all of this came together with a brief moment of sunset light as the rain was clearing from the west to leave an open sky in the direction of the setting sun.

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.

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

Dunes, Creosote, Sunrise Light

Image Leave a comment
Sunrise light shines on blossoming creosote bushes among undulating sand dunes

Dunes, Creosote, Sunrise Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise light shines on blossoming creosote bushes among undulating sand dunes.

Yes, this is yet another photograph of dunes in early morning light. I admit it, I cannot resist. (We probably spent more time than usual in the dunes on this trip because recent heavy rains had closed off access to a number of the non-dune locations I would have liked to visit.)

I made this photograph a few minutes later than some of the others I have shared. The strikingly warm light of dawn was already transitioning towards the more neutral daytime colors, but the sun was still low enough to send its light across the ridges of dunes and leave the valleys between them in the softer, shaded light. This small group of creosote bushes caught in the light was beginning to blossom.

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.

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

Dunes At Dawn

Image Leave a comment
Dunes At Dawn
Dawn light and shadow patterns on sand dunes, Death Valley

Dunes At Dawn. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn light and shadow patterns on sand dunes, Death Valley.

Other recent photographic posts here have mentioned the astonishing transition of desert light between the pre-dawn twilight and the post-dawn light of daytime, and especially the rapid changes that occur right around sunrise itself. I made this photograph during the first moments after the direct sun had made its way onto the dunes after rising above a mountain range far to the east. At this point the light is still warm, but significantly less so that during that first instant of direct light, and the shadows still are deeply blue from the color of early morning sky.

The small stand of foreground creosote is emblematic of one of the astonishing things about sand dunes, namely that there is so much living stuff in a place that first appears to be completely inhospitable to life. It is a challenging environment, and plants are few and far between, but they do manage to survive. In the springtime the permanent plants such as the creosote bushes are briefly embellished by the appearance of seasonal flowers, at least during years with sufficient rain.

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.

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