Tag Archives: light

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

Reflected First Light, Panamint Mountains

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Reflected First Light, Panamint Mountains
“Reflected First Light, Panamint Mountains” — Shallow salt flat water reflects the first light on the Panamint Mountains.

During my late-February visit to Death Valley National Park, I spent two early mornings photographing the Panamint Mountains in the first light, with the salt flats and shallow water in the foreground. The water is not the ephemeral “Lake Manly” phenomenon that we saw in 2024. This is a slow, shallow flow of water that seems to continue all year, regardless of conditions. It is just enough water to produce these reflections.

These days I photograph almost exclusively with a full frame digital system. (Sometimes I use a smaller APS-C system, often for my street and travel photography.) I usually use a pretty straightforward set of lenses that work well for my landscape photography, but occasionally I bring out an adapted medium format zoom lens and mount it using the Mirex tilt/shift adapter — yes, movements with a zoom lens! That was pretty useful for this photograph given the low light and the extreme distance between the foreground and the distant 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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Desert, Photographs: England, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Base of the Red Cliffs

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Base of the Red Cliffs. Death Valley
“Base of the Red Cliffs” — Gullies, folds, strata, and morning shadows at the base of the Red Cliffs.

The title says “Red Cliffs,” but you might be thinking, “They don’t look very red to me!” In more neutral light the formations in the upper part of the photograph, and even more so the formations above the margins of the photograph, do have the familiar red rock quality — though it would be fair to say that they are as much brown as red. But in this stark early morning light, just after sunrise, the colors are warmed so much that they are more yellow or orange.

In many ways the geology of Death Valley produces a blank canvas for photographers who want to work with varied light. For the most part, Death Valley’s colors are subtle. The lighter portions of the formations in this photograph are a sort of muted tan in midday light. But as with so many other subjects here, this muted, neutral quality allows them to pick up the colors of sunrise/sunset, twilight, colorful clouds, and reflections from nearby formations.

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

2 responses to “Base of the Red Cliffs”

  1. Charlie Colladay Avatar
    Charlie Colladay

    Hi Dan,
    Here I am, wasting some time on a Sunday afternoon and I came back to this photo of yours. It has not lost any of the intrigue that originally caught my eye and led me to post a comment. Forgive me for diving deeper still into the details of the lighting, that for me, is the strength of this photo. Again, forgive me, but I have to take some issue with a comment of your’s re: the light falling on the foreground.

    You say…”The foreground light is coming from behind and above my camera position — a combination of more reflected light and light from the open sky.”
    I’ll accept that open sky is supplying some over all fill light, but it is much weaker than the main, semi-hard light coming from the left. The evidence of this can be seen in the delineation of the vertical striations on the rock face at the left side of the frame. Each individual striation has a highlight at its peak then a shadow in the depression to the right, in a repeating pattern. Whatever the source of illumination, the bulk of its directional quality can’t be coming from above and behind the camera position. That would produce a much flatter light than what is seen here. The result then would be the foreground rock’s striations being less textural, less visible, more boring without the contrast of the highlight/shadow repeating pattern.

    On that same foreground rock, the upper left and the lower right (the ankle and the toes of the “giant’s foot”) are both darker and flatter, the result of being lit only by the open sky, providing an omnidirectional, flatter and lower level of illumination.

    The overall, bottom line still exists…I love this shot! The above details are just an explanation of why it works so well for me. Thank you, Dan!

    Reply
    1. G Dan Mitchell Avatar
      G Dan Mitchell

      Charlie,

      Thanks for taking the time to write a long post on this photograph. But I must admit that I’m a bit confused by your comment.

      You wrote:

      ”You say…”The foreground light is coming from behind and above my camera position — a combination of more reflected light and light from the open sky.”

      But when I look at the text I wrote to accompany this photograph, in the post you replied to, I do not see that I wrote anything like that there. I wonder if you were looking at a different photograph than the one you commented on?

      In the photograph on this page — “Base of the Red Cliffs” — the sun is definitively behind and above my camera position. It is not straight behind me, but is coming from a slight angle over my right shoulder, which is why the shadows stretch towards the left.

      Let me know if you can figure out why your comment doesn’t seem align with this photograph or its descriptive text.

      Dan

      Reply

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

Funeral Range, Last Light

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Funeral Range, Last Light, Death Valley
“Funeral Range, Last Light” — The last direct light of the evening shines on the Funeral Range, Death Valley.

Am I the only person who has a set of odd little personal spots where they like to stop — places that others might pass by without noticing anything special? Over the years I’ve collected quite a few: a rock outcropping in Tuolumne Meadows, a bench at the high point on a local trail, a particular tree in the Central Valley, and this place in Death Valley National Park.

Years ago I turned off the road that passes through here and walked to the top of a small rise with my camera. There are no icons visible from the place, but it is in the middle of a portion of the immense, still, quiet space of this park. Something about it resonated with me, and I go there on every return trip. This time it was evening when I arrived, and I photographed the very last sunlight of the day on the Funeral 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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

Canyon Light

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Canyon Light, Death Valley National Park
“Canyon Light” — Direct light, reflected light, and deep shadows as a canyon winds through desert mountains, Death Valley.

We love fantastically narrow and twisty slot canyons, but those are more of the exception to the rule. You can find those in Death Valley, but more likely you’ll find a scene like this one, at least in canyons that run through steep, rocky mountain ranges, like this one on the east side of the valley. Through much of its length it is more than wide enough that a vehicle could pass, if they were allowed here. Note also the very rugged and broken rock formations — this is not your smooth-walled Utah red rock canyon!

At this spot the canyon takes a couple of very sharp bends around the tall face to the right. When the trend of the canyon lines up the right way, very little direct sunlight penetrates all the way down. Instead the canyon bottom is often in shade, but that shade is filled with soft, reflected light that has bounced between the canyon walls. When I hike these canyons I always look forward to passing through these spots.

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

4 responses to “Canyon Light”

  1. Charlie Colladay Avatar
    Charlie Colladay

    Love this shot! The longer I look at it the more I like it. Forgive me for being such a pendant, but I am so moved by the intricacies of the light in this photo.

    Nice, tight composition of three separate layers: the far layer in direct sunlight; the middle, golden layer and the “giant’s foot” in the foreground. At first glance my eye was drawn to the well defined textural striations of the foreground in a seemingly softer, bluer, open shade type light. But no! It’s actually strongly directional (from the left, reflected by ?) which makes the vertical striations really pop. The far layer is being illuminated by the sun’s direct rays coming from the right, which is how we know the foreground light from the left is reflected (assuming no auxiliary lighting). The middle golden layer is the real mystery. The bright gold color and intensity of the light is greater at the left edge and gradually falls off into open shade light at the far right. The reflected light source must be something close by and behind the “giant’s foot” that is strongly reflecting the sun’s rays. It’s almost like the photographer laid out a large gold colored tarp to act as a reflector. But I doubt that. More likely it’s a warm colored rock formation that is serving as the reflector. Beautiful.

    Whatever the case…this is an amazing photo! I love it when a photo strikes you at first and then even more so as your eye roams around and you try to figure out why you like it so much. In the final analysis, it’s no surprise how often it comes down to the “Light” and we are then reminded that the Greek root of “photography” is “light drawing”.

    Nice work Dan!

    Charlie Colladay

    Reply
    1. G Dan Mitchell Avatar
      G Dan Mitchell

      Thanks Charlie,

      YOu certainly have an eye for light!

      The combination of layers and light is pretty much what this photograph is “about.” As you surmised, there are three kinds of ight (at least) at work in the photograph. OK, maybe four.

      There is the direct sunlight on the far canyon wall. Then there is the light reflected from a(n out of sight) reddish section of cliff that illuminates the middle face. The foreground light is coming from behind and above my camera position — a combination of more reflected light and light from the open sky. The forth kind of light? The deeper shadows with the more blue tones.

      One of the things I love about these canyons is precisely that variety of lighting, and especially the way that the light picks up colors from the sky and from whatever surface reflects it.

      Dan

      Reply
  2. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Dan:

    It reminds me of Dedeckera Canyon over at the Eureka Dunes.

    Reply
    1. G Dan Mitchell Avatar
      G Dan Mitchell

      Thanks for sharing that. I’ve been to Eureka several times, but I have never investigated that canyon.

      Dan

      Reply

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