Tag Archives: light

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

Flooded Playa, Mountain Shadow

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Flooded Playa, Mountain Shadow
“Flooded Playa, Mountain Shadow” — The shadow of a mountain retreats across a flooded playa in morning light, Death Valley.

It is hard to make sense of the landforms of Death Valley when you are within the valley. It is so vast and so flat that your view is often a combination of what is right at your feet and what is many miles away. A more comprehensive view comes from ascending to a high point in the mountains on either side of the valley. From these elevated perspectives you can see things that are otherwise invisible.

This year these perspectives revealed something very unusual. A large section of the playa near Badwater, where the lowest point is located, is submerged under the shallow waters of Lake Manly. This photograph incorporates several elements of this year’s view — that shadow of the mountains on which I was standing, the salt flats shining white in morning light, the turquoise waters of the shallow lake, and a maze of channels along its periphery.

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

Evening Dunes, Desert Mountains

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Evening Dunes, Desert Mountains
“Evening Dunes, Desert Mountains” — The day’s last light on sand dunes backed by the Kit Fox hills and base of the Grapevine Mountains.

What trip to Death Valley would be complete without at least one morning or evening wandering sand dunes and photographing them? Although this visit was focused on the ephemeral appearance of Lake Manly, I still found some time for more familiar subjects. On my final evening in the park I went to these well-known dunes just before sunset, planning to photograph the dunes, the lengthening shadows, the warm light, and distant desert mountains.

There are a lot of little bits of knowledge about these dunes that are useful if you are going to photograph them. Here the sunset light disappears a bit earlier than you might expect since long shadows move across the valley as the sun drops behind mountains in the west. There’s only a brief interval between very bright direct sun and the arrival of the shadows — so it is important to arrive earlier than you might think and to then be ready to act quickly.

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 | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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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: Macro, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Mountains, Wash, and Reflection

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Mountains, Wash, and Reflection
“Mountains, Wash, and Reflection” _ A large wash near the base of the Panamint Mountains is reflected on the surface of Lake Manly.

This is a kind of Death Valley photograph that you won’t often see — mountains reflected in the quiet surface of a huge lake. This is Lake Manly, the reconstituted remnant of a much larger lake that filled the valley long ago. Between a historic tropical storm late last summer and better-than-usual rainfall since then, the lake reappeared and persisted. It currently covers many square miles in the Badwater area of the valley.

This photograph is (yet another) illustration of the vast distances encountered in Death Valley and how deceptive they can be. You might look across this landscape and imagine walking to the base of that wash leading into the mountains. However, even if the lake wasn’t there, you would be hard pressed to reach that spot with even a very long day of walking.

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 | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Fond Antico

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Fond Antico
“Fond Antico” — Diffused light on the shaded facades of buildings along a narrow Bologna street.

I photographed this bit of Bologna architecture on a “random walk” during our 2023 summer visit. In the morning we headed out with no particular destination in mind, just expecting to wander and see what we might discover. We had a vague plan to start near the two famous towers not far from the central piazza, and then we just kept going until we came to the edge of the old part of the town. We turned around and began to improvise a different route back.

I can’t tell you exactly where I made this photograph, since by this time we were following our instincts rather than a map. We changed directions as we saw interesting things, and our route was anything but direct. I was first intrigued by the arched doorways on this building, but the light also fascinated me. The combination of reddish earth tones and light reflected from other buildings on the narrow street reminds me of walking the narrow canyons of the American Southwest.

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 | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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