Tag Archives: morning

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

Trail Canyon, Dust Storm Haze

April 5, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trail Canyon and Death Valley obscured by dense morning haze from desert dust storms.

I had never seen a view quite like this one from this spot before, and I don’t recall seeing conditions quite like this in Death Valley National Park. I awoke very early — well before dawn — and headed up into the Panamint Mountains to the west of Death Valley, aiming for a familiar high location with panoramic views. I had several sorts of photographs in mind, including detail photographs of very small components of the larger landscape, the possibility of shooting directly into the light of the rising sun, and photographs of this deep canyon cutting down from the ridges toward the valley floor.

As I headed toward this spot I was surprised by the amount of haze in the air as the first light arrived. When I’ve seen such conditions before dust storms almost always followed, but I didn’t see any evidence of their development on this morning. (Later someone suggested to me that high winds farther to the west might have raised dust there and that it may have travelled over this direction.) I arrived at the summit ridge at around 6000′ expecting to see the view across and perhaps down into Death Valley, but instead I found myself looking down into a soupy haze that filled the Valley to this level and perhaps a bit higher. A short time later the sun rose through this murk and began to backlight it, creating an intense glow in the atmosphere and muting the small details of the mysterious landscape. The great Valley itself was virtually invisible in the thick haze, luminous with the morning backlight slanting in from the east.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

The Wetlands, Late Winter

March 7, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

San Joaquin Valley wetlands on a late winter morning

About a week ago we headed off to Yosemite Valley for a few days, primarily to attend the opening reception of the 30th annual Yosemite Renaissance Exhibit in The Valley, but also to spend some time there in what we hoped might be interesting and possibly snowy conditions. Given the way this year has gone, it shouldn’t be surprising that the hopes of snow were not met — though there was a five-minute flurry in the morning in the Valley and we found a few inches of new snow by climbing up out of the Valley. But “there is always something to see,” and there was no shortage of other things to photograph.

On our way to the Valley from the San Francisco Bay Area we made a short morning stop at a favorite migratory bird hangout. Typically we arrive here by dawn and encounter thick tule fog. This morning was different and more spring-like with sun and a few puffy clouds overhead. While it seems wrong to see this weather in what should be winter, it still was beautiful, and I made this simple photograph of a quite wetlands marsh where I more typically photograph in fog very early in the morning.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Tree and Morning Frost

March 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A frost-covered Yosemite tree in morning light

It was great fun to be in Yosemite Valley this past weekend for the opening of the 30th annual Yosemite Renaissance exhibition. This is the third time that I’ve had photographs in the show. (If you are in the Valley, drop by. It is in the Visitor Center Museum through May 10, after which it moves on to a couple of Central Valley locations.) The show features a wide variety of two and three-dimensional art by artists who focus on the Sierra and the park. The entry of mine that was selected this year was atypical for me — it includes people and it is humorous! I share it again here at some point, but for now I’ll just note that it features backcountry photographers engaged in an unusual activity. The show brings lots of other fun things: a chance to photograph in the Valley, opportunities to hang out with lots of photographer and artist friends.

I made this photograph on our final morning in the park. We headed out around sunrise, thinking we might find some shallow fog in meadows. There was a bit of the fog but it was dissipating quickly and we eventually ended up in this sunny meadow. I was immediately attracted to this large elm tree, covered in frost and backlit in the morning light. I made several photographs of it — and at least one other may appear here before long — and before long the air warmed and the frost melted.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog

February 27, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A foggy San Joaquin Valley winter landscape filled with geese and cranes

This photograph comes for exactly two weeks ago, when we took a detour through a favorite migratory bird area on our way to Yosemite for the opening reception of a show. Driving into the San Joaquin from the west it looked like most of the fog was gone — and I wanted fog! — but we took a chance and headed out into this area, which seems to be one of the most consistently foggy around. And luck was with us — we drove into the tule fog just before out goal. And when we arrived we found stupendous conditions of fog and birds.

A very large bunch of birds had settled in on a recently cleared field this is very close to the access road. Among there were a few egrets, more white-fronted geese, yet more sandhill cranes (as many as I’ve seen here at one time), and then thousands and thousands of Ross’s geese. Within minutes the fog began to thin and areas of light began to move among the birds. The birds were in constant motion, with one or another group taking of at every moment. At times something would cause them to go on alert (note the heads held straight up) and then, quite often, to suddenly take to the air in wild, flapping clouds of birds.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: morning

Trail Canyon, Dust Storm Haze

The Wetlands, Late Winter

Tree and Morning Frost

Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog

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