Tag Archives: mountains

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Beneath Desert Mountains, Morning

Image Leave a comment
Beneath Desert Mountains, Morning
Desert mountains and morning light spreading across an alluvial fan.

Beneath Desert Mountains, Morning. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert mountains and morning light spreading across an alluvial fan.

This is more or less where I had hoped to be in January, even up until a couple of months ago. At that time, careful travel into lonely places was still a reasonable option, especially since I stop only for gas and would have camped well off the beaten track, barely interacting with anyone at all. But wanting to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem, I’m following the guidelines to not travel more than 120 miles from my home, and I’m also not going to play games and try to sneak into the Death Valley backcountry… regardless of how appealing that sounds and of how badly I miss the place right now.

This photograph is one of those that illustrates the advice to look all around while making photographs. Sometimes the thing you came to see isn’t the only thing to attend to. I had come to this spot before dawn to photograph a subject that lies directly behind the camera position of this scene, and had worked on it as the scene transitioned from soft, pre-sunrise light through a somewhat colorful sunrise to light that was becoming more harsh than I desired. So I turned around. Here the backlit atmosphere glowed in the light streaming over the rugged desert hills to the east.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Dunes and Mountains, Rising Dust

Image Leave a comment
Dunes and Mountains, Rising Dust
A desert sandstorm raises towers of dust against a background of rugged mountains obscured by haze.

Dunes and Mountains, Rising Dust. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A desert sandstorm raises towers of dust against a background of rugged mountains obscured by haze.

Continuing here with the 2013 series of Death Valley National Park photographs and, at the moment, a series of photographs made in and around the edges of a big dust storm that swept down the valley late in the day. I made this photograph from a good distance away from the dunes, using a long focal length to bring them a bit closer and to make the more distant mountains fill the background. When the dust is bad, I often work from out along the margins of the worst of it, and here the allowed me to photograph almost straight into the afternoon sun and capture the diffuse and glowing dust-filled atmosphere.

The photograph demonstrates the compositional value of haze and obscured atmosphere in several ways. The generally hazy air glows from the backlight, and it obscures all but the largest forms of the distant mountains — just the barely visible outlines of ridges. Without this haze, the dunes would be overpowered by the structure of those mountains, and the rising towers of dust would be lost against a more complex background.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Nature

Desert Mountains, Blowing Dust

Image Leave a comment
Desert Mountains, Blowing Dust
Immense desert mountains partially obscured by blowing dust.

Desert Mountains, Blowing Dust. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Immense desert mountains partially obscured by blowing dust.

For some reason, this week I seem to be reviewing photographs from Death Valley and many of them want to be monochrome. This is the second in two days. Recently I’ve been thinking about the subject of rugged, desert ridges receding into distant haze, and when I came across this old raw file it seemed to fit right into that theme.

My recollection (not completely certain, since the photo was made nearly eight years ago) is that we were headed up Death Valley towards a dust storm rising in the flats and dunes north of Stovepipe Well. That’s not an uncommon occurrence at this time of year. The atmosphere was filled with that diffuse haze that often develops around dust storm, and as we approached the source of the blowing sand we began to see clouds of dust rising above the landscape in the center of the valley.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Travel

Layered Fog, Big Sur Coast

Image Leave a comment
Layered Fog, Big Sur Coast
Layers of thin, low-level fog hug the rugged Big Sur coastline of California

Layered Fog, Big Sur Coast. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Layers of thin, low-level fog hug the rugged Big Sur coastline of California

Over the course of many trips down through the Big Sur coast of California I have gotten acquainted with a range of weather, atmosphere, and light conditions. My favorites come during part of the year that starts now — late fall through early spring. It can be bright and sunny with warm temperatures, but more often there is wind, big surf, a passing weather front, or fog. One of my favorite conditions sometimes arises when there is a combination of sun and big surf from distant storms far offshore. The light is brilliant, but low fog and spray hugs the immediate coast.

It was that kind of weather during our early December day trip partway down this section of the coast. We could see new travel restrictions coming, and we wanted to get out before they arrived. (Because we can do this as a day trip, with no stops for food or gas along the way, it is safe for us… unlike overnight travel.) As we headed south the low coastal fog was usually backlit, as it is here, producing very dramatic effects.

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 | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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