Tag Archives: mountains

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

Creosote Bush, Sand, Mountains

April 20, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lone creosote bush among sand dunes and desert mountains in evening light

A photograph of one small thing in the landscape may evoke clearer and more powerful memories of the experience of the place than a photograph that shows the whole scene. For me, this is one of those photographs. Unless you know the area quite well, you would be hard pressed to identify exactly where the photograph was made or precisely what we are seeing here beyond “creosote bush,” “sand dunes,” and “hazy, distant mountains.” And you could find a similar little scene in innumerable other locations. Perhaps this might let you, as its lets me, use this little scene as the starting point for recalling other things that comprise the experience of being in such a place.

During much of the year this desert is — no surprise! — an oppressively hot place, in many ways not at all friendly to human life. I often photograph very early and very late in the day, spending the hot and bright midday times traveling or in a place where I can escape that heat and intense light. In the afternoon I start to think about the time when the light will soften and the air will be less hot, and late in the day I head out to make photographs, often arriving at a location while it is still uncomfortably hot. I wander out into the terrain — though often with at least some vague plan — and before long comes that beautiful time of day: the wind slows and the temperature drops into the eighties, the sun’s light is muted by the atmosphere as it nears the horizon, and soon it drops behind desert mountains. The light becomes soft and there is little sound, yet I look with increasing urgency, knowing that this combination of air and light and color will only last briefly.

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

Mountain Silhouette, Dust Storm

April 16, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dust storm obscures desert mountains

Those who have been in a desert dust storm (not fun) or sand storm (worse!) will already know about this, but I wanted to share a photograph that shows a bit of how the desert environment is transformed by these conditions. The weather conditions on the first part of this visit to Death Valley had already been strange — the previous morning I had traveled to a high ridge top overlook before dawn, only to discover the atmosphere filled with such haze to a depth of perhaps 7000′, despite the fact that there did not seem to be a source of the dusty air nearby. On the day I made this photograph I took a long drive over a different ridge and then down into and through a long and deep canyon. The trip through the canyon as beautiful, but it is so narrow that my world was confined to what the interior of that canyon — I had little awareness of what might be going on outside.

Eventually I reached the end of this canyon after passing through a narrow slot area, and I emerged at the top of the canyon’s gigantic alluvial fan, hundreds of feet about the valley floor. I was surprised to find that the other side of the canyon was almost completely obscured by the backlit, dust-filled atmosphere. The far hills were visible, but only barely, and almost all details were gone. Such views carry an odd mixture of awe at the immensity of the glowing atmosphere and a kind of resignation to the uncomfortable and difficult aspects of working in such an atmosphere. As a photographer I try to focus on the visual power of the scene (while protecting my gear!) and I make photographs. As I made this one I felt that it was going to be a bit of a stretch since the contrast was so low and the details washed out so much — but this is, in fact, what one sees on an afternoon like this one.

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

Dunes and Mountains, Evening Shadows

April 15, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on sand dunes, Death Valley National Park

I can photograph dunes at any time of day, but for me the evening hours are the most interesting. The scene goes through a sequence of transformations that fascinate me, even on evenings when I wonder if the magic will be there. IN Death Valley, during all but the coolest times of the year, the dunes can be hot places with stark light and washed out colors in the late afternoon — yet even this kind of scene has photographic potential. But soon the sun drops toward the horizon, the color of the light warms, and the shadows lengthen, revealing the textures of the dunes that are hidden in brighter light. As the sun sets the show continues but transforms again as the light takes on a blue tint (from open sky) and fills the shadows, now revealing colors that are not seen in the daylight.

This whole transition occurs relatively quickly, perhaps over the course of an hour and a half or less, and I often feel like I have to work somewhat quickly. This photograph comes from a point in time when direct sun was still on the dunes, though it was muted by haze from earlier sand storms on this evening. The light catches the higher parts of the dunes and gives them a warm color, but the lower areas have already fallen into shadow and have taken on the blue tones of light from the open sky.

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

Sunrise Haze, Panamint Mountains

April 7, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Haze from airborne dust above the crest of the Panamint Mountains at dawn

I suppose that I was the “victim” of a sort of natural April Fool’s joke on this April 1 morning. I woke up very early, thinking I might photograph from high along the spine of the Panamint Mountains east of Death Valley. I was on the road in the dark, and as I got closer to my goal and the light began to increase enough to see a bit I noticed that it was hazy — the sort of haze that I associate with dust storms in this part of the world. But there was no dust storm, at least not where I was — just a lot of stuff in the air. Since there were no clouds, I figured that I would get above it by the time I reached my goal at over 6000′ of elevation. I topped the final climb onto the ridge where I could look into Death Valley… and was greeted with haze so thick that it almost looked more like fog (almost an impossibility here), and the floor of the Valley was completely invisible.

Such conditions could be disappointing for someone looking for a “sunrise shot,” but I actually love unusual conditions, especially when they involve mist and haze and fog and clouds. I covered the short distance remaining to reach the end of the road, parked and unloaded camera gear, and looked around to try to figure out how to photograph in these unexpected circumstances. A few minutes later the sun rose thought the haze, and I made a few photographs. I decided that I would likely have to remain here a while and observe the landscape gradually become visible as light penetrated down to lower elevations and as the dust-filled atmosphere thinned a bit. I turned my attention away from the deep valley and towards the ridge leading away to the north, where the thin light illuminated a landscape of shadow and light gradually fading into the distance.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: mountains

Creosote Bush, Sand, Mountains

Mountain Silhouette, Dust Storm

Dunes and Mountains, Evening Shadows

Sunrise Haze, Panamint Mountains

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