Tag Archives: mountains

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

Desert Mountains, Evening Haze

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Desert Mountains, Evening Haze
The view from the Panamint Mountains across Death Valley on a hazy evening.

Desert Mountains, Evening Haze. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

The view from the Panamint Mountains across Death Valley on a hazy evening.

We visited this high place in Death Valley National Park on our late-March trip. It is a location I have been to many times, virtually always very early or very late in the day when the light is the most interesting. It can be crystal clear up here, providing distinct views stretching from the Sierra Nevada crest to distant mountains in southwest Nevada. But it can also be hazy, as it was on this evening.

Such haze is a mixed blessing. It obscures some distant details, but it also lends a softness and perhaps a bit of mystery to the scene. I made the photograph just before sunset, when the warm golden hour light was building. The foreground ridge is nearby, the intermediate stratified ridge is perhaps a few miles away, and in the distance mountains on the far side of Death Valley are faintly visible.

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

From Dunes to Mountains

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From Dunes to Mountains
The view across the floor of Death Valley to eroded hills.

From Dunes to Mountains. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

The view across the floor of Death Valley to eroded hills.

I made this photograph in the very late afternoon, just before sunset, on a relatively quiet and calm evening. These short dunes lie near the end of a large dune field that is quite popular with visitors, but their small size gives them a kind of landscape anonymity, and not many people visit or photograph them.

There is a lot of interesting geography/geology in this little scene, and it is part of what caught my attention. The bottom half of the photograph includes the valley floor, a large, sandy playa that, in places, gets enough blowing sand to form dunes. Beyond that, many miles in the distance, a large alluvial fan rises from the playa to the base of the hills, where valleys have spilled material over millennia to form this massive tilting structure. At the very top is a range of short, rugged hills. Out of the photo above them is a very tall range of 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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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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: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Sea of Sand

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Sea of Sand
Waves of sand dunes in soft pre-sunrise light.

Sea of Sand. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Waves of sand dunes in soft pre-sunrise light.

As per the usual plan, we headed out into the dunes in darkness, arriving at a likely location for photography while the sun was still below the horizon. At this hour the light is very soft and the colors subtle — the intense color of sunrise doesn’t arrive until a bit later. Often it is nearly silent, especially on a windless morning, and the sunrise light show begins quietly.

There is only a short interval between not-enough-light and the saturated sunrise colors, during which the light changes rapidly. I was intrigued by the view across these lower dunes toward the Kit Fox Hills, so I put on a long lens and went to work, looking for interesting arrangements of the wave-like dune forms.

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 | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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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: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Sunrise Dunes, Desert Mountains

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Sunrise Dunes, Desert Mountains
Sunrise light highlights sand dunes against a backdrop of desert mountains.

Sunrise Dunes, Desert Mountains. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Sunrise light highlights sand dunes against a backdrop of desert mountains.

Some of my recent Death Valley dunes photographs have featured a wild wind and sand storm — a very dramatic scene that was not easy to photograph. Here I switch to the opposite mood in the dunes, the quiet moment when the first sunrise light arrives. The light changes with incredible speed at this time of day, going from the soft blue tones of pre-sunrise to bright and harsh daytime colors in moments. I made this photograph during the first direct light, when distant mountains were still in shadows.

It is hard to convey the experience of the dunes at this moment. The landscape is immense and silent. Sometimes it feels like there is a dissonance between the profound quiet and stillness and the rapidity of the visual changes. We continued to photograph a bit longer, then the magical early light was gone.

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 | Twitter | 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. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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