Rhyolite, Desert Mountains, Sunrise. Rhyolite, Nevada. April 1, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Sunrise light on the ruins of the bank building and other old structures in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada with the Amargosa Range and snow-covered Telescope Peak beyond in Death Valley National Park, California.
I was very lucky to get almost (more on that in a moment) perfect conditions for photographing the ruins of Rhyolite, Nevada when I visited there at dawn on April 1 this year. I’ve visited twice, and both times high thin clouds were in the sky before sunrise. On the previous trip the clouds interfered with the sunrise light, but time beautiful warm light came beneath the clouds right at a dawn and washed the old ghost town with color. Better yet, this same light also illuminated the Amargosa Range across the valley and even snow-capped Telescope peak, the highest point in Death Valley National Park at over 11,000′ elevation. And there is more – the high clouds added a slightly dark texture to the early morning sky. There were only two of us there to witness this beautiful morning at Rhyollite – and I regret not getting the name of the other photographer. (I think he may live in the area. He started out shooting a Nikon SLR system and soon moved to a MF system. I’d love to see the photos he got of this scene!) So, what made it almost perfect as opposed to just plain perfect? In a word, “wind.” The wind was howling on this morning, to the point that camera shake was an issue even on the tripod!
This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
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