Tag Archives: nature

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

Sea of Dunes

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Sea of Dunes
Sand dune forms extend into teh distance, Death Valley National Park.

Sea of Dunes. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sand dune forms extend into the distance, Death Valley National Park.

From just the right vantage points, the terrain of sand dunes can appear to be entirely devoid of living things. (In truth, no landscape is, but the evidence is hard to see here.) And when looking in the ideal directions, the succession of curving shapes can suggest a sort of frozen seascape full of immense waves.

I made this photograph on a spring morning while exploring a favorite area of these dunes, one that isn’t quite as busy with people trying to get to the highest point. This area is mostly a landscape of parallel ridges and valleys that run toward the center of the dunes, so I tend to approach from the edge and work my way toward the center. The main dune in this scene is a remarkable one — it is long and has a face that is marked by an unusual rippled pattern.

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

Canyon Wall Detail

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Canyon Wall Detail
Detail of a canyon wall with tilted sedimentary rocks and fossils, Death Valley National Park.

Canyon Wall Detail. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a canyon wall with tilted sedimentary rocks and fossils, Death Valley National Park.

These rocks tell a story, a profound one no doubt, but also one that this non-geologist is incapable of fully comprehending. But I do know a few things, and with that bit of knowledge and the time to observe, I can report that there is a lot to think about in places like this and, for that matter, the entirety of Death Valley National Park. A difference between this landscape and most others with which I’m familiar is that here it is almost entirely exposed rather than being hidden underneath forests and snow.

As I understand it, the course of many of the rocks here is sedimentary — they were formed under ancient seas. (Portions of the valley were submerged much more recently, and that shorter tale is visible, too, in places.) Those sediments sometimes captured creatures that became fossilized, as we see in the black spots in the rocks of this photograph. Then various geological forces lifted, tilted, fractured, and contorted these layers over a vast span of time. In many places in the park the strata are inclined upward as they progress to the west. Here one of the inclined rock bands contains colors that are the exception rather than the rule in this national park.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Stream and Peak

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Stream and Peak
A small subalpine stream descends from higher terrain among the peaks of hte Sierra crest.

Stream and Peak. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small subalpine stream descends from higher terrain among the peaks of hte Sierra crest.

Sometimes I manage to tweak some people a bit by saying, “All photographs lie.” I probably should explain. Too often there is an assumption that photographs are about showing the objective qualities of subjects, and that the best photographs simply convey the reality of these things. I think that is mistaken, and that photographs are literally incapable of being objective analogs of their subjects. Almost everything about a photograph is subjective. How did we choose to frame it? What did we choose to leave out? What time of day did we make it? What lens did we choose? Did we choose color or black and white? If there is a “truth” in a photograph it is the truth about the photographer’s subjective response to the subject. (This is a partial explanation of why two photographers who photograph the same subject usually end up with quite different photographs.)

Beyond that, there are many aspects of a subject that a photograph simply cannot contain. The sound of little mountain streams is central to my experience of places like this, but it is not found in a photograph. A photograph cannot capture the breeze or the slight chill of the shade in high mountains. The knowledge of what lies between this small stream and the lake at the base of those peaks isn’t found here. How I came to find myself at this place is not known to the viewer. Where is this place, and does that even matter?

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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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

Snag and Dunes, Late Afternoon

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Snag and Dunes, Late Afternoon
The bones of a dead bush in sand dunes in late afternoon light, Death Valley National Park.

Snag and Dunes, Late Afternoon. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The bones of a dead bush in sand dunes in late afternoon light, Death Valley National Park.

You might be surprised to hear that, in some ways, I’m not always a gigantic fan of wandering in the sand dunes. In some ways, they seem almost too obvious of a subject for Death Valley photography and, in all honesty, traversing dunes on foot is not exactly an easy process! (My favorite walking in this landscape is in canyons and along washes, where I can pick my own path almost anywhere.) Walking in sand, especially sand blown into the shape of dunes, is not easy — progress can be slow and access to some interesting goals can be almost impossible.

Yet I keep going back. While the dune landscape changes more slowly than you might imagine, it does change from visit to visit, and there are always surprises. The interplay of dune shapes and light provides what seems like an infinity of photographic potential. And there are few experiences quite like standing alone in an isolated section of the dunes on a warm evening as the sun drops toward the western horizon as warm evening colors and shadows arrive.

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.

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