Tag Archives: park

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

At the Wrack Line

Image Leave a comment
At the Wrack Line
Material washed up by the tide at Weston Beach, Point Lobos

At the Wrack Line. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Material washed up by the Pacific Coast tide.

It had been too long since my last visit to the coast. The Pacific Ocean is barely more than a half hour away, and the Big Sur coast is only about twice that far. This coast has been part of my life since my parents took our family there when I was a child. When traveling, two things make me nervous – being too far from mountains and being too far from the coast. So this morning, after too long of an interval, I headed over there and ended up at Point Lobos.

Much to my surprise, my first stop was at the place known as Weston Beach. (It always feels like it should be called Weston Cove, but I digress.) As I began photographing I felt a bit like perhaps I was revisiting a place that has been done, and overdone, and overdone again. But I have a personal connection to this little cove and its rocks and pebbles, and I ended up enjoying a rather long period of slowly poking around, checking out rocks, looking for stuff washed up on the shore. (About that title: I had to look up what to call this stuff, and I learned that the closet thing to an official term for natural things washed up on the beach is “wrack.”)

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. (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.

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

Morning Sun, Panamint Mountains

Image Leave a comment
Morning Sun, Panamint Mountains
Morning sun on the eastern face of the Panamint Mountains.

Morning Sun, Panamint Mountains. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning sun on the eastern face of the Panamint Mountains.

The light on this morning was interesting, a bit softer than expected due to thin clouds to the east that muted the colors and contrast a bit, plus a bit of the ubiquitous Death Valley haze. I made the photograph back in late January, so it isn’t a big surprise to see a dusting of snow on the higher peaks along the ridge of the Panamint Mountains.

The Panamint Mountains stand along the western side of Death Valley and are a remarkable range in many ways — their scale, the human history they contain, and their relative inaccessibility. While humans have, no doubt, appeared from time to time in this slice of landscape, it is a forbidding place and not one traversed easily. From Valley floor to the highest peaks is over 11,000′ feet, and the terrain between the two is immense and rugged.

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. (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.

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

Desert Mountains, Morning Haze

Image Leave a comment
Desert Mountains, Morning Haze
Glowing morning haze delineates a series of ascending ridges in desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Desert Mountains, Morning Haze. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Glowing morning haze delineates a series of ascending ridges in desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Desert haze has become my friend. I used to be frustrated by it — the desert light I wanted was the crisp light of perfectly clear skies. I struggled with haze, with its effects on colors, its lower contrast, and its muted details. (To be honest, sometimes it still challenges me!) But, as is often the case, when I live with something for a while I start to figure out how to see it, and I often end up attracted to it. Now I actively search for just the right kind of soft atmospheric haze.

I had plenty of it on this morning. I was out before dawn, of course, and after finishing with my initial early morning subject I traveled to a higher location with immense and panoramic views of the landscape. The bright light beyond these mountains was making the haze luminous and almost eliminating fine details, leaving the outlines of the successive ridges receding toward the morning sky.

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. (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.

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

Toward the Playa

Image 2 Comments
Toward the Playa
A dry wash heading toward the playa in late afternoon light, Death Valley National Park.

Toward the Playa. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A dry wash heading toward the playa in late afternoon light, Death Valley National Park.

This is one small desert wash, one occasional watercourse among uncounted numbers of them in this landscape. At the risk of repeating myself, this is yet another illustration of the ubiquitous presence of water in this desert. In prehistoric times, this was a very large lake, believe it or not, and the distant playa is essentially the lake’s remnant, a place were water still collects in wet years. When storms pass through and drop sometimes-torrential rain, these washes carry more water out to the low places.

On one hand this photograph could be seen as evidence of the role of water here. But when I look at it I think about the experience of walking across such terrain. (And because I do walk there sometimes, I go during the cooler times of the year!) When you start out, your goal seems not so far away. But distances are deceiving here, and your objective often ends up being much farther away. As I walk, there is a fascinating combination of senses — one is the feeling of being very tiny in an immense landscape, but another is an intense focus on immediate surroundings: the sound of wind, the clatter of stones, the footing changing as I move from rocks to sand, perhaps a breeze, the intensity of the light.

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. (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.