Tag Archives: park

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

Desert Hills And Mountains

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Desert Hills And Mountains
Morning light on eroded forms and desert mountains

Desert Hills And Mountains. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on eroded forms and desert mountains.

Often when I photograph in a familiar place I look at certain subjects, find them appealing, but just don’t quite yet know how to see them as photographs. Sometimes I attempt a photograph and end up dissatisfied. Other times I look and don’t even photograph. The far ridge in this photograph has been one of those subjects.

The ridge is very impressive — high, barren, and rugged — and it is easily visible from some very popular locations in Death Valley National Park. However, perhaps because access is not easy or possibly because better known features are nearby, I rarely see it photographed. On this spring morning I had been photographing one of those other locations, and I looked up to see the high clouds above the ridge and the backlight on the foreground hills… and it seemed like the right time to give this scene a try once again.

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 and Amazon.

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

Sand Storm, Desert Ridges

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Sand Storm, Desert Ridges
The dust from a nearby sand storm obscures a series of ascending ridges.

Sand Storm, Desert Ridges. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The dust from a nearby sand storm obscures a series of ascending ridges..

On this afternoon I made quite a few photographs, and they range from a few with striking sunset and dusk colors to others that are almost devoid of details in the blowing sand and dust. Yes, it was a sand storm day, and that is precisely what drew us to this portion of the valley. High winds from the southwest were raking the sand dunes and raising giant, fast-moving clouds of sand and dust. They raced across the valley, traveling northeast toward the Amargosa Mountain range.

I made this photograph very close to the point where we entered the cloud of dust/sand. We had come up from a part of the valley further south, and as we got closer to the dunes and the source of the haze the dust began to obscure the sky and the view. We stopped here before entering the worse of the cloud and made a few photographs looking into it, with the tall mountains to the north nearly obscured

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Globemallow

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Desert Globemallow
Desert globemallow flower and buds, Death Valley National Park

Desert Globemallow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Desert globemallow flower and buds, Death Valley National Park.

This desert globe mallow is one of my favorite desert flowers. In most cases that I’ve encountered, there may be a few scattered bushes, sometimes filled with these intensely orange flowers for a few springtime weeks, and especially abundant after wet winters.

2019 seemed like a slightly odd spring for wildflowers in Death Valley, where I made this photograph. A lack of early winter rains lead many to expect a rather poor wildflower season. However, even though it didn’t create the famous “superbloom” conditions, there were quite a few flowers in many places. They seemed to come a bit later than expected this year — perhaps a result of the drier early winter season and then very heavy rains just before the start of spring.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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

Colorful Desert Hills, Morning

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Colorful Desert Hills, Morning
Multi-colored strata in eroded desert hills

Colorful Desert Hills, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Multi-colored strata in eroded desert hills.

The colors of some of the strata laid bare in desert regions like this one are sometimes wild and occasionally unbelievable. The blue tones often provide some of the most striking surprises, since that may be the last color we expect to see in soil or large expanses of rock — reds, browns, yellows are far more common.

I made this photograph in a little area that is almost a lab of eroded forms and varied colors. I like to photograph here in the morning, when I often have the place to myself and when there is the possibility of soft, low-angle light. Here the strata of tan, red, and blue materials run at right angles to the lines produced by erosion.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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