Tag Archives: park

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

Desert Wash, Evening Light

April 10, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft evening light shines on alluvial fan and a desert wash below Artist Palette, Death Valley National Park

Late on this April Fools Day, Death Valley played a bit of a trick on us. Earlier we had made a big trek through a back-country area, spending most of the day driving gravel roads and making photographs. Finishing this adventure we returned to our lodgings, took a brief break, downloaded some files from cameras, and started thinking about where to go for the evening. I find it very difficult to plan too far in advance in Death Valley, especially during the times of year when I typically visit. So much depends on the particular conditions of weather and light. An incoming dust storm suggests certain locations and certain ways of shooting, clouds suggest different approaches, and clear skies yet others. On this afternoon we had mostly clear skies, but with some clouds over ridges, notably above the high peaks of the Panamint Range.

Taking it all into consideration, it seemed to me like it might be a good evening to head south in the main valley and look for evening light on flats and hills. We drove a bit south and stopped to make a few photographs, and as I got out of the car I commented on how still the air was. As soon as these words left my lips a breeze began to stir, and by the time we finished and got back into the car the wind was becoming a bit more noticeable. As we headed south the wind continued to rise, and the shadow of the clouds above the Panamints began to stretch across the valley toward the eastern hills. As we continued south I stopped a couple of times for views that I caught out of the corner of my eye, and each time the wind was stronger, soon rising to the level where it was becoming difficult to photograph. I thought we might just outpace the oncoming cloud shadow and catch a bit of evening light along the base of the mountains along Artists Drive, so we headed up there. We stopped at a rise overlooking rugged terrain and stepped out… into what now felt like a full gale. But there was golden light glancing across the gravel wash, so we made a few photographs before getting back into the car to head toward Artist Palette. (Believe it or not, I have never photographed that feature before, and I really needed something for the archive.) But before we could get there the cloud shadow stretched to our position and the golden light was gone. I looked up at the clouds above the crest of the Panamints and saw a hole in the clouds below the band that was blocking the light and guessed that we might just maybe get one last beam of light, and with that in mind we high-tailed it to Artist Palette. Just as we got out of the car and set up cameras and tripods, that light did arrive in particularly impressive fashion, and we had about 1/12 of a golden hour before it was gone. I worked quickly, getting a few shots of the main feature but then focusing on other nearby hills and washes, including this one stretching below our location and toward the main valley.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Badlands, Morning

April 8, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on rugged badlands, Death Valley National Park

This was a different sort of Death Valley visit than usual. My typical visit takes a pretty uncivilized approach. I always camp, sometimes in the back of my vehicle so that I can be in the right places quickly. I virtually always work completely alone, aside from occasionally running into another photographer or two. With the exception of a restaurant meal or two, I typically eat one backpacker-style hot meal in the evening, usually after returning from an evening shoot after dark, and the rest of the time I “browse” on whatever I can have with me. To a non-photographer that may sound somewhat rough, but photographers understand that this keeps me mobile, “out there” in the field, and gets me to places I might not see and experiences I might not have otherwise. I’m fine with it!

But this time, my wife came along. Aside from the expected changes this brings—she isn’t a camper, so we stayed at Stovepipe Wells—it also presents the opportunity to see the area through a different set of eyes and to revisit some of the more familiar places that I might otherwise not photograph. In the “different set of eyes department,” she is an avid photographer of very small things, mostly wildflowers. A few years ago she began to come along on a few of my shoots and then to carry a camera. While I would be off photographing some Big Thing, she would be crouched down in the brush somewhere finding an amazing flower that I hadn’t even realized was there. (A bit later I’ll post a few wildflower photographs from this trip, including many photographs of flowers I would likely have overlooked if she had not been along for the ride.) In addition, since she had never been to Death Valley before, it was important to hit some of the iconic locations in addition to heading out to some of the less visited places that I know about. With this in mind, I planned a morning at Zabriskie Point. Zabriskie is, to borrow a phrase, an icon for a reason. Since I’ve photographed extensively in the park for a decade now, I don’t usually photograph there unless I expect something truly exceptional or unusual. But, let’s be honest, a new visitor to DEVA must experience a sunrise at Zabriskie, which is just what we did on this morning. This did give me an opportunity to engage in a little informal project that I’ve been playing with for a few years, one that has me pointing my camera away from the familiar grand view over Gower Gulch and Manley Beacon toward the Valley and the Panamint Mountains and toward some of the other geological features found here.

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

Desert Mountains, Rain

April 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Rain falling from a dissipating afternoon storm is backlit above desert mountains, Death Valley National Park

This was anything but an ordinary Death Valley day—though I’m not sure that any Death Valley day is likely to be ordinary. We began very early, awakening a couple of hours before dawn. The plan was to be far up in the Panamint Mountains before sunrise, in the hope of photographing the first light over the Valley from a high and wild place. I try to assess the weather conditions in the dark in any way that I can—checking wind, looking to see if stars are visible, and so forth. In the darkness I could tell that only a few stars were visible and that their light was muted, all of which suggested cloudiness. This was, of course, in line with a weather forecast that mentioned things like showers and snow flurries and clouds. However, you can’t tell what will happen until you go out there and watch it happen, so we headed up into the mountains.

Most of the story of this day will wait for photographs of that early morning and the rest of the day in the Panamint range that followed. However, for now I will mention that it was cloudy, it was cold, and it snowed. Later in the day the weather began to clear and we saw some sun before we came back down from the mountains, with plans for an evening shoot in a different location on our minds. As we descended we noticed precipitation in the mountains to our north and west—more or less in the Cottonwood Mountains. We stopped and photographed this weather before heading down into the Valley. Our plans were changing with the weather, and we ended up heading to a high place with a good open view of much of the Valley, figuring that the changing light from the clouds might present quickly changing opportunities. Sure enough, as soon as we arrived at our location we could see that the clouds over the Cottonwood range were quickly thinning, and that backlight was illuminating the last rain falling over the receding ridges of this range, creating a very bright and constantly changing effect.

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

An Informal (and Surprising!) Death Valley Wildflower Report

April 6, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Gilia buds opening on a rainy day, Death Valley National Park

This is going to be a sort of hybrid post, covering two subjects and out of phase with my normal daily photograph posts. Think of it as a bonus post—a photograph and an informal report on Death Valley National Park wildflowers. The description of this photograph follows the report on Death Valley wildflower conditions.

Wildflower Conditions

By now it is no longer news that California and other parts of the west are in the throes of a very serious drought. The situation is especially serious in California, which is now experiencing the worst in a series of three below-normal precipitation years. Many parts of the state are experiencing what have been described as historic drought conditions. The situation remains critical—and many of us are worried about the upcoming wildfire season—though recent March and early April rains brought a bit of relief.

All spring I have been hearing that the drought would make this a poor year for desert wildflowers in Death Valley. However, I knew that Death Valley had experienced some rain events in the past few months and that desert plants are quite opportunistic, often quickly blooming in response to moisture. I know Death Valley fairly well, though I’m no expert on wildflowers. However, I had a hunch that we might be surprised by how the wildflower season would play out.

We visited the park for several days right around the beginning of April. Even before we arrived, we saw a decent number of wildflowers as we drove across other desert areas on the way to the park. It seemed like plants were acting in the opportunistic manner I describe above and quickly sprouting up and blooming in response to recent rains. As we entered the park and crossed Towne Pass we (especially my wife, who is passionate about photographing the “small things”) began to notice a lot of wildflowers in many places, including whole beds of colorful flowers in many places along this drive. While we did not see the tremendous blooms on the Valley floor that can occasionally occur, once we got up into higher country we saw flowers everywhere, at least when we slowed down and looked. There was more rain and snow during our visit, and the additional moisture is bound to encourage other plants and flowers to grow.

I just saw a report at the Desert USA website (which names the flowers in ways that I cannot hope to do) confirming what we saw—that there is actually a substantial bloom of desert wildflowers in many places. If you have the opportunity to head out that way soon, do so!

About the Photograph

Believe it or not, it was snowing lightly when I made this photograph! We began our day by driving on gravel roads before sunrise to reach a high location in the Panamint Range from which we planned to photograph at sunrise. The sunrise photography turned out to be a challenge, as it was cloudy at first light and the clouds only increased as the sunrise progressed. Soon we began to notice snow falling on nearby peaks, though it did not fall where we were until after we moved on. Later, in a less exposed location but with temperatures in the low thirties, we encountered our first very light snowfall, and we could see that it was snowing more heavily on the peaks and ridges around us.

We moved on, heading up into Wildrose Canyon. My original plan had been to drive to the end of the road, but by the time we reached the Charcoal Kilns it was snowing hard enough that this no longer seemed like a great idea. In fact, other drivers with two-wheel drive vehicles were having problems ascending the last section of the road to the kilns. We photographed the snowy conditions here and back in Wildrose Canyon, and then as the snow abated a bit we drove on, heading back in the direction of Emigrant Pass. Not far from the pass we found a hillside covered with a spectacular display of flowers. At first it was some cacti that caught our attention, but as we got out and looked around we saw many, many flowers all around. These gilia buds had not yet opened into their more showy display.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: park

Desert Wash, Evening Light

Badlands, Morning

Desert Mountains, Rain

An Informal (and Surprising!) Death Valley Wildflower Report

Wildflower Conditions

About the Photograph

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.