Tag Archives: patterns

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

Sea of Sand

April 20, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Overlapping sand dune patterns, morning

On the last day in Death Valley this spring we were planning to head off to the Los Angeles area in the morning, but I decided I wanted to photograph one more time before departing. Although I really wanted to sleep in, after many days of rising very early, I decided to get up early one more time and head back to the dunes alone for one final bit of photography. I headed out before dawn and arrived at a location I had been to before, parked the car, hoisted a backpack and tripod, and headed out across the playa toward a section of dunes where I was reasonably certain I would be able to photograph alone. The distances are always deceiving, and the playa walk took much more than the ten minutes one might guess that it would take if unfamiliar with these places. Eventually I came to the low dunes that I had been aiming for, and I began to look for places where I could make sand fill the frame.

The dunes are deceiving on other ways, too. You might imagine that they are on the march, being pushed along by winds. The wind does move sand — and it was blowing around my feet on this morning — but overall the dune forms are actually quite stable. Sometimes these active looking yet stable features make me think of a sort of stop motion ocean, with waves and crests and valley mostly frozen — a stopped landscape mirroring the active surface of water. The patterns here range from small (the little ripples in the foreground) to quite large (the overlapping crests marching into the distance.) I worked this scene and others like it for an hour, and then it was time to leave — a walk back across the playa back to my vehicle, and then the long drive out of the desert.

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

Sand Dunes, First Light

April 3, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The first morning light reveals textures in sand dunes, Death Valley National Park

These dunes, and others like them, are both more ephemeral and more permanent that many may expect. The permanence initially surprised me. I had always imagined the peaks of dunes marching gradually across the landscape like slow motion ocean waves, producing a landscape that would never be the same twice. However, observing certain dunes in Death Valley National Park over a period of time made it clear that the broad features of the dunes are actually very nearly permanent. From year to year the overall form of the dunes remains largely the same — no surprise, perhaps, given that the forces that form them are constant, including the prevailing winds and surrounding geological features. Yet, other things are more ephemeral. Plants come and go, and footprints are erased by the next dust storm. The light is constantly changing, through the daily cycles and the annual cycle.

This was the final morning of this trip to Death Valley. Since dust storms (and rain!) had passed through the previous evening I was certain that I could find areas unmarked by footprints, where the natural patterns produced by wind would be found. I drove to a less popular area near the dunes, loaded up my equipment, and set out across the playa to get to the low dunes I had in mind. I arrived in soft pre-dawn light and began to photograph, trying to work with this subtle light and its extraordinarily low contrast, all the while watching the sky to the east to see when sunlight would strike the dunes. I composed this photograph in that soft light, but as I worked the sun cleared the mountains far to the east and warmer colored light began to more clearly show the sand patterns. I made this photograph during the very brief interval — literally only seconds — when that first light began to softly light the sand and before it struck with full intensity.

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

Sand Dune Patterns

April 24, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sand dune patterns following a day of dust storms

Sometimes we flatter ourselves by saying that we make photographs. Indeed, there is truth to that — if there wasn’t something unique in each act of photographic creation everyone would produce photographs of equal interest. However, there is also a distinct element of simply finding things — I like to think of it as hunting. In a location such as the one where I found this subject, there is, for all practical purposes, an infinity of possible subjects — and they are not static, but very much the result to constantly evolving processes of light and wind and erosion and rain and more. We like to tell ourselves that the photographs are out creations, but if we are honest we must admit that there is a great deal in our subjects that is completely beyond our control.

I understand the periodic feeling that “there is nothing to photograph.” However, many times the opposite problem is the challenge — there are so many possible photographs and so many potential ways to approach each subject that it can be overwhelming. During perhaps an hour or a bit more on these dunes I was never without something to photograph, and there were moments the work seemed almost frantic as I spotted some effect of light and hurried to find a way to photograph it during the brief time before it was gone. These patterns were the result of dust storms and high winds over the past 24 hours or more. These conditions had piled sand up near the tops of dunes, and on the leeward side the sand had drifted downward, following patterns that seem more like those of a liquid than a solid. I happened to show up as the low angle evening light briefly passed from left to right across the surface of this texture, and working quickly I was able to make a few exposures before the light faded.

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

Sand Patterns

April 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sand patterns on the side of a sand dune following a wind storm

Like so many such places, Death Valley is a place of big, solid landscapes — but it is also a place of small and incredibly fleeting things. The landscape is constantly being reshaped and moved by wind and sometimes by water, and while the large-scale features change very slowly, the smaller features often are so transitory that they are gone almost as soon as they appear.

The sand dunes are, no surprise, one of the places of constant change. While the dunes, perhaps surprisingly, manage to maintain their general form over long periods of time, a closer look reveals things that change from day to day and even from moment to moment. During this visit to Death Valley I experienced several days of high winds and conditions that were often quite dusty, with dust storms in play for more than 24 hours. I ventured out onto these dunes near the end of a day that had begun with strong winds and blowing sand, and the conditions had only calmed down shortly before I walked out here. The patterns are on the lee side of a dune, where sand blown to the top of the dune on other side falls over the edge and out of the wind, forming intricate and intertwining patterns. For just a very brief moment in the evening the waning sunlight angled almost directly across the surface of these shapes, and moments after I made this exposure the light was gone.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: patterns

Sea of Sand

Sand Dunes, First Light

Sand Dune Patterns

Sand Patterns

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