Tag Archives: print

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

Pre-Dawn Sky, Amargosa Range

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Pre-Dawn Sky, Amargosa Range - Sky above the Amargosa Range in pre-dawn light, Death Valley National Park, photographed from Rhyolite, Nevada.
Sky above the Amargosa Range in pre-dawn light, Death Valley National Park, photographed from Rhyolite, Nevada.

Pre-Dawn Sky, Amargosa Range. Death Valley National Park, California. January 4, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sky above the Amargosa Range in pre-dawn light, Death Valley National Park.

I usually cannot resist the opportunity to photograph the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada when I’m in Death Valley. I especially like shooting there in the morning. I usually arrive before dawn since the pre-dawn light can create some wonderful effects on the ruins of the town’s buildings, especially if a few thin clouds and the right atmospheric conditions create some interesting light colors. So on this year’s early January trip I devoted one early morning to this subject.

As per my plan, I arrived at Rhyolite a few minutes before the good light started – it was very cold and no one else was there. In fact, I had the place to myself for the first half hour or so of my photography. I never know exactly what to expect when it comes to the dawn light. If things work out just right, and especially a bit later in the year, thin pre-dawn clouds will light up and color the light on the old town. That didn’t happen on this morning. First, I discovered that in the heart of winter, when the sun comes up a bit further south, a mountain right next to the town blocks the first light and it doesn’t strike the best ruins (such as the school and Cook Bank) until a bit later. In addition, on this morning clouds above the horizon blocked the light just a bit more than I would have liked. However… to the west and over the Amargosa Range things were rapidly becoming a lot more investing. This range was open to the light from the pre-dawn sky in the east, and high thin clouds began to pick up that colorful light that I had hoped might appear over the town. I put a long lens on the camera, moved to a position where I could get a fairly unobstructed view to the west, and made a series of exposures of this simple composition that allowed me to include a large section of the colorful sky.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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

Panamint Range to the Amargosa Range, Dawn

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Panamint Range to the Amargosa Range, Dawn - Dawn light on the Amargosa Range and lower ridges of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.
Dawn light on the Amargosa Range and lower ridges of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

Panamint Range to the Amargosa Range, Dawn. Death Valley National Park, California. January 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn light on the Amargosa Range and lower ridges of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

This is another photograph from an early morning winter venture high into the Panamint Range in Death Valley National Park during the first week of the year. While the desert can be a rather drab place during most of the day, in the right conditions the colors can be nearly psychedelic for a few moments near the ends of the day – and this was one of those mornings for sure.

While many might wish for perfect, clear, haze-free atmosphere, it was the presence of some rather hazy conditions that created the wild atmospheric conditions as the sun came up on this morning. Light simply passed through clear air, but it illuminates hazy air and can make it glow. At this moment the sun had just risen and the light was nearly horizontal as it passed across the immense gulf of Death Valley to light the nearby lower ridge of the Panamint Range and the much more distant upper peaks of the Amargosa Range.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

First Light, Southern Death Valley

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First Light, Souithern Death Valley - As seen from Aguereberry Point, first dawn light spills across the lower end of Death Valley.
As seen from Aguereberry Point, first dawn light spills across the lower end of Death Valley.

First Light, Southern Death Valley. Death Valley National Park, California. January 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

As seen from Aguereberry Point, first dawn light spills across the lower end of Death Valley.

I have previously photographed from this location high in the Panamint Range and overlooking a vast portion of Death Valley National Park and its surroundings. The view stretches east to 11,000+’ peaks in Nevada and west to the crest of the Sierra Nevada, and great distances north and south to places and features that I cannot identify. My previous visits had all been late in the day, and I had often wondered what the location might be like at the start of the day. So, on this visit to Death Valley, a trip to Aguereberry Point before dawn was on my agenda.

As usual, I awoke well before dawn at my camp site back at Stovepipe Wells. (You can often tell if there are other photographers about – in the dark period an hour or more before sunrise you hear people quietly get up, quickly start their engines, and drive away.) I headed up into the Panamints and turned off at the start of the six-mile gravel road that goes to this point, and arrived just before the first colorful light began to light up the sky – and I was pleased to see that there were some interesting clouds. I have been fascinated by this view over the shoulder of a ridge dropping down toward the Valley above Trail Canyon, so I composed a photograph that juxtaposed this diagonal with the end of the Black Mountains across the valley and the light-filled atmosphere beyond where the very first sun was coming across lower Death Valley.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

New Snow, Forest

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New Snow, Forest - New fallen snow covers trees and ground in a Yosemite Valley Forest.

New Snow, Forest. Yosemite Valley, California. March 4, 2006. © Copyright 2006 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

New fallen snow covers trees and ground in a Yosemite Valley Forest.

This is a nearly five year old photograph from a magical early March visit to Yosemite Valley back in 2006. (Perhaps the subject attracts me right now because it contrasts with the current snow-free state of The Valley and much of the Sierra in this strange year of potential drought.) March is an interesting time in low-elevation areas of the Sierra like the Valley – while you could have a nice, sunny early spring-like day you could just as easily encounter a late-season storm, and the latter is what I encountered when I arrived on this morning.

The first thing I photographed when I arrived was the snow-covered Valley as seen from the famous Wawona Tunnel View. That scene is, indeed, a cliché – but sometimes when the conditions are right, as they were on this morning, I’ll head straight to such an iconic place and remind myself just why it is iconic! After finishing up there I headed back into the Valley and I recall that I finally just pulled over, got out of the car, and decided to set out on foot looking for interesting winter scenes in the fresh snow. I can’t even say exactly where this spot was, though I am fairly sure it was more or less along the Merced River somewhere – how’s that for a lack of precision!? But it didn’t really matter, as the subject here was not some specific place but more the sort of morning it was with new snow coating the trees and gentle winter light filtering down through the forest canopy.

Happy New Years and best wishes for a great 2012!

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.