Tag Archives: range

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

Desert Mountains, Evening Haze

Image Leave a comment
Desert Mountains, Evening Haze
The view from the Panamint Mountains across Death Valley on a hazy evening.

Desert Mountains, Evening Haze. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

The view from the Panamint Mountains across Death Valley on a hazy evening.

We visited this high place in Death Valley National Park on our late-March trip. It is a location I have been to many times, virtually always very early or very late in the day when the light is the most interesting. It can be crystal clear up here, providing distinct views stretching from the Sierra Nevada crest to distant mountains in southwest Nevada. But it can also be hazy, as it was on this evening.

Such haze is a mixed blessing. It obscures some distant details, but it also lends a softness and perhaps a bit of mystery to the scene. I made the photograph just before sunset, when the warm golden hour light was building. The foreground ridge is nearby, the intermediate stratified ridge is perhaps a few miles away, and in the distance mountains on the far side of Death Valley are faintly visible.

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 | Twitter | 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

Panamint Range Snow, Evening Light

Image Leave a comment
Panamint Range Snow, Evening Light
Late-day light illuminates snow covered ridges and thin forest along the summit of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

Panamint Range Snow, Evening Light. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Late-day light illuminates snow covered ridges and thin forest along the summit of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

The reputation of Death Valley National Park is mostly tied to heat — the desert, the dunes, the rare rainfall. I once asked German relatives why they choose to visit in the middle of summer when few of us would choose to go there. The answer, more or less, was that Death Valley is famous for being the hottest place on earth, and that is what they wanted to experience. People who “know” the park from that perspective are often shocked to find that snow is common here in the mountains.

When we visited the Panamint Mountains at the beginning spring the snow was plentiful, and we actually experienced a moderate snow squall. (One of the oddest experiences I’ve had in this park was some years back when we photographed spring wildflowers during a snow storm in Death Valley. Let that one sink in for a moment.) Late on this day we went to a high overlook to wait for sunset, and the warm light illuminated this nearby ridge in the very late afternoon.

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 | Twitter | 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, Clearing Storm

Image Leave a comment
Desert Mountains, Clearing Storm
An early-spring mountain snow storm clears from desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Desert Mountains, Clearing Storm. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

An early-spring mountain snow storm clears from desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

This photograph comes from a morning in Death Valley when the light, for the most part, was singularly uninspiring. I knew it would be cloudy from the weather forecast, and when I went out before dawn there was just enough light to confirm this. But it was the last morning in the valley, and I was determined to at least see if anything would crop up. I loaded up and walked into sand dunes… where the light remained resolutely gray, the skies overcast, and it even rained a bit. But sometimes a break in awful light can produce glorious light…

… which is precisely what happened for a few moments as the light from the rising sun found some holes in the clouds and illuminated the summit of desert mountains, where the remnants of a passing storm were still dropping snow and rain. It was a reminder that going out on the unlikely days can sometimes produce something wonderful!

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 | Twitter | 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: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Shadows on the Plain

Image Leave a comment
Shadows on the Plain
Cloud shadows move across Carrizo Plain and the hills of the Temblor Range.

Shadows on the Plain. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Cloud shadows move across Carrizo Plain and the hills of the Temblor Range.

This year we only had a few hours to visit the Carrizo Plain, where wildflowers emerge for a few weeks in astonishing abundance during wet springs. We extended our Death Valley trip by a day so that we could loop though the National Monument on the way home. Road conditions delayed our arrival a bit, and rain showers were passing through when we got there, but as it cleared we could see extensive fields of flowers extending across the valley and rising into the hills.

There’s a special significance to the hills in this photograph. This is the escarpment of the great San Andreas fault, which runs thought this part of the state like a giant scar. The terrain is rough and displaced by the lateral movement of eons of earthquakes… and softened here by a garland of yellow flowers.

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 | Twitter | 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.