Tag Archives: range

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

Desert Mallow Buds

May 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Desert mallow buds begin to open, Death Valley National Park

Much to our surprise, in this third of three straight California drought years, we found an abundance of wildflowers during our early April visit to Death Valley National Park this year. Throughout the state, things are not on their normal yearly cycles. Because of the very serious drought, many plants did not come up at all during the usual winter time frame, and now that spring is here we see many others blooming much earlier than usual. We had assumed, along with a lot of other people, that the widespread drought was going to make this a very poor year for desert wildflowers.

We were wrong. Even outside the park on the drive there we started to see a lot of flowers in the arid portions of Southern California and to the east of the southern end of the Sierra Nevada. Many desert plants are very opportunistic, bursting forth when a bit of rain falls at the right time, and rain had recently fallen out here. Oddly enough, as I photographed these opening desert mallow buds here in the desert mountains of the park… it was very cold and starting to snow!

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

Upper Titus Canyon

May 1, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Titus Canyon road descends into the upper canyon from Red Pass, Death Valley National Park

At first glance this landscape lacks a central focus and the colors are relatively unsaturated. The contrasts within the terrain are subdued, without the striking divisions between light and shadow that we might see in places like the alpine zones of the Sierra. In the past I have often not bothered to photograph such places, since they appear to lack the dramatic qualities that we often search out in a place like Death Valley. And there is no questioning the appeal of those subjects that possess starker lines, brighter colors, greater contrast, and perhaps towering geological forms. Yet, it occurred to me a year or two ago that the places like this are part of the true experience of the desert and of Death Valley, and that their character is a big part of what forms my sense of this terrain. To ignore them seems both a bit unfair and a bit dishonest. So I decided to try to see if I could find ways to photograph them, a project I’m still working on but also one on which I’m confident that I’m making some progress—and, in the process, learning to see the place more fully.

This photograph was made at Red Pass, the high point of the Titus Canyon road between the Amargosa Valley and Death Valley. (The source of the the name of this pass is probably obvious from one look at the color of the rocks.) The narrow, twisty, one-way gravel road is perhaps best known for traveling through very narrow slot canyon terrain near its lower end, but the whole thing is part of the experience. After a steep climb out of the upper reaches of Titanothere Canyon, the road tops the narrow ridge of the pass before descending steeply into the upper reaches of Titus Canyon. The view from the pass down into upper Titus Canyon is remarkable. The canyon drops away and the road is visible twisting and turning its way down the initial descent and then crossing flatter areas beyond. Barely visible in the upper left area of the image is the location of the historic ghost town of Leadville, a town built on the false promises of mineral wealth that great and then died in the space of about a year—in a place that could hardly be more remote or less hospitable.

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

Winter Meadow, Forest

April 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Forest and snow-topped cliffs above a winter meadow, Yosemite Valley

During this distressingly dry season in California, our three-day visit to Yosemite Valley in early March was a welcome relief. It was raining when we arrived, and it remained cloudy and wet for the entire period, with breaks in the rain but not the clouds. We were there for the opening of the Yosemite Renaissance XXIX exhibit, which continues in the Visitor Center Gallery through early March. (Stop in and take a look if you make it to the Valley. This is a wonderful annual juried show of art related to Yosemite and the Sierra. And, yes, one of my prints is there.)

The scene here is a popular and well-known Cook’s Meadow. As is normal in the winter, the grasses that are so green in spring and early summer have gone dormant, as have most of the other plants in the meadow itself. This is such a familiar scene—though always a beautiful one—that I most often would not stop to photograph. However, among the brown tones the one spots of bright red among the foreground brush caught my attention, and the light had a warm and glowing quality that was special. The light falling on the forest was very soft, filtered though thin clouds above and to the east, and snow from the passing storm covered the upper reaches of the cliff walls around the Valley.

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

Desert Mountains, Stormy Sunrise

April 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sun rises through the clouds of a developing storm over the Amargosa Range, Death Valley National Park

We arrived very early at this high overlook in Death Valley National Park’s Panamint Range, hoping to photograph a desert mountain sunrise. When conditions are good at this location, there is an almost 360 degree panorama of rugged and desolate mountain terrain, punctuated by deep valleys, especially the chasm of Death Valley itself which lies immediately below. Because the spot is so high, even further views abound—far out into Nevada to the east, and back to the crest of the Southern Sierra to the west.

But little of that happened on this morning. We arrived before dawn and I could tell that a cloud deck was coming over the Panamint crest behind us and extending out to the east over Death Valley. There was a gap in the clouds to the east, but it was a narrow one, and more clouds were beginning to build over the ridges in that direction. On a perfect morning here, beams of sunrise light play over the tops of the peaks and shine into valleys near and far. But on this morning things were rapidly tending toward gray. However, for a few moments there was a bit of brilliant color just over those eastward ridges, where the clouds had not yet closed down on their summits, and by using a very long lens I was able to isolate this scene just as the sun came up, backlighting the virga falling from the clouds above the silhouetted forms of the ridges.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: range

Desert Mallow Buds

Upper Titus Canyon

Winter Meadow, Forest

Desert Mountains, Stormy Sunrise

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