Tag Archives: red

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

Sunrise, Panamint Mountains

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Sunrise, Panamint Mountains
Sunrise light on teh summit of the Panamint Mountains, Death Valley National Park

Sunrise, Panamint Mountains. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise light on the summit of the Panamint Mountains, Death Valley National Park.

This photograph comes from the same spectacular early morning that produced another one that I shared a few days ago. I made this photograph a few minutes later as the first direct dawn sunlight began to strike the peaks and ridges of the Panamint Mountains in Death Valley National Park. This morning was a prime example of the rapid and often surprising transitions that occur at the beginning and ending of the day. When I arrived here well before dawn I could tell it was cloudy, but I could imagine a sunrise ranging from gray and dim to what actually happened. And once the process began and the good light appeared, it was a matter of working quickly over a short period before the light again became more mundane.

The experience of making this photograph (and others in the set from that morning) is also a reminder that in order to experience exceptional conditions you really need to be out there a lot. I’ve been to this location many times, including others when the conditions ranged between “blah” and “lovely, but I’ve seen this before.” If you just go once, you have no idea what you’ll encounter. But if you keep going back, even when you aren’t sure how it will turn out, the odds are that eventually you will encounter one of the outlier spectacular moments.

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 and Amazon.

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

Panamint Sky

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Panamint Sky
Sunrise sky above the Panamint Mountains.

Panamint Sky. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise sky above the Panamint Mountains.

This morning, about eight years ago, was one of those that reminds me why it is worth getting up in the darkened driving long distances to arrive at a location before the sun rises. I arrived along the summit of the Panamint Mountains very early, and shortly it became clear that the sky might do something very special. A layer of broken clouds was spread across the sky, perfectly positioned to be illuminated by the first sunlight, and to my north the lines of clouds converged above the horizon.

Several years ago I shared another photograph from this morning — if I recall correctly it was a panoramic format image of the same clouds, separated from this on in time by perhaps a minute. That is, of course, enough to change things considerably in this evolving light.

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 and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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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

StRata, Morning Light

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Stata, Morning Light
Early morning light on eroded strata with contrasting colors, Death Valley National Park.

Strata, Morning Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early morning light on eroded strata with contrasting colors, Death Valley National Park.

This photograph is an example of the transitory nature of light — and how this factor puts the lie to the notion that landscape photography is something always done slowly, at leisure. That is sometimes possible, but more often the most interesting light is fleeting, there only for an instant and sometimes passing its peak before you realize it. Here the layers of colorful strata are in a small canyon, and the light is blocked early in the morning by hills on the other side, behind the camera position. Once the light does arrive, the shadows move down the landscape quickly, and the interval when the light is ideal is brief.

This photograph is also an example of finding balance between an “objective capture” of the scene, a photographic representation of “what it looked like to me,” and something extreme or even fantastical. You have perhaps seen other photographs of these colorful strata, with shades of red, yellow, blue, green and more. Such colors are striking, but they are often quite subtle. In flat or harsh light they are less intense than what you see here. Even in great light and with the kinds of post-processing that I do, the colors are still not exactly intense. I think this subtlety is part of the beauty of these features, and this is lost when the photographer pushes things too far.

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Doorway 776

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Doorway 776
A colorful doorway in San Francisco’s Chinatown district.

Doorway 776. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A colorful doorway in San Francisco’s Chinatown district.

For the most part, the fronts of buildings in dense urban areas like San Francisco are not generally beautiful. As I photograph in such places I feel like the insides of such buildings may be interesting and feel like home, but that the outsides are often left in a more utilitarian state, with little attention to beautification or personalization. I see this in San Francisco, but I also see it in other major American urban areas and even in other countries that I’ve visited.

All of that makes the occasional exceptions even more notable. I’ve gotten to know a few of them found here and there in San Francisco areas that might be regarded as a bit “gritty.” This wildly colorful front entrance is on a Chinatown side street, not far from the hustle and bustle of one of the busiest streets.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.