Tag Archives: ridge

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

Death Valley From The Panamint Range

April 15, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking down from the ridge of the Panamint Range toward Death Valley

I have paused near this spot many times while traveling in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley, sometimes thinking about making a photograph but never quite seeing it. It probably hasn’t helped that I’ve typically been on my way to another location as I passed by, and I didn’t really want to linger here too long while the light was waiting for me at my destination. In fact, on my outward journey I more or less passed right by this time, too. I went on to my destination, spent time there making photographs of a subject that I had in mind, took time to fix breakfast “on the road,” and then turned back.

By the time I passed by this spot again on the return trip it was well past the typical photography hours in Death Valley, where the light can become quite harsh and washed out closer to the middle of the day. But this time that seemed to almost work to my advantage, especially since a bit to thin high cloudiness muted the light just a bit, and the distant haze in the Valley helped produce a near-far distance effect. So I stopped, in a spot close to by not exactly where I had previous thought about photographing, noticed that the hills at the close edge of the Valley were just visible through the slot between the converging slopes on either side of the gully, and made a photograph which I anticipated would become a monochrome image.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Sage Brush, Evening

October 25, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

High desert aspen groves on sage-covered eastern Sierra hills

I’m continuing with one more characteristic eastern Sierra autumn photograph, though perhaps not the most common sort of view of the subject. The photograph does include some small groves of aspen trees in fall colors, but they are dwarfed by the immense scale of the rolling eastern Sierra foothills, covered by high desert sage brush, and cut with valleys containing creeks draining the eastern slopes of the range. I made this photograph in the early evening, just before sunset, as the low angle sun was sweeping across the crest and casting light and shadow almost parallel to the slope of the hills.

We usually look for fall aspen color in country that is higher and/or wetter — often somewhere up one of the great eastern Sierra canyons or perhaps along a ridge near the crest. But aspens grow in many places, some of which are unexpected or even surprising. They grow a good distance from the Sierra itself, sometimes far out in the high desert, and in areas that hardly seem alpine at all. Sometimes these are smaller trees, seeming to get by on less water and perhaps in a harsher climate, but occasionally they manage to form decent sized groves.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Early Fall Aspen Color

October 18, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early fall color among small, high elevation trees east of the Sierra Nevada

Back in the middle of September, several weeks before I would usually begin photographing autumn aspen color in California’s Sierra Nevada, I visited the range for an end-of-summer trip and with the idea that I might do some pre-autumn reconnaissance in order to try get some idea of what the fall color season might bring at the beginning of October. It was my plan to camp in Tuolumne Meadows, hiking and camping and photographing there, but also ventured out a bit further, especially to the east side of the range.

As expected, it wasn’t really fall color season just yet, however I did encounter much more color than I would have expected — enough, in fact, to do more than just look around. Before the trip was done I made “fall” color photographs in several locations on the east side of the range, but I also ventured further east of the Sierra to some high desert areas and other mountains where I’ve been poking around looking for color in the past few years. I had a hunch about one high ridge where I had explored back roads earlier and from which I knew there could be long views, including those back toward the eastern escarpment of the Sierra. Somewhat to my surprise, I found a lot of aspen color out here. Although much of it was in what might be termed “scrub aspens,” the color was impressive and many of the groves stretched into the distance over high mountain ridges.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Evening Shadows, Sierra Crest

October 7, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mountain shadows on the Sierra Crest at sunset, Yosemite National Park

Earlier I had photographed in the large meadows along the Dana Fork of the Tuolumne, just below Tioga Pass, continuing to work until the sun dropped behind the long and tall ridge to the west. As I walked back toward my vehicle through the soft light of the shadows, the surrounding peaks were still in full sun. I started thinking about putting a very long lens on the camera and photographing the last light when if finally got to these peaks and ridges.

It took a while! This meadow area loses the light early, so even though I lingered there after the direct sun was gone, I still had quite a while to wait before sunset. The intense coloration of the arctic zone peaks comes from two sources. This section of the Sierra is topped by much older rocks — not granite but very reddish-brownish rocks. By the time I made this photograph the sun was very close to the horizon and the color of the light had warmed considerable, adding even more intense color to the rocks. (Inspecting the image file very closely I learned something new — there is a faint trail traversing the upper slopes of the ridge at the left!)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: ridge

Death Valley From The Panamint Range

Aspens and Sage Brush, Evening

Early Fall Aspen Color

Evening Shadows, Sierra Crest

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