Tag Archives: ridge

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

Ridge Above Tucki Wash, Dawn

January 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

First dawn light on a stratified ridge above Tucki Wash along the base of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

I spent a good portion of the week following New Year’s Day in Death Valley National Park. My goals were to earlier in the seasons when the days were shorter and more “good light” was available, to perhaps encounter cloudy skies from a passing weather system or two, and to both shoot some new subjects and shoot some familiar ones in somewhat different ways. I think that I succeeded with most of these goals, though those storm front clouds were elusive. (This is a very strange and troubling season for California weather. At a time when the Sierra are usually covered in winter snows… all of the high trans-Sierra passes are still open, and the east side of the range looks pretty much like it might normally look in, say, July.)

On one morning I decided to visit a favorite overlook high in the Panamint Range very early in the morning. I’ve shot here a number of times in the past, but always late in the day during sunset and dusk hours. While getting up an hour and a half before dawn to drive to such a place is always a bit of a challenge, at least the sunrise isn’t quite as early at this time of year. On the other hand, it is colder! (Those unfamiliar with the Death Valley seasons may think of it as an entirely hot and dry place, but it gets quite cold there this time of year.) When I got up the temperature down in the Valley at my camp site at Stovepipe Wells was in the thirties. Surprisingly, the temperature rose into the low fifties as I ascended into the mountains, and when I reached my goal at a bit above 6000′ it was no colder than the Valley at this hour.

I arrived before dawn, but just as the pre-dawn light show was beginning. On this morning I had perhaps the best clouds of the entire trip, and they lit up shortly after I arrived and got my equipment ready. (Photos of that moment will likely come a bit later.) As the sun finally rose above the horizon the interesting light began to work its way down, starting with the higher peaks and then descending past the lower ridges to finally reach the Valley itself. This photograph shows the first light striking an unnamed (as far as I’ve been able to determine) spur ridge the projects eastward into the Valley from the massive bulk of Tucki Mountain. In the far distance are the low mountains and washes along the far side of the Valley, and the are also just beginning to pick up the first light.

Shooting in these rapidly evolving conditions that are not entirely predictable is more of an action sport than a sedate and contemplative experience, at least during the first minutes of light as it works its way across and down the landscape, often surprising me by showing up in places I had not thought to look. At one point I had photographed the cloud-filled sky but lamented a bit that the mountains below that shot were a bit dark and drab. I look away for a moment and when I looked back this intense and saturate light had hit those very mountains… so I turned and quickly began to photograph them.

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: Sierra Nevada

East Side of Bishop Pass

January 8, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Trail and meadows below the east side of Bishop Pass, eastern Sierra Nevada range.

This photograph comes from about a dozen years ago. I recently came across it while sorting through older photograph files for a variety of reasons – general clearing out of old images, searching for photographs of a particular subject for a client, and seeing what older images I might have missed when I first made them. When I saw this photograph it evoked a whole series of fun recollections.

Nearly weeks earlier, I had begun a two-week-long backpack trip along a section of the John Muir Trail. At that time, the only section of the JMT that I had not hiked (at least once!) was an area between approximately Shadow Lake and the Muir Trail Ranch – and this was to be the trip on which I covered this remaining bit of trail. The trip started just fine, though in some territory that is not exactly my favorite portion of the range – the low areas around Devils Postpile. After passing by that national monument we headed south, passing Duck Lake and camping at Purple Lake.

The next morning I woke up feeling a bit under the weather, an unusual experience for me on the trail. The next leg of the trip was to take us through an area without an easy exit, and I became concerned about what would happen if my “feeling poorly” deteriorated into actually being sick. I reluctantly decided to leave my group to continue without me, and I backtracked over Duck Pass and down into the Mammoth Lakes area and headed home. (Ironically, by the time I got out I was feeling fine…)

Ending a trip this way just didn’t feel right, so I hatched a plan to show up and run into my friends on the last day of their trip. Since they were coming out over Bishop Pass, I crossed that pass into beautiful Dusy Basin a day earlier, and on the next morning hiked down the canyon so that I could be casually sitting on a rock as they came up the trail from LeConte Canyon. I have rarely seen people as surprised as they were when they found me! After our reunion and joining them for their last trail night, the next morning we were up early to hike out over Bishop Pass. This photograph was made shortly after we crossed the pass and began our descent to the trailhead.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Sea Stacks, Rocky Point

December 28, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Sea stacks dot the rugged Big Sur coastline at Rocky Point in evening light.

Continuing with the theme of evening light on the Big Sur coastline, I made this photograph along a favorite section of this portion of the California coast not long before sunset. (I left enough time after photographing this scene to drive back up the coast to more or less the small road-cut just visible in the upper right corner of the frame, from which I made another photograph shooting back into a large cove that is out of the range of this photograph to the right.) At this time, perhaps a half hour or so before sunset, the color of the light was warming and intensifying but had not yet reached that obviously red stage that comes right at and right after actual sunset.

The peninsula in the upper part of the photograph is known as Rocky Point and, among other things, is a spot many may know because of a restaurant perched there above these stunning views of the Pacific coast. (I hear it is pricey!) My camera position was at a pull-out along the Pacific Coast Highway at a spot where the road rises to pass around another bit of land that extends to the west, and this high camera position let me aim the camera down to minimize the sky and fill the frame with the ocean, the rocky sea stacks and cliffs, and the “point” itself. With the main variable being the unpredictable patterns in the surf, I made a series of exposures at what I thought might be likely moments and then selected from among them in post. I like the series of diagonal lines in the foreground surf and the way the low sun picks off the tops of the waves.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Bixby Bridge, Pacific Coast Highway

December 27, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

The Pacific Coast Highway crossing Bixby Bridge above the rugged Big Sur coastline of California.

Bixby Bridge is one of the iconic sights along the rugged terrain of California Coast Highway (highway one) in the Big Sur area south of Monterey. Although it is not the only bridge of its type along this route – and, in my opinion, not necessarily the most visually impressive – it is no doubt the best known. Many people drive to this spot and stop to take in the view from high above the ocean and to photograph the bridge and this scenic section of the highway.

I have photographed this bridge before, and I’ve spent a bit of time scoping out alternative points of view. These include some locations visible from “behind” the bridge, up higher in the coastal hills, and from other nearby locations along the highway. While I have photographed the bridge from the backside in the past, the idea of photographing it in black and white from this vantage point was triggered by a photograph by Chris Morrison that I saw in an online photography forum. When I saw it, I almost immediately “saw” a slightly different composition of the bridge and the steep headlands and cliffs running south along the coast.

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.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: ridge

Ridge Above Tucki Wash, Dawn

Sea Stacks, Rocky Point

Bixby Bridge, Pacific Coast Highway

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