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

Death Valley and Trail Canyon, Morning

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Death Valley and Trail Canyon, Morning -Dawn light comes over the Black Mountains to illuminate Death Valley and Trail Canyon at the base of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.
Dawn light comes over the Black Mountains to illuminate Death Valley and Trail Canyon at the base of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

Death Valley and Trail Canyon, Morning. Death Valley National Park, California. January 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn light comes over the Black Mountains to illuminate Death Valley and Trail Canyon at the base of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

Sometimes I don’t know at the time of exposure whether or not a photograph might end up as a color or a black and white image. However, I saw this scene as being black white as I made the photograph. It was made just a bit later than a photograph of a similar scene that I posted recently, and by this time the intense dawn color was gone and replaces by more subdued tones and far less saturated color. However, by now the early sun light was beginning to directly strike the lower slopes of the foreground canyon.

The large canyon in the foreground at the base of the two dark ridges is part of a complex sometimes called Trail Canyon. At one time there was a road up the canyon to the area near where I made the photograph – from what I hear it provided access to a mine down in the canyon. Some years ago the road washed out in several places, and the park’s policy now is to mostly let these old tracks simply slide into oblivion, thus allowing the terrain to revert to wilderness. This canyon, like many along the lower reaches of the major mountain ranges of the park, intrigues me with its huge gravel fan and in the way that it breaches the incredibly rugged mountains of the Panamint Range.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Panamint Range to the Amargosa Range, Dawn

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Panamint Range to the Amargosa Range, Dawn - Dawn light on the Amargosa Range and lower ridges of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.
Dawn light on the Amargosa Range and lower ridges of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

Panamint Range to the Amargosa Range, Dawn. Death Valley National Park, California. January 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn light on the Amargosa Range and lower ridges of the Panamint Range, Death Valley National Park.

This is another photograph from an early morning winter venture high into the Panamint Range in Death Valley National Park during the first week of the year. While the desert can be a rather drab place during most of the day, in the right conditions the colors can be nearly psychedelic for a few moments near the ends of the day – and this was one of those mornings for sure.

While many might wish for perfect, clear, haze-free atmosphere, it was the presence of some rather hazy conditions that created the wild atmospheric conditions as the sun came up on this morning. Light simply passed through clear air, but it illuminates hazy air and can make it glow. At this moment the sun had just risen and the light was nearly horizontal as it passed across the immense gulf of Death Valley to light the nearby lower ridge of the Panamint Range and the much more distant upper peaks of the Amargosa Range.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Northern California, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Desert Pond and Sierra Nevada Dawn

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Desert Pond and Sierra Nevada Dawn
Morning mist rises above a high desert pond reflecting the lower slopes of the eastern Sierra Nevada near McGee Creek.

Desert Pond and Sierra Nevada Dawn. Owens Valley, California. October 9, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning mist rises above a high desert pond reflecting the lower slopes of the eastern Sierra Nevada near McGee Creek.

On the second morning of my first fall color to the eastern Sierra this autumn, having been less than astonished by this year’s color so far, I decided to head instead out into Owens Valley to shoot back toward the mountains and to shoot some subject in Owens Valley itself. I started at this little lake a few miles east of highway 395, where great reflections of the range lit by morning sun area often seen. This photograph looks across the small lake towards McGee Creek Canyon. (McGee Creek isn’t a bad place to look for aspen color…)

I arrived here before sunrise and was set up and ready to go before the first light hit the peaks in the area of Mt. McGee and Mt. Morgan. As I stood (freezing!) by the shore of this small lake, waiting for the light that I knew was coming, a truck came up the lonely road to this place, passed the pond, made a u-turn, and slowed down by my vehicle, which was parked along the main road. My first thoughts were “this is either another photographer or someone who is checking out my car… for purposes I don’t want to think about.” However the vehicle kept going. A few moments later I discovered that this was a photographer, and he and his dog took up a position along the far shoreline. A few days later I was looking through an online landscape photography forum and I came across a photograph that looked like it had been shot from about that photographer’s position, and in which the conditions looked darn near identical to what I saw that morning. I contacted the photographer and found out that, indeed, he was the person I had seen that morning. (If you wonder why we didn’t touch base on the scene… a) we were both busy shooting the entire time, b) we were on opposites sides of the lake, and c) even though I yelled a greeting he didn’t hear.)

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

Sunrise, Ediza Lake, Minarets, and Mounts Ritter and Banner

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Sunrise, Ediza Lake, Minarets, and Mounts Ritter and Banner
Sunrise, Ediza Lake, Minarets, and Mounts Ritter and Banner

Sunrise, Ediza Lake, Minarets, and Mounts Ritter and Banner. Sierra Nevada, California. July 25, 2007. © Copyright 2007 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First sunrise light on the Minarets, Mount Ritter, and Banner Peak above Ediza Lake, Sierra Nevada, California.

I made this photograph during a long and leisurely pack trip into the Minarets area of the Sierra Nevada near Mammoth Lakes. It was leisurely because I accompanied my brother and his family – and the fact that some kids were on the trip contributed to the slower hiking pace… as did the fact that both he and I wanted to make photographs.

This is a popular and accessible area of the Sierra, and also one that is a bit unusual. Typically the highest peaks of the range are found on the actual crest, but here the Sierra crest is further to the east and rather low, being right about where the Mammoth Ski Area is located. Across an intervening valley – a valley that holds Devils Postpile National Monument – loom the high and jagged peaks of the Minarets, a series of impressive spires, and the summits of Mount Ritter and Banner Peak. While in most of the Sierra the areas to the east of the highest peaks descend rapidly to the high desert, here the areas below these peaks remain very high and provide a different view of the eastern faces of the peaks.

The photograph was made very early in the morning along the shoreline of Ediza Lake on a day when clouds were already starting to build even at this early hour. Yes, there was rain later on!

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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