Tag Archives: rugged

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

Panamint Valley and Mountains

May 13, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking into Panamint Valley and toward the Panamint Mountain Range

When most people think of Death Valley they probably think of incredibly hot desert conditions. Those conditions are real, and are among the reasons that I do not visit the place during the warmer times of the year. But the conditions are quite a bit more varied than that reputation would suggest. I have been snowed on in Death Valley — on one memorable occasion photographic desert wildflowers in a snow storm! — and I have encountered temperatures ranging from over 100 degrees to below freezing. The variations are related to seasons (there are some very cold places here in the winter!) and to elevation, which ranges from below sea level to over 11,000′.

This photograph captures a range of those conditions in one image. It was a pleasantly warm, though cloudy, day as I left the park. The winds were howling down below in Panamint Valley, where a dust storm was beginning to kick up. Winter snow was still thick on the highest peaks of the Panamint range, and an incoming storm was developing and promising more precipitation.

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

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

Big Sur, Winter

January 17, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sediment from flowing streams and landslides colors the water along the Big Sur Coast near Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Some viewers who know this coast very, very well might understand why this photograph could have been titled, “Not McWay Fall.” In an example of looking the “wrong” direction, this photograph looks north along the Big Sur coast in the afternoon, when the light comes in from the west and perhaps begins to warm a bit, and on a beautiful winter day, on the heels of a big storm, when the air is very, very clear and the water is intensely blue.

Looking closely you probably also notice some other colors in the water. Various things can color the coastal waters — seasonal or time of day variations, the quality of the light, reflections, algae, and much more. There are a few spots along this coast where the water is always a surprising color, for example where sandy shoals in shallow, protected water lighten it. Several things were at work here on this day. Coastal creeks were in full flow, carrying their sediment loads down to the coast and emptying into the ocean. In this particular location there was a very large and probably still active landslide that had delivered a lot of earth to the beach, where the surf was gradually pulling it into the water and staining the ocean brown.

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

Early Fall Color, Rocky Basin

November 19, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early fall season color comes to a rocky basin on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada

This photograph has sat on my computer’s “desktop” for weeks — perhaps even months now — since I completed most of my autumn Eastern Sierra photographs for the year and moved on to other things.

It wasn’t first to be posted because it isn’t either an impressively colorful photograph nor one that is of an unusual subject. In fact, the spot is one that I know well — I photographed from a high place that I visit every year. This time I was there early, more mid-September than my usual early October. I was surprised to find this much color in this area so soon.

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

Desert Mountains, Evening Shadows

August 1, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Patterns of rock, evening light, and shadows in rugged desert mountain terrain

In places along the eastern edge of Death Valley, the color of soils and rocks varies tremendously. In the daytime light the colors are perhaps subtle — tans, reddish, gold, black, and more — but in the early and late (especially, on this side of the valley) light the colors intensify and become more saturated.

After I finished photographing more expansive views taking in the width and length of the portion of the Valley and including the base of the Panamint Mountains, I headed over along this other side of the valley where the final light falls. This scene holds some of the range of rock color, along with the rugged landscape of overlapping hills and gullies.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: rugged

Panamint Valley and Mountains

Big Sur, Winter

Early Fall Color, Rocky Basin

Desert Mountains, Evening Shadows

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