Tag Archives: rugged

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

Kit Fox Hills and Death Valley Buttes, Dusk

January 17, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Post-sunset light on the Kit Fox Hills, Death Valley Buttes, and the slopes of the Grapevine Mountains, Death Valley National Park.

The view of the eroded Kit Fox Hills and the larger masses of Death Valley Buttes beyond with ascending ridges and valleys of the Amargosa Range beyond is one that I’ve been working on for a few years now. During the day these formations are interesting, but in many ways not much more so than any of scores of other hills, washes, rocky ridges and so forth throughout the park and other desert areas. But sometimes the light does absolutely incredible things to these hills along the east side of the Valley.

I first saw this happen during a previous visit when evening clouds lit up in astonishing and almost surreal ways after the sun had set. As the sky to the west of Death Valley began to glow in the post-sunset light a wash of amazing and intense color began to fill the scene. I’m not even sure how to describe the color. Rose? Purple? Pink? Some combination of the three and more? At that time I was shooting from a small hill in a less visited portion of the Valley, and I I photographed a large “fan” along the base of huge mountains not far from Stovepipe Wells. While the colors in that photograph are, indeed, real, I have a heck of a time convincing people that this is the case. I end up doing so much explaining that I don’t show the photograph all that often!

This light is similar, though a bit less intense. The light was fading quickly at this point, and I only had a few moments of this particularly beautiful light, which might have been hard to see in person since it was getting late. I photographed this from yet another spot that it just a bit off the beaten track, though not far at all from some very popular areas. In fact, as I worked alone as the evening came on, I could swing my camera around and use my longest focal length to see hordes of people visiting and photographing another nearby feature, oblivious to the light in this spot far to their east.

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

January 13, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

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.

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: rugged

Kit Fox Hills and Death Valley Buttes, Dusk

Panamint Range to the Amargosa Range, Dawn

Sea Stacks, Rocky Point

Bixby Bridge, Pacific Coast Highway

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