We arrived at Salt Creek before sunrise, planning to walk down to the end of the boardwalk and photograph some further areas at dawn. It used to be that you could continue on from there and investigate other interesting terrain, but there is now no obvious way off the boardwalk, likely because the park service is trying to protect those areas. So we photographed from the boardwalk as the sun came up.
Continue reading Boardwalk, Morning
Photographing in the area around Salt Creek in Death Valley has long been a challenge. The place is intriguing, with its surprising creek flowing on the valley floor and its population of endangered pupfish. But visually it has generally not spoken to me. The light can also be challenging, especially with a large mountain range blocking late-day light. But I think there are possibilities in the area and I continue to visit from time to time.
Continue reading From Valley to Mountains
Badlands and Distant Mountains, Dawn. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.
Sunrise sky over badlands terrain and distant desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.
Recently I wrote that I was finishing up with the photographs from my two early 2022 visits to Death Valley National Park. But things are often not quite what they seem… and I’m not quite done yet. This is a familiar pattern — I work up the most obvious images first, while others take a bit longer. As I approach the end of the archive I inevitably figure out how to work with some that I had overlooked. This is one of those photographs.
I also noted that I took another look at a location that I had dismissed in the past, an interesting place that did not really speak to me photographically. This isn’t the first time that I’ve reconsidered a subject, and a random comment by a friend inspired me to try again. It helped that the light on this morning was both challenging and special — with both the specialness and the challenge coming from the partially cloudy sky. The distant mountains are in the day’s first direct sunlight, while the light on the foreground features is still soft and indirect.
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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Fractalscape. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.
Complex and highly detailed erosion patterns combine with pastel colors in a Death Valley landscape.
I could probably write a chapter about this photograph, including ideas about color, geology, light, figuring out how to “see” particular places, and more. I’ll keep it simple though, and only briefly mention a few things. This is a photograph from an area of Death Valley that I had previously written off as being — wait for it! — “uninteresting.” This is not the first time that I’ve had to eat my words about such evaluations after going back and realizing that the problem wasn’t the landscape — it was me!
The light was rather special — the “first light” of early morning, with its warm tones, but it was also softened and diffused by high clouds. This briefly revealed some unusual pastel colors in the formations They contrasted with the blue tones in the shadows. The scene also reveals the highly detailed and “fractal” nature of landscapes like this, where the bigger elements can be seen as larger versions of the smallest details.
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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email
Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.
Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.