Tag Archives: sand

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

Dune Patterns, Evening

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Dune Patterns, Evening
Evening light on layers of Death Valley sand dunes.

Dune Patterns, Evening. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on layers of Death Valley sand dunes.

This photograph provides an opportunity to tell a little story on myself. Sometimes I’m very good at getting going early enough to arrive at a location in plenty of time. But sometimes I’m not. This was almost one of those times. The right way to photograph here would have been to arrive perhaps an hour earlier, at a time when the light would have seen fairly uninteresting to me, and then to set up and wait. That’s not what happened.

I did have a plan to be in this spot, but I may have underestimated the time it would take to get to the exact location. We arrived before the beautiful light arrived… but I had a bit of a hike to get in position. I started walking and quickly realized that I was cutting it close. I put my head down and took off in a beeline for this spot where I knew I would fine sequences of rising dunes, building one upon the other. I did not stop or slow down until I got to “the spot,” at which point I immediately picked a first composition, set things up, and went to work. I was on time, but only barely, and I had perhaps ten minutes of lovely, colorful light before sunset.

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

Sand Storm, Sunset Virga

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Sand Storm, Sunset Virga
Virga drops from sunset clouds above a desert sand storm

Sand Storm, Sunset Virga. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Virga drops from sunset clouds above a desert sand storm.

This photograph represents Death Valley as a place of “apocalyptic beauty.” Most of the time this landscape is quiet, and the predominant impressions it makes on me are about stillness and immense space. But it can also produce incredibly dynamic, powerful, and even intimidating conditions, sometimes without a whole lot of prior notice.

This scene is a conjunction of three conditions that I’ve only experienced together a few times there. A weather front was moving through and trying to drop rain on the landscape — here the clouds are releasing virga, curtains of rainfall that don’t make it to the ground. Extreme winds from the southwest were whipping up a sand storm that was rising into the Amargosa Mountains to the east of the valley. (I was standing in tremendous winds and blowing sand when I made this photograph.) Then all of this came together with a brief moment of sunset light as the rain was clearing from the west to leave an open sky in the direction of the setting sun.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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

Dunes, Creosote, Sunrise Light

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Sunrise light shines on blossoming creosote bushes among undulating sand dunes

Dunes, Creosote, Sunrise Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunrise light shines on blossoming creosote bushes among undulating sand dunes.

Yes, this is yet another photograph of dunes in early morning light. I admit it, I cannot resist. (We probably spent more time than usual in the dunes on this trip because recent heavy rains had closed off access to a number of the non-dune locations I would have liked to visit.)

I made this photograph a few minutes later than some of the others I have shared. The strikingly warm light of dawn was already transitioning towards the more neutral daytime colors, but the sun was still low enough to send its light across the ridges of dunes and leave the valleys between them in the softer, shaded light. This small group of creosote bushes caught in the light was beginning to blossom.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

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

Desert Sand Storm, Mountains

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Desert Sand Storm, Mountains
A sand storm builds above Death Valley and the Amargosa Mountains

Desert Sand Storm, Mountains. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sand storm builds above Death Valley and the Amargosa Mountains.

Remarkable weather conditions frequently arise in the desert landscape, including those unfamiliar with these places might not expect, along with others that are perfectly obvious. In the “obvious” category are things like intense heat and strong winds that can produce dust and sand storms. The nearly opaque lower atmosphere in this photograph is due to precisely that — extreme winds were lifting sand and dust from the playa and dunes and sending them northeastward over the Amargosa Mountains. However, above the blowing sand are rain clouds that were dropping light showers around the area late in the day.

These are not easy conditions in which to make photographs, but the visual rewards often make it worth the attempt. I made this photograph from the just outside the limits of the blowing dust and sand clouds, though even here there was dust in the air and the wind was so strong that it was virtually impossible to complete stabilize my camera. After photographing here we continued on into the dust and wind, first going up into those distant mountains and finally heading down to the dunes that were the source of the cloud. There the conditions were both impressive and miserable as the day ended.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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