Tag Archives: sand

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

From Dunes to Mountains

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From Dunes to Mountains
The view across the floor of Death Valley to eroded hills.

From Dunes to Mountains. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

The view across the floor of Death Valley to eroded hills.

I made this photograph in the very late afternoon, just before sunset, on a relatively quiet and calm evening. These short dunes lie near the end of a large dune field that is quite popular with visitors, but their small size gives them a kind of landscape anonymity, and not many people visit or photograph them.

There is a lot of interesting geography/geology in this little scene, and it is part of what caught my attention. The bottom half of the photograph includes the valley floor, a large, sandy playa that, in places, gets enough blowing sand to form dunes. Beyond that, many miles in the distance, a large alluvial fan rises from the playa to the base of the hills, where valleys have spilled material over millennia to form this massive tilting structure. At the very top is a range of short, rugged hills. Out of the photo above them is a very tall range of mountains.

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

Morning Light on Dunes

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Morning Light on Dunes
Morning light on sand dunes with distance desert hills in the background.

Morning Light on Dunes. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning light on sand dunes with distance desert hills in the background.

The camera position for this photograph is very close to that of a previous dune photograph I shared here — one made a few minutes before sunrise when the light was soft and the colors still subtle. What a difference a few minutes can make at this time of the morning, a time when light evolves with incredible speed! I made this photograph a few minutes later, after the sun rose above the mountains to the east and not long before the saturation and intensity of the first light began to fade.

I’ll use this photograph to note a fact about dunes that might surprise some visitors. If you have been out there in a sand storm it is easy to imagine the dunes blowing along like wave on the sea. The analogy isn’t entirely wrong, but the big surprise is that most major dune features don’t move much at all. I have photographs from here made years apart in which the same dunes are in the same locations and have the same outlines.

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

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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

Sea of Sand

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Sea of Sand
Waves of sand dunes in soft pre-sunrise light.

Sea of Sand. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Waves of sand dunes in soft pre-sunrise light.

As per the usual plan, we headed out into the dunes in darkness, arriving at a likely location for photography while the sun was still below the horizon. At this hour the light is very soft and the colors subtle — the intense color of sunrise doesn’t arrive until a bit later. Often it is nearly silent, especially on a windless morning, and the sunrise light show begins quietly.

There is only a short interval between not-enough-light and the saturated sunrise colors, during which the light changes rapidly. I was intrigued by the view across these lower dunes toward the Kit Fox Hills, so I put on a long lens and went to work, looking for interesting arrangements of the wave-like dune forms.

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 | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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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

Sand Storm, Dunes

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Sand Storm, Daunes
A landscape of wind-blown sand dunes disappears into the distance during a desert sand storm.

Sand Storm, Dunes. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A landscape of wind-blown sand dunes disappears into the distance during a desert sand storm.

The landscapes of Death Valley National Park sometimes can seem almost alien. There are places where there is little or no apparent vegetation and the scene appears lifeless. While the truth about sand dunes is more complicated — there’s actually quite a bit of life there — when a big sand storm comes up these places look and feel like something from another world, one that is not particularly friendly to humans carrying cameras!

Recently someone asked if I worry about my equipment in these conditions. The answer is yes, but there are ways to manage the risks and make photographs. In this case I worked with a longer lens and positioned myself upwind of the dunes with the wind more or less at my back. As a result, even though my subject was a scene full of blowing sand, there was little sand where I stood, and it was coming from behind me.

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 | Twitter | 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.