Tag Archives: shadow

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

Dunes, Shadows, Morning

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Dunes, Shadows, Morning
Patterns of morning light and shadows on dunes, Death Valley National Park

Dunes, Shadows, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Patterns of morning light and shadows on dunes, Death Valley National Park.

I made this photograph early in the morning. A small group of us arrived while it was still dark out, anticipating a walk of perhaps a half hour to get to the area we wanted to visit. Since we wanted to be in position well before dawn, we were set to start walking before there was enough light to see our objective. Someone asked, “Which way do we go?” I looked into the murk, couldn’t really make out the dunes, and guessed, “That way! We’ll correct course when the light arrives.”

In the dunes you find yourself in a veritable photographer’s laboratory of of shapes, juxtapositions, textures, and colors. And it is not static scene either when you are there very early or very late in the day — the light changes quickly. Dusk light lends brings softer light and lens a blue cast to the scene. When the sunlight first arrives there can be stark differences between brightly lit highlights and deeper shadows with cooler tones. Before long the colors began to fade and the scene can become more subtle or even nearly monochromatic. When I made this photograph, warm and color-saturated light was coming across the top of the dunes, but the light in the shadows, still mainly from open sky, was of a cooler blue color.

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: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow

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Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow
A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky

Aspens, Eastern Sierra, Earth Shadow. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A grove of aspens with early season color, the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, and the predawn earth shadow in the sky.

Long before I understood what I was seeing I had noticed and was intrigued by that band of darker sky just above the horizon during the morning and evening twilight, very close to the time that direct sunlight appears on the highest points. There is something very mysterious about it, and it suggests to me great distances beyond those encompassed by the immediate scene. Eventually I learned what now seems obvious — this is the edge of the shadow of the earth, dropping away in the moments before dawn and rising in the moments following sunset. (To this day, every time I think of this, I recall photographer Gary Crabbe’s “interpretive dance” as he explained this at a talk I attended years ago — one hand extended out and upwards pointing to the shadow, and the other extended at a slight downward angle pointing to the unseen sun. Thanks, Gary!)

I made this photograph from a high point east of the Sierra crest one September. I headed out this way in pre-dawn darkness not sure what I would find. I was pleasantly surprised to find extensive aspen color, even though it was just past mid-September, and then to find an open overlook from which I could take in a large section of the Sierra as dawn arrived.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Moonset, Eastern Sierra

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Moonset, Eastern Sierra
The autumn moon sets above the eastern Sierra Nevada crest as dawn light comes to the sky

Moonset, Eastern Sierra. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The autumn moon sets above the eastern Sierra Nevada crest as dawn light comes to the sky.

Late in the season I was between summer backpacking/camping trips and autumn color photography in the Eastern Sierra. The time was mid-September, a couple of weeks before I would typically be looking for fall color out here. I had been camping up near the crest above Lee Vining and poking around in various places looking for photographs — for example, I had spend some time around Mono Lake the previous day. I was in that mental space between summer and fall, and I was using some of my time to do a bit of reconnaissance in preparation for a return a few weeks later.

I got up very early on this morning and in the darkness I headed out to the east of the Sierra, not quite certain where I would end up. Driving along a somewhat lonely two-lane road, I spotted an interesting looking gravel side road heading toward a ridge that I had previously viewed from another angle, noting that there were some aspen trees out that way. On a hunch I turned off, engaged 4WD, and drove out on a road that eventually followed close to the ridge line. I soon came to a thick grove of short aspens and I was quite surprised to see them already (mid September!) nearing peak fall color. Eventually I took a smaller side road and soon came to an overlook, where I got out in the pre-dawn light (quickly realizing that it was really, really cold here!) and set about making some photographs of the groves of aspens and conifer forests leading toward the eastern escarpment of the Sierra with the setting full moon above.

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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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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Alpine Lake, Evening Reflections

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Alpine Lake, Evening Reflections
A rocky peninsula, an alpine lake, reflections of the headwall in evening light

Alpine Lake, Evening Reflections. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A rocky peninsula, an alpine lake, reflections of the headwall in evening light

In high places like this, where cirque walls tower over alpine lakes and block the light early and late in the day, evening quiet can come early. I had been walking to this spot almost daily for several days to try to make a photograph of a particular group of trees that caught the last sunlight in the late afternoon. On this day my timing was (finally!) right, and after I made that photograph I turned my attention to the rest of the scene, which was now in shadow.

To my left a small rocky peninsula pushed out into the lake near its outlet stream and supported a few trees and small plants that could gain a foothold it its cracks. Across the lake piles of talus lay at the bottom of the solid rock face of the valley’s headwall, where one snow patch remained, reflected in the quiet surface of the lake. That surface also reflected the rest of the face, including parts so high that they are not in direct view. The entire scene was illuminated by the soft blue light coming from the open sky above and behind me.

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