Tag Archives: southern

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

Morning Light, Zabriskie Point, Detail

November 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Detail of eroded gullies and hills at the edge of Gower Gulch in morning light, Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park.

This photograph focuses on a small section of the contorted and folded geological shapes along the edges of Gower Gulch at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park. These details fascinate me, not only for the amazing variety of forms that they present but also because they change continuously as the light changes. Here they are illuminated by fairly stark light from early morning sun light that has just appeared as the sun rose above the hills to the east. The contrasts between the brightly lit tops of the small hills and the deeply shadowed gullies is clear, but if you look closely you may be able to see that the shadows are lit, as well, by the light reflected into them from the obscured sunlit faces of the gullies that are not visible from this position.

When I return to Zabriskie, I may take a few moments to make photographs of momentary soft light as the first sun strikes Manley Beacon, but I have become much more interested in photographing these small details of the scene. I usually work with a very long lens, and continue to shoot long after the “golden hour” sunrise light has gone since some of the small subjects are better lit by higher light.

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

Red Cathedral, Zabriskie Point

November 8, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

This photograph was made at what may be the most famous location in Death Valley, the overlook area at Zabriskie Point. The photograph does not include the famous view of the spire of Manley Beacon, which is just out of the frame to the left in this image. Instead, the photograph focuses on the “Red Cathedral,” a ridge to the right of Zabriskie that rises above the rest of the surrounding eroded hills, is a darker and reddish color, and presents a deeply eroded face.

It is not an easy subject to photograph, and I still have some additional ideas on how else I might approach the feature as a subject. Exposure is a challenge when shooting the Red Cathedral. At first, as light comes to other nearby areas, this feature remains dark. When the sun does finally arrive here – as it is in this photograph – it rakes across the foreground gullies, brightly illuminates the light-colored ridge to the right, and picks off a few small areas of the Red Cathedral while leaving others in deep shade. To add insult to injury, there is a good chance that a photographer will be set up in a position that eventually gives very flat front lighting to the ridge. I may this exposure very shortly after the sun hit Manley Beacon and just as it was starting to light up the foreground gullies and small hills.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

Dry Wash, Twenty Mule Team Canyon

November 7, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dry wash descends past the barren hills of Twenty Mule Team Canyon in morning shadows, Death Valley National Park.

I made this photograph on an early morning in early April a couple of years ago. I had gone to Death Valley National Park’s Twenty Mule Team Canyon to photograph some folded and eroded patterns in the upper portion of this valley, and a bit after sunrise I noticed a trail heading up a side canyon. I decided to follow it. It started out by ascending the wash shown in the photograph and eventually reached a low saddle along the eroded ridge of between this canyon and the descent to Death Valley itself. When I arrived there, as sometimes happens in Death Valley, I discovered an old vehicle track heading down into the canyon on the other side.

Since I had some other plans for a bit later in the morning, and because I didn’t see anything immediately exciting on the other side of this ridge as the route descended, I instead backtracked into this wash. As my trail crossed the broad area across from this line of hills I looked back toward the main valley and saw this sunlit s-curve in front of the somewhat shaded ridge.

Related: See my extensive posts on Photographing Death Valley

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

Hills and Gullies, Twenty Mule Team Canyon

October 17, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light across the shapes of hills and gullies, Twenty Mule Team Canyon, Death Valley National Park.

This is a photograph I made back in 2009 when I managed to get to Twenty Mule Team Canyon before sunrise and then continued to shoot for several hours. Though this area is very close to one of the most popular and oft-photographed locations in Death Valley National Park, it gets relatively few visitors from what I’ve seen. While it doesn’t generally present the huge and expansive vistas of some of the more famous areas, it is a great playground for those of us who enjoy the eroded and rounded landforms and the seemingly infinite variations of color and texture.

Here I tried to fill the frame completely with these shapes that have been produced by water eroding the relatively soft earth. The light was very interesting and a bit complex. Some diffused light was coming straight down from the sky, hence the bits of blue shadow in some of the gullies. At the same time, slightly diffused sunlight was directly striking the earth in a few spots. And in some of the foreground areas additional illumination was being reflected into the scene from nearby formations.

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