Tag Archives: summits

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

Dunes, Shadows, and Morning Light

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Dunes, Shadows, and Morning Light
Morning light on sand dunes and desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

Dunes, Shadows, and Morning Light. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Morning light on sand dunes and desert mountains, Death Valley National Park.

It is impossible to resist photographing these dunes, though doing so can be a little more complicated than it might seem at first glance. It often initially seems like finding photographs here would be super easy… but it often turns out to be a little more complicated. It isn’t just about the difficulties of working in the sand. I also find that bits and pieces of this landscape are often intriguing but can be a challenge to fit into a successful composition.

This photograph comes from an early morning visit on a clear-sky day, just as the early light was slanting across the landscape. At this moment, direct light was hitting the sun-facing surfaces, but there were still a lot of shadows. In particular, the distant mountain range was just beginning to pick up a little light aloe the ridges but was otherwise still rather dark.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Timberline Lake, Rugged Ridges

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Timberline Lake, Rugged Ridges
A small timberline lake sits on a bench in front of rugged summits of the Great Western Divide

Timberline Lake, Rugged Ridges. Sequoia National Park. August 2, 2010.© Copyright 2010 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small timberline lake sits on a bench in front of rugged summits of the Great Western Divide

This is yet another in series of photographs from a 2010 backpack trip into the far reaches of the Kern River drainage in Sequoia National Park. For reasons that I’m not certain that I can identify, last week I decided to go back and take a look at these old photographs, few of which have not previously shared. They exemplify one of the reasons that I rarely delete old raw files, even if they don’t look all that interesting at the time — too often I return to the photographs months or even years later and find things that make me glad I kept them. Sometimes I find photographs that I simply passed over or didn’t understand at the time, and other times I simply have the joy of reliving an experience that had largely slipped from my mind.

On this trip a group of close friends with whom I have backpacked for years were on yet another summer adventure, this time into the remote backcountry of Sequoia National Park. We traveled a popular but long trail over several very high passes to get to the general area, and then we left that trail and headed west to a place that is visited much less frequently, a location tucked back up beneath the Great Western Divide. I had touched the edges of this area a few times before but never had gone straight there — and now I wish that I had visited earlier, as we found an infrequently visited region of monumental mountains and valleys and a stupendous alpine setting. This photograph overlooks a lake on a bench in an area where we camped, and the view extends westward toward the crest of the divide.

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.