Tag Archives: sunrise

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

Creosote Bushes, Dunes

Image Leave a comment
Creosote Bushes, Dunes
Creosote plants and soft, blue-tinted pre-sunrise light on Death Valley sand dunes.

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

Creosote plants and soft, blue-tinted pre-sunrise light on Death Valley sand dunes.

No, I’m still not done with the Death Valley photographs! This shouldn’t be a surprise — I was there twice so far this year. Both trips were made primarily for the purpose of photography, and I had a total of about eight days to do this work. I made this photograph on the second visit, during the first week of April when the seasonal change takes off, the weather begins to noticeably warm, and when the plants tend to come back to life.

We were out in the dunes reasonably early on this morning, and I made this photograph before the sun had yet risen, in that quiet and still time before dawn when the light is soft and still has a bluish cast. Shortly after we entered this area of the dunes I climbed to a ridge of sand overlooking a large area and set up. Most of the photographs I made here on this morning came from essentially this one spot — I probably didn’t move more than 25 feet from the initial spot as I looked to refine compositions. I loved the foreground line of creosote plants. Most of them seemed to be dead or dormant, though the plant at the left was turning green and sending out new flowers.

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

Image Leave a comment
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: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Drifting Fog, Hills

Image 4 Comments
Drifting Fog, Hills
Dawn fog pours across arid California hills

Drifting Fog, Hills. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn fog pours across arid California hills.

Sometimes I end up completely throwing out my photographic plans for the day. When I awoke in the pre-dawn darkness on this day, I intended to head down from camp to a plain and lower hills where I would photograph spring wildflowers. I fixed coffee and had a bowl of cereal in the dark, loaded up my vehicle, tried to sneak out of camp without bothering the “normal” people who sleep in, and heading down the gravel road. As I drove it began to look like the valley was, to my complete surprise, completely socked in by thick fog.

Before entering the upper limit of the fog I stopped at a turn on a hillside from which there was a panoramic view. Far to the southeast I saw that the fog was even in the mountains, and that gentle morning breeze was apparently pushing it up and over a series of high ridges just as the first reddish light of dawn intensified. I quickly put my wildflower photography ideas on hold and went to work photographing the ephemeral fog and light.

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: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Green HIlls, Morning Mist

Image Leave a comment
Green HIlls, Morning Mist
Morning fog and mist above green spring hills

Green HIlls, Morning Mist. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog and mist above green California spring hills.

Many people who visit California for the first time are surprised by how dry much of the state is for most of the year. In many places — most of Southern California, the deserts, the Central Valley, coastal hills, even along portions of the coast — the predominant colors from late spring through autumn are golden and brown. What they don’t know, but may learn over repeated visits, is that much of the state passes through a miraculously green interval every year during late winter and early spring. During this time that dry, brown terrain becomes “impossibly green” for a short period.

This week I visited one of those places that seems desert-like during most of the year. Following recent rains there was mud everywhere, and even the driest of hills was sprouting new green growth. I camped up in a valley above a large plain, and when I arose in pre-dawn light I swore that this arid valley appeared to be full of fog. I broke camp in near-darkness, and as I drove down I entered the fog bank, which soon began to drift and thin in early sunlight, revealing this landscape of overlapping slopes, edges marked by the low-angle light.

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.