Tag Archives: sunset

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

Dunes, Mountains, Sand Storm

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Dunes, Mountains, Sand Storm
A sand storm blows a cloud of dust into desert mountains at sunset

Dunes, Mountains, Sand Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sand storm blows a cloud of dust into desert mountains at sunset.

This early-April afternoon and evening produced remarkable conditions in Death Valley. I had seen the advance warnings of high winds and sand storms so I was already thinking of the potential conditions beforehand, but late in the day I noted that dust clouds were already visible far to the north. But the wind-driven sand and dust wasn’t the only interesting element — a weather front was also moving through, stacking up spectacular clouds, some of which were managing to drop some rain.

We did a big loop northward along the eastern slopes of the valley, climbing a ways into the Amargosa Range before coming back down to the valley, where the winds continued and dust and sand were blowing everywhere. We stopped in the thick of it, and I thought about a technique I often use in these conditions: photographing with a long lens from inside the vehicle. But that presented two problems: opening a window even a crack quickly let in piles of sand, and the subjects I was interested were in all directions. So I got out, cowering in the leeward side of the vehicle, and photographed as the sand blew, clouds to the west began to thin, and sunset light struck the mountains to my east.

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: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lakeshore, Evening

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Lakeshore, Evening
A few sunset clouds reflected in the quiet surface of a backcountry Sierra Nevada lake.

Lakeshore, Evening. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A few sunset clouds reflected in the quiet surface of a backcountry Sierra Nevada lake.

Periodically I find myself going back to my archives and looking through older photographs, typically images that I made years ago and sort of left behind as I went on to work on newer things. These reviews often have a couple of wonderful consequences. Often I rediscover a photograph that I had originally neglected, perhaps because it worked in a different way than what I originally imagined or possibly because I wasn’t patient enough at the time. The distance provided by a few years of time often allows me to see the image in ways I missed at first. In addition, these older photograph bring back wonderful memories — of the subjects, for sure, but also of the trips themselves and the people I traveled with.

I made this photograph on a long southern Sierra backcountry trip with a group of long-time backcountry buddies — folks I have backpacked with many times over the years. On this trip we were down to our core group of four, and we traveled into one of the highest, alpine regions of the range, into the upper Kern River drainage of Sequoia National Park. Those who know this region won’t be surprised to hear that we had to cross several very high passes, that we were out for over a week, and that we got into places where we saw very few other visitors. I made the photograph on a lovely, lazy evening, near a lake we ended up at almost by accident — a place that turned out to be utterly scenic, extremely quiet, and almost devoid of visible signs of humans.

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

Dusk Sand Storm

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Dusk Sand Storm
Clouds from a desert sand storm climb into the Amargosa Mountains at dusk

Dusk Sand Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clouds from a desert sand storm climb into the Amargosa Mountains at dusk.

Here is yet one more photograph from that wild early April evening in Death Valley National Park, when a sand storm was brewing in the upper Valley, starting near Stovepipe Wells and then moving northeast across the mountains of the Amargosa Range. Because I had advance warning of the conditions I was watching for this to develop, and I had a rough plan in place to make photographs of the event. That said, you never know exactly how these things will play out. For example, I had not anticipated the amount of “stuff” that would be blown up into the Amargosa Range, nor could I have predicted the potential for a last bit of twilight color.

During the first part of the event we headed up toward the Amargosa Range, taking the Beatty Cutoff toward the road to Daylight Pass. Up there the most impressive factors were the wind (it was howling!) and the general level of dust in the atmosphere. Eventually we worked out way back down into the valley and finally to near the source of the dust and sand near Stovepipe Wells. Often it such conditions I’ll try to stop just outside the worst of it and use a long lens to photograph into the conditions. That was the idea here, though there was a lot of wind and flying sand where I stopped, and I had to hide in the (slight) protection of the leeward side of my vehicle. Overall the scene was initially quite colorless, but at twilight a pink color came to the sky above and beyond the 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 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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Sand Storm, Sunset Virga

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Sand Storm, Sunset Virga
Virga drops from sunset clouds above a desert sand storm

Sand Storm, Sunset Virga. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Virga drops from sunset clouds above a desert sand storm.

This photograph represents Death Valley as a place of “apocalyptic beauty.” Most of the time this landscape is quiet, and the predominant impressions it makes on me are about stillness and immense space. But it can also produce incredibly dynamic, powerful, and even intimidating conditions, sometimes without a whole lot of prior notice.

This scene is a conjunction of three conditions that I’ve only experienced together a few times there. A weather front was moving through and trying to drop rain on the landscape — here the clouds are releasing virga, curtains of rainfall that don’t make it to the ground. Extreme winds from the southwest were whipping up a sand storm that was rising into the Amargosa Mountains to the east of the valley. (I was standing in tremendous winds and blowing sand when I made this photograph.) Then all of this came together with a brief moment of sunset light as the rain was clearing from the west to leave an open sky in the direction of the setting sun.

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.