Tag Archives: sunset

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

Evening Sky and Haze, Death Valley

Image March 30, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Death Valley National Park is a huge place — not just as measured by its total area but also by the immense spaces we view there. In many places we look across dozens of miles toward objects so far away that they are obscured by the atmosphere even on clear days. We might look at a “nearby” destination and think, “I’ll walk there.” If we try, hours later our intended destination will still be in the distance.

This photograph, made at sunset in the central part of the great valley, is an example. If I had gotten in my car and started driving, it would have taken me an hour and a half or longer to reach the base of those mountains in the distance. In this scene the valley has already fallen into the shadows of the Panamint range and a final bit of soft side-light glances across the large wash in the foreground.

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.

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Cranes at Dusk

Image January 5, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

We spent New Year’s Day with friends, after getting up early to greet the literal dawn of the new year. OK, it was kind of cloudy and we didn’t see the sun until later. But still, it was a great day and a fine group to share it with. We photographed birds and landscape, and we shared food and drink that each of us had brought for the occasion. The day culminated with the evening fly-in of sandhill cranes.

The sandhill cranes stay in nearby ponds overnight, and around dawn many of them get up and fly away for the day. Typically they return at dusk, when there’s barely enough light left for photography, and their characteristic cries mark the end of the day. This small group was cooperative enough to pass through a patch of beautiful, colorful twilight sky just before landing.

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

Scroll down to share comments or questions. (Click post title first if viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Hazy Sunset, Florence

Image October 29, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A hazy summer sunset over the Arno River, Florence, Italy.

How about a quick return to Italy for today’s photograph? Perhaps on a warm summer evening, joining hundreds of others ascending the hills to the Piazzale Michelangelo to join the public party and watch the sun set over Florence and the Arno River. That’s what we did during our five days in Florence this summer. Despite our initial skepticism about heading to a touristy spot and seeing the crowd heading the same direction, this was one of the highlights of our visit.

This was not an easy subject to photograph. By the time we got there the most obvious camera positions were taken, besides which we really wanted to wander around a bit and take in the festivities… and purchase something from one of the several food and drink carts. The light was not initially promising, with haze obscuring the view. But as happens so often in such conditions, the haze began to glow as the evening went on, and the moments before and during sunset were filled with luminous light… and the music of nearby buskers.

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Last Beam of Light

Image October 25, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A final beam of sunset light falls across groves of Eastern Sierra aspen groves on an autumn evening.

This is one of those locations that I feel like I should have been done with years ago. It is a somewhat iconic spot with easy access, and I have photographed it many times. But this year’s color transition seemed to follow a different trajectory than I have seen before — perhaps due to the preceding wetter-than-normal year or possibly related to relatively quiet autumn weather. In any case, it seemed like high elevation color came a bit later and overlapped the lower elevation transition more than usual. As a consequence, the color here was unusually interesting during the third week of October, so I reserved an evening to go there and photograph once again.

My plan was pretty simple. I would first visit a nearby area where I expected to find lots of bare trees, and after finishing there I would get myself in position for this location well before the best light arrived. The plan worked, and I photographed these and other nearby groves in the low angle light before the sun dropped below the Sierra crest. As more and more of the scene fell into shadow I began to think of packing up and moving on… but then I saw this one final beam of light slanting across the groves. I had literally only seconds to frame the scene, configure the camera, and make three exposures before the light was gone. In the first the beam was too bright, in the third it was nearly gone… but the middle exposure worked.