Tag Archives: travel

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

Rising Desert Hills

December 31, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A rising series of colorful eroded hills, Death Valley National Park

I get to use this photograph to tell a story at my own expense. Before arriving in Death Valley I had previous shot a very different subject. I don’t recall if it was birds in fading dusk light or perhaps classical musicians in stage lighting and backstage work lights. (Some of you can already guess where this is headed…) On the first morning in Death Valley I headed to a place that I like to photograph in early light – a place where there usually aren’t too many people, despite the easily accessible location, and where the eroded and colorful geology is almost completely devoid of plants. I arrived before sunrise and soon found a nice composition that I had not photographed before. I spent some time working that scene before moving on and photographing another a little ways away. Partway through that second set of shots I realized that my camera was still on the settings for the prior low-light subject – namely ISO 3200. That is not exactly a typical landscape sort of setting, and while good results are possible when shooting low light subjects that way, the noise levels are far from ideal for landscape. I reset and continued shooting. (I did return to the location on the final morning of the trip to reshoot that first subject.)

This scene was one of the first that I shot after realizing my error. These very eroded hills place different color material in a series of rising hills – tan, reddish, purple-black, brown, and more. The smooth features along the tops of some of the small ridges contrast with the very sharp and angular lines of the eroded channels that lead down to the wash. Later in the day the light here is almost impossibly harsh and the colors fade, but for a few minutes at the start (especially) and end of the day the colors briefly intensify.

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

Titus Canyon Narrows

December 28, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Titus Canyon road passes through the Narrows as light reflects down from canyon walls high above

Titus Canyon road is a well-known “attraction” in Death Valley National Park, traveling from the eastern park boundary in the Amargosa Valley near the town of Beatty, Nevada over the Grapevine Mountains and then down to Death Valley itself. It is also known as a fairly rough road, subject to washouts and closures after storms – not a true four-wheel-drive road, but certainly not for the faint of heart of those who are not accustomed to rough desert and mountain driving. (Many chose to forgo the long drive and instead hike into the canyon from its mouth, from which the spectacular “narrows” section is easily accessible.)

I have been getting to better know the country through which this road passes as I’ve driven it many times during the past decade or so. More recently I have been slowing down and taking nearly the full day to drive its length – and in doing so I am able to see and photograph things that I used to miss. Oddly, since it is often regarded as the main attraction of the route, I’ve often found it very difficult to photograph the narrows section near the end of the road just before it spills out at the top of a giant alluvial fan along the edge of Death Valley. Perhaps it is the predominantly gray color of the rocks – once you’ve photographed the canyons of the Southwest, California rock just looks so drab! This time I think I passed through the narrows section at what must have been just about the ideal time of day and season, and light hitting upper canyon walls was reflecting down into the bottom of the canyon and creating some interesting, albeit subtle, colors and soft reflections on the rocks.

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

Fractured Rock, Reflected Light

December 16, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A few plants grow on fractured pink and blue canyon rock illuminated by light reflected from nearby cliffs

In my experience, the geology of Death Valley mostly features relatively subdued coloration. While this geology is laid bare by the lack of thick vegetation, the colors are mostly shades of gray, white, tan, with occasional blues and greens from mineral deposits. But you rarely will see here the intense colors of, say, the sandstone formations of the Southwest. (Sorry to disappoint anyone, but if you have seen some photographs featuring intensely colorful deposits in places like “Artist Palette,” you may be a bit disappointed to see the real thing!) This is not entirely bad news, as subtle colors can also be very beautiful, and even these colors can become intensified in the right light… and that does occur in Death Valley.

This photograph perhaps tells a story that is partially about the color of rock and a bit about the light, and is also about keeping my eyes open for the fleeting and sometimes surprising examples of color. I was in a place that is not known for brilliant colors, at least not in the walls of this narrow canyon. As I passed through a narrow and twisting section, two things happened, and even though I’ve been there before this was the first time that I noticed them at this point. First, the steep, almost seems cliff-like wall has fractured layers and slabs that remind me a bit of exfoliating granite that I know so well from the Sierra. These layers alternate pinkish rock (that this non-geologist thinks look like some sort of sandstone) with inner layers that have a blue cast. Second, at the right time of day when the light strikes the upper walls of the narrow canyon, the light reflects down into its depths and warms the color of the light, emphasizing these subtle colors to produce what is, at least for Death Valley, some rather striking coloration.

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Brick Building, Doorway, Reflected Sky

December 14, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

The desert sky is reflected in the windows of an abandoned brick building in the ghost town of Bodie, California

I have been to Bodie quite a few times, but I rarely go there anymore unless I think something interesting might happen with the weather. The place is often sun-blasted, with cloudless blue skies, and during the part of the year when it is most often visited it tends to be quite hot and dry. Don’t get me wrong – Bodie is a fascinating place and its story is even more interesting. I’ve visited a number of ghost towns and isolated abandoned structures in the outback of California, and the sheer scope of this ghost town sets it apart, as does that fact that California has worked to sustain it in a state of suspended decay.

We were wandering around the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada and points further east of that on the final day of our five-day “aspen chasing” visit this October. Most often my plans are a bit general and/or flexible, and I like to adapt to changing conditions rather than stick to a preset shooting schedule. On this day we were surprised to find it snowing when we awoke in Mammoth Lakes, and as we left town to explore in an eastward direction we stopped to photograph dawn snow flurries over the Sierra crest. Eventually, after going a good distance out toward the Nevada border, we looped back to the north and ended up in Lee Vining, where we grabbed a (very late!) breakfast at Nicely’s. The possibility of going to Bodie was somewhere on the list of options, but when we continued to see snow falling about the town and clouds to the north and east, we decided to head out there to see what we could find. In the end, there was no snow falling in Bodie – though it had fallen there earlier that day – but it was very cold and very windy and broken clouds provided interesting and changeable light. One of my main subjects as I wandered around the town making photographs turned out to be the doors and windows on the old buildings. Perhaps ironically, given my usual lack of interest in sun-blasted Bodie, I shot this scene in nearly flat front light – but it seemed appropriate for this old and weathered building and the reflection i the old windows of the very blue cloud-filled sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: travel

Rising Desert Hills

Titus Canyon Narrows

Fractured Rock, Reflected Light

Brick Building, Doorway, Reflected Sky

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