Tag Archives: usa

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Mountains, Last Light

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Desert Mountains, Last Light
Evening light passes across the rugged face of desert mountains, Death Valley National Park

Desert Mountains, Last Light. Death Valley National Park. March 31, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light passes across the rugged face of desert mountains, Death Valley National Park

At the risk of repeating something I have already written several times, scenes like this one have a particular way of deceiving us. This is, in the strict sense of the work, a desert scene, photographed in a place that seems very little perception and where it can be oppressively hot and dry and where sandstorms often blow. From this distance there is little obvious evidence that anything living is within the scene.

However, it is also completely obvious that the scene is full of the evidence of the power of water. While the mountains themselves were not created by water — though if you look back far enough to their sedimentary roots perhaps they were! — they were most certainly shaped by water. The rugged ridges and gullies are clear evidence of the power of water, and even that gradual slope at the bottom of the mountains is an alluvial fan, created over long periods of time as water washed down material eroded from those 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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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Winter Surf, Mountains

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Winter Surf, Mountains
Powerful winter surf washes over rocks at Point Lobos.

Winter Surf, Mountains. Point Lobos, California. January 24, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Powerful winter surf washes over rocks at Point Lobos.

I have gone to Point Lobos for decades, beginning when I was a child and my family would visit. I especially remember exploring the accessible tide pools. Today I especially like to go there on foggy days or in the winter, when the raw power of the Pacific Ocean is most visible, with winter storms churning up huge surf.

It was on such a day that I visited last January — in fact, reports of high surf were almost certainly what made me decide to visit that day. Because this coastline faces west, in the morning the coastal hills, being to the east, are often in shadow. To make this photograph I found an outcropping from which I could look back to the southwest toward the shore and juxtapose the rear of a huge wave washing over offshore rocks with the dark and ominous face of the mountains rising behind in shadow.

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

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

Alpine Tarns

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Alpine Tarns
Alpine tarns at the base of talus slopes, Kings Canyon National Park

Alpine Tarns. Kings Canyon National Park, California. September 15, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Alpine tarns at the base of talus slopes, Kings Canyon National Park

The meaning of the term “tarn” is somewhat varied. Two technical definitions I’ve heard include (rather precisely) a small lake in a depression scooped out by glacial action, or (more informally perhaps) simply any very small body of mountain water too small to qualify as a real lake. Yes, that’s pretty subjective! Aside from their tendency to produce mosquitos, I love tarns, and I especially love areas where they are embedded in a rocky landscape broken by small meadows and occasionally trees.

I photographed this spot with its tarns (or small lakes, if you prefer) in shaded, soft light. There was sun, but it was low enough in the sky that its direct light was blocked by a tremendous rocky ridge to our west. Down here at the base of the small valley where we camped, everything was quiet and soft, including the 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.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Tuolumne River, Forest, Evening

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Tuolumne River, Forest, Evening
Evening light falls across forest and granite, Tuolumne River Canyon

Tuolumne River, Forest, Evening. Yosemite National Park, California. July 13, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light falls across forest and granite, Tuolumne River Canyon

On the first evening of my July trip to the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite, having set up my camp and taken care of other chores, I decided to go photograph something nearby. The Tuolumne River is about as nearby as one can find, so I decided to walk down a section where it descends through an area of granite slabs and begins to offer down-canyon views.

My first destination was a particular cascade from which a nearby peak is visible. But as I finished photographing that, a look downstream toward the next bend suggested that better light might be found that way. One thing usually leads to another, just as surely as one bend in the river provides a view of yet another, and eventually I wandered down to this spot, where the river tracked off into the trees and the last light of the day illuminate nearby trees and the ridges and forests further down the river canyon.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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