Tag Archives: valley

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

Devil’s Cornfield

March 7, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Early morning light slants across the arrow weed plants of the Devil’s Cornfield area of Death Valley National Park

For the record, while I have no evidence either way regarding the role of the devil in creating this terrain, there is definitely no corn growing in this field! The plant is known as “arrowweed” (or arroweed or arrow weed), and the tall shapes are apparently formed as the sand erodes from around the roots.

This spot is one of several in Death Valley that have been hard for me to see as photographs. (Other “challenges” include the Devil’s Golf Course – which mostly looks like crusty, dried mud to me – and Salt Creek – which I’ve mostly visited at the times of day when the light hasn’t been idea.) I came close once before with a closer view of the plants that revealed their actual color a bit more and which placed them in front of a backdrop of more distant barren mountains. This photograph certainly doesn’t provide a strong center of visual interest, but I like the sense of the plants leading off into the distance, the angles of the blue shadows, and the contrasting warm colors of the plants in near golden-hour light.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Quiet Forest, Reflected Meadow Light

March 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Forest trees are illuminated by soft light reflected from a nearby meadow, Yosemite Valley

This could be any number of places in Yosemite Valley where forest and meadow come together. I was walking from one photographic location to another when I passed by this clump of trees at the edge of the forest and thought about photographing them. I even set up and composed a shot… and then the light died. This was a day when the light was coming and going quickly, and this was especially true in this spot which was not far from the edge of the Valley and the boundary between partial sun and the clouds that gathered around the cliffs. So I continued on a bit and tried to find a way to photograph the other subject that had been my original goal.

Finishing that, I started back and soon came upon these trees again. This time the light was back. Off to the left of the trees was a large open area leading to an even larger meadow a bit further out toward the center of the Valley. As there was more light in the meadow and because there were clouds above, a good deal of the light reaching these trees was diffused side-light rather than the overhead light that might have been here if the weather had been clear. So, once again, I set up the tripod and framed a tight composition of these trees, a bit of the winter-dormant grass at their base, and the denser forest beyond. As I set up I could see that the light wasn’t going to last, and I had time for one decent exposure before the light died again.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

El Capitan, Mist

March 4, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Winter mist shrouds the immense granite face of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley

One of the major attractions of Yosemite in the winter – for me, at least – is the variety of fog, mist, clouds, and all sorts of other weather conditions and their associated possibilities of light. (Frankly, I rarely go to the Vally in the summer any more.) The diversity of conditions seems infinite, especially when combined with variations in terrain and vegetation and, of course, light as it changes throughout the day and due to weather. At one extreme, a clear winter day can almost be more clear than you can imagine, with bright, crystalline sunlight everywhere. At the other extreme, low clouds dropping rain or snow can mute the visibility of anything more than a few feet away. In between lie atmospheric haze that mutes details and reveals shadows; clouds drifting along the Valley floor, rising up its walls, or floating among the tops of cliffs; rain or snow showers seen from a distance, and much more.

El Capitan seems like a cloud magnet in the winter. Because of its size the conditions at its base can be quite different from those above, and the lower face may be clear while the summit is wreathed in clouds. Evening fog often develops and drifts across the valley, sometimes seeming to slosh back and forth like a slow motion sea, rising against El Capitan’s base. This February day saw high clouds above the entire valley, but mists were developing and clinging to every level of El Capitan and sliding across and up its face, alternately obscuring and revealing bits and pieces of the mountain. I could sit and watch this for a long time – as I did, in fact! Using a long lens I isolated a section of the prow of the monolith and then watched as the cloud show unfolded.

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

Mesquite Dunes, Cottonwood Mountains

March 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Mesquite Dunes and the Cottonwood Mountains late on a hazy afternoon, Death Valley National Park, California

The Mesquite Dunes are a well-known icon of Death Valley and are often photographed in the early morning or around sunset. I made this photograph at a somewhat different time – late in the afternoon but well before the golden hour light of evening. The sun was still high enough to illuminate the tops of the dunes and even the sides away from the sun, and the afternoon haze made the atmosphere blue and obscured the rugged features of the Cottonwood Mountains beyond the dunes and across the Valley.

If you look closely enough, you can find a number of features that characterize this area of the valley. The foreground flats are “filled” with plants that grow a good distance apart from one another, apparently due to the limited water. The edge of the dunes spills over slightly into the gravelly flat but then rises quite high. Beyond the dunes, and faintly seen through the haze, a giant alluvial fan slants down from higher mountains to the left. (It sometimes surprises visitors to see how much the terrain in this very dry place has been shaped by water.) Beyond the sloping fan, the rugged Cottonwood Mountains, part of the Panamint Range, begin to rise to quite high peaks.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: valley

Devil’s Cornfield

Quiet Forest, Reflected Meadow Light

El Capitan, Mist

Mesquite Dunes, Cottonwood Mountains

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