Tag Archives: wash

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

Wash and Eroded Hills

April 22, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light shines on eroded hills and a desert wash.

This was the final morning of my spring photographic excursion to Death Valley. On the last day of these visits I always seem to follow the same general ritual — I get up well before dawn (of course!) and visit one final photography location very early, then go back and break camp before leaving the park and starting the long drove back to the San Francisco Bay Area. This means that I almost always pick a familiar “sure thing” location for the last morning, and one that is not too far from wherever I camped the night before. I rarely make this a spur-of-the-moment decision, instead typically deciding ahead of time where I’ll go — there isn’t a lot of time to waste on this final, long day. On this trip I headed back to a little area not far from a familiar Death Valley icon. (I would stop at that icon, but only if the conditions turned out to be spectacularly unusual — I certainly don’t need another photograph of it otherwise, as beautiful as it is.)

I turned off the main road onto the gravel side road, slowed to a crawl, parked and got out with camera gear in hand, and quickly settled into the quiet and stillness of this place in the moments before dawn. Even though I have been to this spot many times, I’m still surprised by how quiet it is and by how few others go here. Although I know specific locations that might offer reliable and predictable photographs, once I’m here I prefer to take my time and look for and at things that I had not previously noticed. At first — and it was the case on this morning — it seems like there is little special to see, and I may momentarily wonder if I’m going to be able to find photographs. But as I slow down and begin to see, I invariably find things that I would have missed if I had not given the place some time. This photograph was the result of spotting a little path up to a higher spot — the path itself intrigued me so I followed it, and I was happy to find that it overlooked this little bit of classic Death Valley geography.

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

Dunes and Mountains

April 10, 2015 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Low dunes and the base of Tucki Mountain in evening light

At the end of my first full day photographing Death Valley this spring I headed out onto the nearby sand dunes to look for whatever might show up in the evening light. I was close to one of the most iconic dunes in the park, but I found an out-of-the-way spot far enough away from that landmark that I had this area of the dunes completely to myself. Interesting things happen to the light and colors on the sand dunes during the short period of time leading up to sunset and for a short time afterwards. The dunes pick up low angle light that makes the textures of the dunes more visible and the light changes colors — first going toward warmer colors before the sunset, and gradually transitioning toward softer and more blue tones shortly after the sun goes down.

At first I wandered straight out into the dunes — well, perhaps not quite straight, as I tend to follow my instincts and an observer might think that my path looked a bit aimless. At one point I found some higher dunes from which I could see a bit farther of toward the northeast and from which I could look down on the complex patterns of the sand. After photographing there I turned back toward the direction from which I had come, and I saw this section of lower dunes dropping toward the edge of the sand, with the background of the lower folds of Tucki Mountain in late light.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cracked Mud, Canyon Light

November 18, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Reflected red canyon light illuminates cracked mud in a Utah wash

I had thought of titling this photograph “More Mud,” given that it certainly was not the only photograph I made of this subject recently. The group of us — 6 landscape/nature photographers — had set off down into a beautiful canyon, but before we dropped into the deeper section we came across this patch of trying and curling mud… and ended up stopping for a half hour or more to photograph this seemingly mundane subject.

But actually, it turns out that desert mud is often anything but mundane. When it is found in a narrow canyon with red rock walls, the mud takes on the colors of the reflected light and even a bit of the blue color from overhead open sky. In many cases, you might miss this if you were not tuned in to the light and color… but if you do see it, soon such places provide a wild range of colors. A highlight comes from overhead light reflected down into the canyon as it bounces off the red rock and takes on a very warm and red coloration.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Two From the Waterpocket Fold Area

November 16, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

I’m going to double-up here and share two photographs in a single post — both are from the Waterpocket Fold (Strike Valley) area just to the east of Capitol Reef National Park.

Utah’s Waterpocket fold, viewed from high in the southern part of Capitol Reef National Park

The “Waterpocket Fold” is a gigantic geologic formation in Utah, a good portion of which runs the length of Capitol Reef National Park and beyond. As I understand it, the formation is a monocline, where strata change depth at a fairly steep angle, and subsequent erosion has worn away and exposed these strata in amazing ways, especially where the up-trending layers end. This photograph, made from a high point along the ridge of Capitol Reef, looks south into the waterpocket valley as it bends and continues to head south.

Cottonwood trees with autumn foliage follow a wash up a canyon toward Waterpocket Fold area cliffs

This photograph looks to the east across the strike valley of the Waterpocket Fold feature from along the ridge of Capitol Reef. A wash (which may be Bitter Creek?) winds away and upwards toward the giant cliffs along the east side of the Valley. The scene illustrates, I think, quite a few common features of this terrain. It is quite arid and rugged — except that along the bottom of the wash, which periodically floods, a long grove of cottonwood trees and other vegetation has taken hold and seems to thrive.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: wash

Wash and Eroded Hills

Like this:

Dunes and Mountains

Like this:

Cracked Mud, Canyon Light

Like this:

Two From the Waterpocket Fold Area

Like this:

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

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

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