Tag Archives: wash

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

Red Rock Gully

April 6, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A red rock gully and wash in the Panamint Range of Death Valley National Park.

I have driven past this area along the road from Death Valley up to Wildrose Canyon quite a few times, and as I do I always am impressed by the many convoluted little canyons and odd and interesting rock formations. Most often I have been on my way to some other place or the light wasn’t quite right, but I always take a look and make a mental list of little spots to keep an eye on. This particular little canyon is one you might not even notice unless you were looking carefully as you passed it. It is in a narrow section of the lower canyon where it is one of many such little landscapes. On this morning I was coming back down from shooting up higher in the Panamints and I was watching carefully as I drove, frequently pulling over to stop and check things out more carefully. At first I almost drove past this spot, but it looked like the light might be interesting this time so I quickly stopped and backed up and made a series of photographs including this one.

The question of how to frame this scene was an interesting one. As is often the case I cover more than one base and shoot the subject in several ways. Initially I worked with a vertical orientation that includes a bit more of the rough terrain a bit higher in the canyon. That image may still see the light of day! But as I shot the scene I also realized that I could use a horizontal orientation too, more tightly frame the entrance to the small canyon, and give up some of the upper canyon formations.

With many subjects I would prefer softer light, and I would probably try to shoot much earlier in the day or come back in the evening. But this canyon, I think, works well in the light of a bit later in the morning when the sun has topped the ridge and direct light hits the top of the rocks and reflects into the recesses a bit more.

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

Zabriskie Point Gully, Morning Light

April 1, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Morning sun back-lights the dense pattern of folds in a small gully at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.

In some ways I think this is one of the more subtle and complex of the various photographs I have made that isolate small sections of the Zabriskie Point landscape, especially the eroded patterns of the small gullies below the main viewing area. This photograph, like many in this series, was made after the normal “dawn light” time period, and at this time the sun is higher in the sky. It begins to back-light the tops of the furrows and gullies and the brighter light reflects down into the lower portions of the gully. There are a tremendous number of overlapping ridges and the color variations are quite large, though subtle at the same time. Some areas have a very blue cast, being in shadow and lit almost completely by the open blue sky. Others take on warmer tones, especially if they are illuminated by light reflected from the warm-tones earth. An area of thin clouds was floating above the scene and its shadow slightly softened and muted the light that otherwise might have been quite stark.

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

Last Light on Desert Plants, Death Valley

March 20, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last light of a winter day lights the plants at the edge of a wash in Death Valley National Park, California.

On this afternoon I drove a bit up the east side of the Valley past the turnoff to Beatty looking for subjects to shoot along the hills that parallel the valley. I did not initially have a specific shot in mind, since this isn’t an area that I know very well – I’ve mostly driven past it on my way to some other place. I was generally thinking of a couple of possibilities. One was an early evening photograph looking up into one of the very large canyons, probably include the massive washes that spill out of them and aiming for a very rugged looking image. I looked for a few such places and played around a bit with the idea of shooting one or two, but it wasn’t quite working for me.

I have included some low hills along this area called, I believe, the Kit Fox Hills, in some photographs that I have made of this area from way over near Mesquite Dunes. These hills which sit just above the road toward Scotty’s Castle have intrigued me, so I had also looked at them. As I passed them earlier in the afternoon I made a mental note to come back and check out one particular spot in better light, and when the canyon idea didn’t seem to work out I decided to head back there. I was probably a bit late in settling on this subject, but I arrived while the sun was still (just barely) above the tops of the ridges on the opposite side of the Valley. I grabbed equipment and went to a spot where I thought I could use a particular mesquite plant as foreground to a shot of these low hills, but then this backlit expanse of the floor of the Valley filled with these small, rugged plants caught my attention. I decide to photograph them before turning my attention back to the mesquite and hills. As I shot a few frames the sun began to drop behind the far hills much sooner than I expected, and this was close to the last photograph I made before I was in shadow.

All seriousness aside, someone just suggested that an alternate title for this photograph might be “Sea of Tribbles!” ;-)

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

Desert Pool, Panamint Range, Morning

March 13, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

A salt spring pool on the salt flats in Death Valley reflects winter dawn light on the east face of the Panamint Range.

Sometimes I hear people describe how they think or imagine that landscape photography is done, and I wonder where they get their ideas. I will acknowledge that there are many ways to shoot landscape, ranging from working very slowly and carefully to produce a single image, to shooting like crazy and seeing what you end up with. But often people dismiss approaches closer to the latter and assume that the former is the “right way” to shoot landscape.

In my experience it isn’t quite that simple. Sometimes the experience is like certain others in which long stretches of time during which one seemingly accomplishes nothing or perhaps just looks and thinks are suddenly followed by quick and intense spurts of work that come almost as a surprise and may be over as quickly as they begin. This little morning shoot in Death Valley along the edge of a the salt/mud flats where the water from a small salt spring spreads across the flats and forms shallow pools was one of these. Very early in the morning, well before dawn, it was difficult to know what the best shooting option might be. There were clouds in the sky that promised to block the dawn light and everything seemed gray and flat. I wandered a bit, not sure where or what to shoot, and finally, more or less by chance, ended up at this spot that I had visited earlier on this trip. It occurred to me that even if the light wasn’t great I could possibly find a photograph that included this water. So I stopped and began to unpack in no particular hurry.

As I walked across the wash toward the area of the spring, much to my surprise it began to appear that there might be some interesting dawn light after all. I quickened my pace and headed toward the area of the shallow pools, and when I arrived there a moment later I could see some color on the top of the Panamint range. I quickly found a decent foreground pool and as the surprising light worked its way down the front of the range I began photographing. I first made several exposures at much shorter focal lengths, including a larger portion of the sky and the foreground. Then I quickly moved the tripod to place this pool in the center of the frame and hold the reflection of the range. I had little time to contemplate as the light was changing very quickly. I had just enough time to find my composition and make a few exposures, and within moments the light was gone.

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