Tag Archives: Wind

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Gravel Road, Carrizo Plain

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Gravel Road, Carrizo Plain
“Gravel Road, Carrizo Plain” — A one-lane gravel road winds across the Carrizo Plain as spring vegetation comes to life.

OK, I admit it. This is a bit of a “record shot,” considering how this place can look like the peak of the spring bloom in an exceptional year. However, it does give me a chance to write a bit about the location and how I came to be here on this day. I was doing the long drive from the SF Bay Area to Death Valley from the San Francisco Bay Area. Since I had decided to stop overnight in Ridgecrest before continuing to the valley, I had a bit of extra time on the first day’s drive. So I detoured through the Carrizo Plain. (Yes, I have driven that gravel single-track, though not on this visit.)

At its best, this place can be remarkably full of spring wildflowers. But my mid-March visit was too early for that, so I had to settle for a landscape just beginning to build toward that climax. In this photograph, the wildflower bloom is just getting started. In exchange, I had the place largely to myself, without the huge crowds that come later. While most who visit for the flowers think of this as a green and wildflower-colorful place, the truth is that most of the time it is quite dry and desertlike.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Breaking Wave, Reflected Sun

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Breaking Wave, Reflected Sun
“Breaking Wave, Reflected Sun” — Winter sunlight reflects on the water beyond a breaking wave during a Pacific storm.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, California had several days of extraordinarily high surf, produced by storms far out in the Pacific Ocean. Media reports consistently warned citizens to “stay away from coastal areas.” Consequently, many of us high-tailed it straight to the nearest coastal areas to watch the show! (In all seriousness, this kind of surf really is dangerous. If you go, please observe from a very safe distance.) We visited the section between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay, and the surf was as big as I’ve ever seen it.

It was cloudy most of the time, but occasionally the sun managed to break through a bit, creating beautiful reflections on the waves and the distant ocean. This photograph is one of a series I made from a high (and safe) observation point on a peninsula that juts out into the ocean. From here I could watch the waveS break and continue on toward the shore to my left.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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

Dunes, Plants, Sand Storm

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Dunes, Plants, Sand Storm
Desert plants in late-day sun. backed by dunes receding into sand storm haze.

Dunes, Plants, Sand Storm. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Desert plants in late-day sun. backed by dunes receding into sand storm haze.

This photograph is a different “take” on the late-March evening sand storm I photographed earlier this year in Death Valley. The forecast was for afternoon wind, so we were not surprised when the dust started to rise a few miles away from san dunes. I’m often a bit torn in situations like this — operating in the strong winds and blowing sand is not pleasant, but some very interesting photographic opportunities tend to crop up in these conditions. So I went out and got to work.

Fortunately, as I faced the dunes the wind was at my back. Even though the wind was strong enough to make photography challenging, the sand was being picked up from the dunes and blown away from me. The blowing sand, combined with the early evening light, made for some spectacular conditions. The focus in this photograph is on the plants growing on the close dunes. I had visited them a couple of months earlier, and they were mostly quite dried out. But a couple of months later and this years wet and cool spring had brought them back to life.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Plants, Dunes, and Sand Storm

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Plants, Dunes, and Sand Storm
A plant-covered sand dune with a sand storm in the background.

Plants, Dunes, and Sand Storm. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

A plant-covered sand dune with a sand storm in the background.

Perhaps this photograph is about the sand dunes. Perhaps it is about the raging sand storm. Perhaps it is about the plants on the small dunes in the foreground. Or about all of the above. The conditions were, by objective standards, pretty atrocious. A gale was whipping up the sand and blowing it toward the dunes and then up into the sky. You might wonder why the foreground seems relatively clear. The wind was blowing from slightly behind me and most of the dust was being picked from the dunes and blown away from me.

About two months earlier I had photographed in almost this exact spot, and the green transition of these plants on this visit was striking — back at the end of January they looked very dry. But now, even though there has not been all that much rain in this part of Death Valley in the interim, the seasonal greening was underway.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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