Tag Archives: yellow

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

Mustard Canyon

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Mustard Canyon
Evening light on the Mustard Canyon area in Death Valley National Park.

Mustard Canyon. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on the Mustard Canyon area in Death Valley National Park.

This is a place that I photograph from time to time. It isn’t far from spots where I camp, so it isn’t unusual to pass by as I head out or return from some more distant location. A few years ago I stopped and climbed a low hill there late in the day, found it magical, and the hill — which might seem like nothing special to others — is one of my little personal spots in Death Valley. From here the panorama is expansive in all directions, and the slight elevation of the place lets me see even farther.

The view here begins in the foreground with the Mustard Canyon area. The mustard part of the name makes sense — in the ideal light the formations are strikingly yellow. The canyon part seems a bit of a stretch. I’m sure that there is a route followed by water heading out into the valley, but it seems more like a wash than a canyon. The rugged foreground, filled with alternating yellow and reddish material, eventually gives way to giant alluvial fans, and in the far distance the terrain rises to the Amargosa 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: Nature

Fairy Lanterns, Spring

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Fairy Lanterns, Spring
A cluster of spring fairy lantern wildflowers.

Fairy Lanterns, Spring. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cluster of spring fairy lantern wildflowers.

These are among my favorite spring wildflowers here in my part of the world — the San Francisco Bay Area. The photograph is from last spring, as this year my opportunities to go out and photograph wildflowers have been much more limited. I did photograph flowers like these at the very beginning of their cycle, when they were still mostly buds and before the social lock-down commenced. Even when the rules were relaxed to allow hikes, the location of these flowers is one in which social distancing could be difficult to maintain.

I photographed this little group of flowers at a local spot where I first “discovered” this kind of flower over a decade ago. Oddly perhaps, given that I’ve hiked in these hills for decades, I was unaware of the fairy lantern flowers and surprised to see them. These grow a long a narrow and somewhat steep trail that heads through a narrow ravined, a place that is often in shade but with a bit of sunlight each day.

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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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.

Photographs: Nature

Spring Bloom, Valley and Mountains

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Spring Bloom, Valley and Mountains
Morning fog thins above a landsape of spring wildflowers stretching from valley to mountaintops.

Spring Bloom, Valley and Mountains. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog thins above a landsape of spring wildflowers stretching from valley to mountaintops.

As I continue to mine the archives of raw files from 2019 during these “shelter in place” days of 2020, here is another photograph from about this time in 2019, when I was traveling around California to enjoy and photograph a rather remarkable spring bloom. After abundant Winter and early Spring rain, the landscape was coming to life in spectacular fashion.

To make this photograph I headed out into the center of this plain — actually more of a very wide valley between two mountain ranges. Here the flowers grew in patches of similar colors — orange here, purple there, and yellow almost everywhere. The carpet of colorful wildflowers spread across the plain, up into the foothills, and extended almost to the summit if these distant 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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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.

Photographs: Nature

Spring Flowers, Mountains, And Clearing Fog

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Spring Flowers, Mountains, And Clearing Fog
Morning fog dissipates above wildflower-covered California hills.

Spring Flowers, Mountains, And Clearing Fog. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning fog dissipates above wildflower-covered California hills.

This photograph is a bit unusual in that it is a second version of a photograph I posted recently. By that I do not mean a similar photograph made at about the same time — I mean the very same exposure interpreted in two different ways. The primary difference is the presentation in a 2:1 aspect ratio panoramic landscape orientation which, I think, emphasizes the horizontal scale of the landscape and perhaps brings a bit more attention to the dissipating fog.

I made the photograph on a spring morning in 2019 during a visit to an inland California valley where wildflowers may erupt for a few weeks in wet years, transforming a scene that is usually dry and brown into one of lush greens and the vibrant colors of carpets of wildflowers. The morning began with thick tule fog, and I made the photograph just as the last bits of the fog were dissipating.

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 | Facebook | Email

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

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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