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

Morning Glory, California Coast

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Morning Glory, California Coast
Spring morning glory flowers along the California coastline, Monterey County

Morning Glory, California Coast. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring morning glory flowers along the California coastline, Monterey County.

I hope I have the right identification of this flower! (If not, I’ll rely on the intelligence of the web to set me straight.) I think it is morning glory, though there is at least one other flower that seems to fit the appearance and location along the Pacific Coast Highway.

I had briefly stopped to photograph a landscape scene — a small cove and rocky beach, with overlapping headlands marching away to the south. As I walked to my overlook I passed through an area filled with all sorts of wildflowers, including these specimens.

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

Desert Hills And Mountains

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Desert Hills And Mountains
Morning light on eroded forms and desert mountains

Desert Hills And Mountains. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on eroded forms and desert mountains.

Often when I photograph in a familiar place I look at certain subjects, find them appealing, but just don’t quite yet know how to see them as photographs. Sometimes I attempt a photograph and end up dissatisfied. Other times I look and don’t even photograph. The far ridge in this photograph has been one of those subjects.

The ridge is very impressive — high, barren, and rugged — and it is easily visible from some very popular locations in Death Valley National Park. However, perhaps because access is not easy or possibly because better known features are nearby, I rarely see it photographed. On this spring morning I had been photographing one of those other locations, and I looked up to see the high clouds above the ridge and the backlight on the foreground hills… and it seemed like the right time to give this scene a try once again.

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.

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

Photographs: Nature

Clearing Storm, Evening

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Clearing Storm, Evening
A spring storm clears in evening light, San Luis Obispo County

Clearing Storm, Evening. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A spring storm clears in evening light, San Luis Obispo County.

Late in the day had travelled across the main valley of the Carizzo Plain to a location that I thought would bring good evening light form the west. It had been a day of mixed and changeable weather conditions — sunlight one moment, rain the next, and patterns of both speeding across the landscape. My plan was to stake out a location open to the sunset light and hope for the best. It turned out OK, though clouds stood between me and the light and it never really did light up where I was standing.

However, because I was up against the mountains of the Temblor Range I had a bit of elevation, just enough to gain a wider view of the landscape. As sunset approached, breaks appeared in the cloud cover on the far side of the valley, and I was able to use a long lens to pick out vignettes from this larger landscape. This photograph makes in clear that I was shooting from the shadows, so to speak — look at the dark valley, broken by sky light reflected in water. But beyond that a newly green springtime ridge was in the sun, with beams of golden light coming through the clouds.

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.

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

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

Desert Mountain, Sand Storm

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Desert Mountain, Sand Storm
A sand storm rises above desert and hills and mountains.

Desert Mountain, Sand Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A sand storm rises above desert and hills and mountains.

Our run-in with a Death Valley sand storm this past April was very impressive — as these events always are. They are not pleasant. In fact, they can be very unpleasant. I’ve had automobile windows damaged by the blowing sand, and I’ve suffered through more than one of these events in a tent. But in the right light and in the right locations, they can produce a sort of “terrible beauty.”

On this afternoon and evening strong southwest winds were blowing sand and dust from dunes and playa up into the desert mountains to the northeast. While the strongest of these events can raise dust over the tops of the peaks, these winds were enough to send dust up their slopes but they left the summits open to the light. Near sunset the light from the west began to penetrate the gloom a bit, both lighting the low desert hills in the foreground and producing a sort of glow on the high peak towering beyond.

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.

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