“Weather does not happen. It is the visible manifestation of
the Spirit moving itself in the void.” Mary Hunter Austin
Cloud shadows on the Cottonwood Mountains, Death Valley National Park
You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website. You can also find Michael on Facebook.
I have released a beautiful 46-page 8″x8″ softcover book containing eighteen of my photographs exhibited during The National Park Service:100 Years-California Dreaming exhibition at the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Sacramento, California. These eighteen images span many years of my work in Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Park.
Books purchased through my website are signed/autographed. Immense, Silent, and Sacred can be fully previewed at MagCloud. Please note than purchases through MagCloud are unsigned/not autographed. Digital downloads are also available.
It has never been easier or less expensive to own my photographs in print form (that’s a little more than $1 per photo). Many thanks in advance for your support and purchases!
You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website. You can also find Michael
I am very pleased to announce my next big exhibition: The National Park Service—100 Years: California Dreaming at the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Sacramento, California. This exhibition opens on August 10, 2016 and runs through September 3, 2016. I will be exhibiting 15-20 photographic prints from Death Valley National Park and Joshua Tree National Park in celebration of the Centennial of our National Park Service.
I hope that you will join me for the Opening Reception at the Viewpoint on Saturday, Aug. 13 from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Please visit the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center website for more information.
You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For information and photographs, please visit his official website. You can also find Michael on Facebook.
©2013 Michael E. Gordon
Dear Readers and friends of the California Desert, I need your help opposing the proposed Silurian Valley Solar/Wind Project which is slated for development southeast of Death Valley National Park. The proposed project would be a 200 megawatt solar facility consisting of multiple arrays of photovoltaic panels, 44 miles of service roads, a project substation, an operation & maintenance facilities including an aerial generation transmission line and will impact 7,219 acres of public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approximately 10 miles north of Baker, San Bernardino County, along State Highway 127. Silurian Valley remains in a nearly pristine state just outside Death Valley National Park, just north of Mojave National Preserve, and is directly adjacent to the Hollow Hills Wilderness and Kingston Range Wilderness areas – this is simply the wrong location for this project. In mid-2013, National Geographic released a special publication entitled ‘The World’s Most Beautiful Places‘ in which the Mojave Desert was named as one of the 100 most remarkable destinations:
“Far from the madding metropolitan crowds of Las Vegas and Los Angeles that surround it, the Mojave Desert offers the balm of silence and solitude. Canyons, giant mesas, mountains, towering dunes, and vast, dust-dry plains make up one of North America’s most elemental landscapes. It is a world little touched by humans, save for the odd crumbling mine or homestead, but one which nature adorns with the beauty of the Joshua tree and spring’s brief-lived wildflowers…”
©2013 Michael E. Gordon
Renewable energy projects should be smart from the start, but the proposed Silurian Valley Solar/Wind Project is a poster child for inappropriately sited renewable energy projects which threatens scenic view-sheds and critical wildlife habitat in a presently undisturbed valley. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recommends that BLM reject the proposal “because of its potential for substantial adverse effects on trust resources including desert tortoises, migratory birds, and golden eagles. The proposed project would introduce a substantial amount of human impact into an area that is currently undisturbed”. Solar panels belong in urban areas, on roof tops, canopies over parking lots, public parks, along freeways, train tracks, and other suitable locations within the areas where it is consumed – NOT on our public wildlands and NOT in Silurian Valley.
With your help we can help the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to understand the full range of impacts this project proposes for wildlife, viewshed, Death Valley National Park, and adjacent Wilderness Study Areas. Together we can ensure that the BLM does not blindly approve this harmful project (what’s wrong with “green” energy?).
©2013 Michael E. Gordon
I urge you to please submit your written comments by the May 28, 2014 deadline to:
Additional reading:
* Basin and Range Watch Silurian Valley page (comprehensive details, maps, photos)
* USDA Fish & Wildlife Service comments AGAINST the Proposal
* Silurian Valley Solar: Beautiful Bureaucracy at Work
* Mojave Desert Blog: Ode to Silurian Valley
* The Wilderness Society: California’s Silurian Valley
* L.A. Times article: The Wrong Sites for Solar
* Sacrificial Land: Will renewable energy devour the Mojave Desert? (High Country News)
You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website. You can also find Michael on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
It’s been an incredible year for my photography and business and I have a lot to appreciate and be thankful for. The economy is still struggling, yet a lot of good fortune has come my way in 2012. This last quarter of the year has been tremendously busy and productive, so I apologize for the quiet that has recently fallen upon my blog and social media streams.
THANK YOU to my November 2012 Death Valley Photo Workshop participants!
I’ve just concluded two sold out workshops in Death Valley National Park, both just days apart. I’d like to take this moment to say THANK YOU to all who attended these workshops. You were all wonderful people to spend time with! We shared lots of adventures, laughs, great light, and superb photography, and I hope I’ll see you all again in the near future. I would love to bring all my workshop alumni together in an incredible setting for a weekend of photography, laughs, food, and libations. March 2013 in Joshua Tree National Park? Stay tuned…
THANK YOU to the participants of my Nov 2012 Introduction to Large Format Photography workshop!
I’m tremendously thankful for being able to lead a creative and artistic life. I get to call all my own shots. I make my own schedule. I have the great fortune of spending many days each year right where I’d most like to spend them and doing what I love doing the most. Whether I am pursuing my own photography, working on assignment/commission, or teaching, I can honestly say that there is never a bad day outside enjoying the raw beauty of nature and landscape. As I walk or drive through these places that are most meaningful to me, I often find myself in awe of the fact that this is my job! I am paid to photograph, teach, and inspire – for this I am tremendously humbled and thankful.
Humbled and Thankful. This is where I work – no cubicles, no boss!
I’m thankful to the judges of the November 2012 Rancho Mirage Art Affaire who awarded me with another Best in Show. It’s one thing to believe in your own work. It’s entirely another to have it validated by a jury of artists who view a lot of work and are asked to be highly critical of it. It’s an honor and privilege to have received several Best in Show’s in 2012. I am thankful!
Best in Show, Rancho Mirage Art Affaire
I am very thankful for my new collectors. These include some of the wonderful people, like Steve and Lana, who wander into a fine art festival with upwards of two hundred artists from whose work they could choose, yet they make a connection with mine. It’s an honor to have ones work appreciated and validated, yet another altogether to have it become a permanent piece on finite wall space. It’s humbling and gratifying to have my work hang in many homes, offices, and instituions throughout the U.S. Thank you to my collectors!
New collectors, Steve and Lana
The final THANK YOU is due to my wife, Shauna, and my extended family (animals included), who all support me and make it possible to lead the life that I do while patiently tolerating the increasing number of days that I am absent from home each year. My photography and work are critical elements in my life, but I value the most and appreciate the greatest my wife and family.
THANK YOU all for making my life possible! I wish you all the happiest holidays with your loved ones.
You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website. You can also find Michael on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Guy Tal, Steve, and our friend Raven watch the haboob overtake Death Valley
This post should have been made three months ago in the wake of this extraordinary event, but because I had too much on my agenda and it was reported elsewhere, I blew it off (sorry!). Yet every time I flip through my collection and see or share these photographs, I realize just how unique and extraordinary an event it was and that I should have shared this back in February. Without further delay…
On Monday, February 13, 2012, Guy Tal and I met in Stovepipe Wells, along with our friend, Steve, so that we could complete our final preparations for our Visionary Death Valley photography workshop and spend a few days enjoying the immense beauty of Death Valley National Park. We met at the General Store in Stovepipe Wells and sat at one of the picnic tables eating lunch, catching up, and shooting the breeze. Essentially, we were
Death Valley, gone
Running upslope toward Towne Pass…
Toyota’s eat dust
You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website. You can also find Michael on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Introduction to Large Format Photography – Death Valley National Park, California. November 16-18, 2012. Limited to 5 photographers.
NO PREVIOUS LARGE FORMAT EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED! This course is designed for experienced photographers who want to take their photography to the next level, and for those who have previously worked with large format but have struggled with it. The large format camera offers the ultimate in control over the entire creative image-making process and large format negatives and transparencies that offer extraordinary resolution. The market is flooded with plenty of used and value-priced large format gear, and new high quality yet inexpensive field cameras have made this an excellent time to move up to the format with only a moderate amount of expense. At the completion of this intensive two-day workshop, you will be able to efficiently and confidently compose, focus, meter, and expose your own large format photographs. This workshop will take place in world famous Death Valley National Park. Please click here for more information and to register.
Visionary Death Valley – Death Valley National Park. November 29 – December 4, 2012. Limited to 10 photographers.
Co-presented with Guy Tal. Our first Visionary Death Valley workshop of 2012 was a sold-out success, and we look forward to helping ten more photographers attain their photographic goals in 2012. Find out what makes this workshop unique, passion-filled, and inspiring to photographers of all levels. A perfect blend of photography, field classes, post-production, and passionate photographer/instructors all in one of the most visually stunning places on Earth has earned this workshop praise as “a tour de force of excellence, humanity, artistry, and knowledge“. There are many photography workshops and instruction manuals that teach craft and technique. Only Visionary Death Valley will lead you towards the heart of your art. Please click here for more information and to register.
You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website. You can also find Michael on Twitter , Facebook, and Google+.
Visionary Death Valley Photography Workshop, February 2012
Guy Tal and I concluded our February 2012 Visionary Death Valley (VDV) photography workshop last Wednesday on Death Valley NP’s Eureka Dunes, and to summarize our workshop with just one word: INCREDIBLE. We had a most wonderful group of participants who were engaged and inspired. We feel incredibly fortunate to be able to share our passion for creative photography and Death Valley National Park with a select group of individuals who are eager to move forward on their creative journeys.
Our workshop explored and photographed some of Death Valley’s most well known features – the vast Dante’s View; the surreal Badwater; the cosmic Racetrack; the sensual Mesquite Sand Dunes – as well as lesser known but no less extraordinary locations that are exclusive to Visionary Death Valley. VDV blends the perfect mixture of field photography, field classes, and a post-production classroom session (with laptops and projection) along with inspirational and philosophical discussions designed to challenge photographers to rethink the way they work and photograph. There are many photography workshops and instruction manuals that teach craft and technique; we’ve designed Visionary Death Valley to lead photographers towards the heart of their art.
A few workshop highlights: A brief but intense sunrise at Dante’s View; a downright ridiculous flaming sunset on our last night out with the Eureka Dunes extension group (see image at left); investigating incredible marine fossils and petroglyphs; the largest engulfing dust storm I’ve ever experienced in Death Valley (this occurred during preparations a few days before we first met our group); and F18 fighter jets screaming over Eureka Dunes at low elevations (it’s a violation of the wilderness experience, yet hard not to be awed by).
Guy and I would like to sincerely thank Anil, Annette, Bob, Don, Jon, Michael, Paige, Ron, Stephanie, and Tina for being part of the first of our Visionary workshop series and for being wonderful students and humans. We truly enjoyed your company and learning about each of you over those tiring but exciting days. We wish you well on your creative photographic journeys!
Our next Visionary Death Valley workshop is scheduled for November 29 – December 4, 2012 and you are all invited. We are also currently in the planning stages of Visionary Capitol Reef (Utah) in 2013. Please stay tuned for more information.
You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.
I am happy to announce my next workshop: Visionary Death Valley, February 16 – 21, 2012.
Death Valley National Park is a desert wonderland of immense scale, beauty and power. Its 3.3 million acres, the vast majority of which are roadless wilderness, encompass a staggering array of landscapes, unique geologic formations and colorful vistas. The largest National Park in the contiguous United States, Death Valley is both beautiful to behold and rich in history, mood and mystique. Its towering sand dunes, seasonally snow-capped mountains, warm springs and vast empty valleys offer endless opportunity for exploration and ample subject matter for the creative artist. There’s no place on Earth quite like it.
Internationally acclaimed photographer, author, and educator Guy Tal and I have carefully selected some of the park’s most unique locations for this workshop, and we’ll combine outstanding photography with inspirational, creative and technical discussion sessions. In addition to classes in the field, Guy and I will work individually with participants to address questions, assist with compositions, offer ideas, and share our knowledge. Discussions will include informative reviews and critique sessions of each participant’s images made during the workshop.
This workshop is sponsored by Chamonix View Cameras and Gura Gear, and all workshop participants are eligible for discounts on Chamonix view cameras and accessories and on Gura Gear camera bags.
Fore more information and registration, please click here.
You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.
MICHAEL E. GORDON PHOTOGRAPHY 