All posts by G Dan Mitchell

G Dan Mitchell, photographer and visual opportunist focusing on the Pacific coast, the Sierra Nevada, redwood forests, California oak/grasslands, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography and more. Posting daily photographs since 2005, along with articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Merced River, Branches, El Capitan

December 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Branches in the still water of the Merced River with floating autumn leaves and the reflection of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley.

This photograph is almost a bit of an optical trick. I’ll let you look for a second and figure it out…

… Does it make sense now? The foreground is composed of some intertwining dead branches just above the surface of a very still section of the quiet, late autumn Merced River in Yosemite Valley. The leaves floating on and just beneath the surface of the water give it away. Because there are so many branches, their dark reflections seem, to me at least, to almost merge with the shapes of the actual branches, creating a complex pattern. And, reflected in the surface of the water and appearing as a backdrop to these elements, is the sunlit face of El Capitan.

I would love to tell a great story about making this photograph… but I don’t remember making it! I discovered it only recently while reviewing all of my old raw files, and all I can say for sure is that I made it on one of my annual late October trips to The Valley to photograph the fall colors. For those who follow the technical stuff, I made this photograph with some pretty low-level gear back at a time when I was experimenting with my first DSLR. The camera was the very humble (but better than some think, at least for this sort of thing!) Canon Digital Rebel XT, an early 8 MP body. Even more humble was the lens, the not so swell EFS 17-85mm Canon lens.

(Note: This was originally posted on September 21, 2011. I’m moving this photograph back up on the home page today as this is a new revision of the original photograph — the date of the revision is December 26, 2014)

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Fractured Stone, Desert Plants

December 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sparse desert plants grow among fractured sandstone slabs

Though the title of this photograph mentions plants, there are small and rather hard to see. In terrain like this that should probably not be surprising, since I made the photograph in a place that was very rocky and rugged. I had walked out a bit into the landscape to get a view into a nearby gully that marked the beginning of a much larger canyon when I looked down and noticed these patterned rocks.

Here the rocks are almost entirely in layers, or strata, as is typical in this part of the Southwest. We most easily notice the huge, think layers than make up cliffs like those found elsewhere in this national park. But there are also some very thin layers, and these rocks comprise on such layer that happened to be exposed at this particular spot. If I recall correctly, I first noticed this as I came to the edge of a drop-off and noticed that these were the rocks at its edge. They are apparently are hard enough to resist erosion a bit more than the underlying material. This also explains why, a moment later, I stepped back from this edge — the harder rocks actually extended out over the drop-off a bit where the underlying ground had eroded!

Photographs: Northern California

Mount Hamilton Road, Santa Clara Valley

December 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The expansive panorama from the summit of Mount Hamilton, including Mt Hamilton Road, Santa Clara Valley, and the distant San Francisco Bay

I have a long and deep relationship with the terrain shown in this photograph — a photo that may not mean much to people who don’t share this experience, or at least know similar California coastal and inland terrain. I made the photograph late on a winter afternoon at the summit of Mount Hamilton as a Pacific weather front was just nosing in over the San Francisco Bay Area. Mount Hamilton is the tallest peak in the Bay Area at just over 4000′, and it is also the site of the historic James Lick Observatory. The view from the summit takes in a huge swatch of California — on clear days you can see a good chunk of San Francisco Bay to the northwest, Monterey Bay to the south, and the line of Sierra Nevada summits far to the east.

I’ve visited this peak since I was a youngster and my father took us there to visit rare Bay Area snow. (The road closes these days when there is snow, but that was not the case in the past.) We also traveled there to tour the observatory and visit the telescopes, which was a powerful experience for young kids. Later as an avid and serious cyclist Mount Hamilton was a regular destination for training and other rides. I climbed the road twisting among the hills in the photograph many times, and I could descend it at speeds that would likely scare most people. Eventually I and my cyclist friends came to know the road like the backs of our hands, and as we entered one turn we would already be mentally setting up for the next couple of turns after that, trying to maintain as much speed on the descent as possible. Today when I drive the road I’m still running over the deep memory of the turns, how they bank, what lies ahead, the width of the road, as I descend… at a much more sedate and prudent speed!

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Penn Station Subway Platform

December 27, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Subway tracks and a few people on the platform, Penn Station

There is not a whole lot to say about this photograph, though I might tell a technical secret about it.

The photograph is obviously from the New York Subway system, shot underground with available light at a relatively quiet time between trains while we were waiting for the next one to arrive. I shot this in street photography mode, during a week when I did not once use a tripod or a remote release, and when I shot entirely with a small handheld camera while on foot. I probably don’t have the point out that this photograph could be “about” several things: the small family group sitting on the bench and waiting for their train, the light and colors of the underground station, and the geometry of the structures and tracks.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

All posts by G Dan Mitchell

Merced River, Branches, El Capitan

Fractured Stone, Desert Plants

Mount Hamilton Road, Santa Clara Valley

Penn Station Subway Platform

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.