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: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Sierra Crest, Blue Hour

Image July 27, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This is a reinterpretation of an old photograph, one that has long been a favorite but which I’m now looking at differently. Several issues surround the question of whether, when, and how to revise a photograph that you once considered definitive. The most obvious change is the aspect ratio — it formerly used the ubiquitous 4:3 ratio, but now I think it works better with this semi-panoramic presentation. (The old version lost the far right ridge and trees.) I’ve also rethought how I handle the blue tones — when I originally did the photograph I was shy about “going with the blue,” but more recently I’ve embraced it.

All of that background aside, this is a favorite photograph for a bunch of reasons. This was an incredible afternoon and evening of sky and light, and this was one of the final photographs of that day, made in the fading blue hour light. It still astonishes me that perhaps thousands of people were clustered around their campfires in a nearby campground, likely oblivious to this scene, as I stood in solitude along the bank of the river watching the show.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

Lenticular Clouds, Alpenglow Reflections

Image July 26, 2022 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

This photograph comes from her the end of the spectacular afternoon and evening that I’ve been posting about recently. To quickly recap, I saw lenticular clouds forming over the crest earlier in the day, headed to this spot that I had scoped out previously, then photographed all the way from pre-golden hour through sunset and on into the early dusk. This photograph was made just after sunset, when the pink light was still coloring the sky and the landscape but the blue of evening was gradually taking over.

If you head out into the landscape often to photograph, you will experience a lot of fine but unremarkable days. With care, you can make good photographs in those conditions. You’ll also experience a few “meh” days when nothing happens. (Deny all you want, but you’ve experience it!) But it seems like this earns you an occasional luminous miracle, when everything comes together and amazement ensues. If there is a downside to this, it might be having to explain to people that, “yes, this really happened!” That’s a small price to pay.

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

Evening Light, Sierra Crest

Image July 25, 2022 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

This is the second photograph in this series that I’ve shared recently. (Two more are in the pipeline.) I posted a slightly different one that rendered the scene in portrait orientation. But a bigger difference is how the light evolved over the couple of minutes between the two exposures. At this time of day in these conditions, the light is very dynamic as it shifts from yellowish toward pink and red and ultimately to the blue tones of dusk. Meanwhile, the sunset light from the west is affected by intervening clouds, and the light and color move across the landscape. In this exposure, those blue tones are strengthening in the foreground forest and meadow and in the darker clouds above the lenticular formations.

Often a scene suggests one particular photographic interpretation or perhaps two. Maybe portrait- and landscape-orientation versions are in order or there is more than one way to frame the composition. But on a spectacular evening like this one when the scene remains compelling as it undergoes radical transformations of color and light, it is possible to end up with too many photographs! Originally I strained to hold myself to a series of four from one vantage point. However, after returning to these images recently I now see that others work, too — like this one.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel

Paroisse Saint-Paul Saint-Louis

Image July 24, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Paroisse Saint-Paul Saint-Louis, Le Marais, Paris.

This church figured briefly in the text accompanying a recently-posted photograph of a historic Paris fire alarm station. The story is that I wasn’t sure what building this is. It caught my attention, for obvious reasons, while walking in Le Marais, so I made a photograph — but I neglected to note the precise location or even the identity of the place. (I often prefer to not do too much research about a location in order to retain some of the fun of “discovering” it.) I finally figured it out by spotting its reflection in the fire alarm photo!

The remarkable church was constructed in the 1600s, which explains the detailed architecture. Today the colors of certain features are quite striking — those red doors and the sun design around the clock, for example.

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.

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

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