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

Moonrise, Sierra Wave Cloud

June 7, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A Sierra wave cloud stretches south along the Sierra Nevada crest as the moon rises.

Spend a bit of time — or a few decades — in and around the Sierra and you begin to be able to anticipate certain events. Nothing is a sure bet when it comes to predicting spectacular visual conditions, but some signs make it very likely that your efforts may be rewarded. The “Sierra Wave” cloud phenomenon is one such condition — common, easy to spot once you recognize the signs, and having the potential to produce very special photographic opportunities.

As on this evening, it often begins subtly. The line of clouds is produced over the crest or on its leeward side as moisture-laden air passes above the crest. The clouds can extend many miles north and south and sometimes stack up in layers. During the day they are impressive, but it is at dusk (or, rarely, at dawn) that they excel. After the last direct sunlight has risen above the highest peaks and the sun has set, brilliant red light may illuminate the clouds from the west, producing an almost unbelievable intensity of color. On this evening I saw the potential as I came over Tioga Pass from the east, and I quickly found a place to stop and watch the show develop. The moon above Kuna Crest was an added bonus!

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Doorway, Windows, Stairs

June 6, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A San Francisco doorway with an interior stairway, night

For me street photography is not just about people — though I photograph that subject, too. It is also about what I might call “street landscape,” and I’m as intrigued by this landscape as I am by any other. Even when my subjects are the people in the urban world, I’m virtually always considering them at least partly in the context of where they are. I’m no less away of this landscape background in the urban world than I am when photographing birds in flight against the background of their landscape. And sometimes here, as in the natural world, I like to photograph that landscape without its “wildlife.”

The urban world especially fascinates me at night, and simple things can take on a new appearance. This was almost a “grab shot” as I walked back toward my car from where I had spent an hour photographing with friends along the San Francisco waterfront. If such things appeal to you, there might be a lot to find and consider in this image. Or not. You decide.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Cathedral Range, Meadows, Evening

June 5, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cathedral range and early evening in the Yosemite High Sierra.

For me, this is a quintessential Sierra Nevada scene, and memories such places and sensations go back almost to my first knowledge of the range. One touchstone was many years ago when my father took me up to Tuolumne Meadows (if my hazy memory is accurate) and we passed through such country. I have a very particular memory of stopping at a waterfall alongside the road, where I looked up the stream above that cascade and wondered, without quite understanding what I was asking, what might lie above and beyond my field of vision. Perhaps at about this time I discovered some of my father’s books, including one that was (again, if memory is correct) about a passage along the backcountry spine of the range. The photograph I remember most from that book, a photograph that is still one of my mental models for seeing these mountains, featured a deeply grooved trail heading across a high country meadow toward a distant ridge. Some things never change!

This spot is one that I know well — and it is also easily accessible. But it could be any of thousands of places where water runs between meadow banks and past forests with rocky peaks in the distance, the sum of which draw me back to these mountains every year. There is still a lot of snow on the ground in this and similar places right now, and the water is running much higher. But in a month or two this brief period of abundant green will come to the high country, and you’ll find me there again.

Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Borough Market

June 4, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Light, Borough Market, London, United Kingdom

G Dan Mitchell Photography

All posts by G Dan Mitchell

Doorway, Windows, Stairs

Cathedral Range, Meadows, Evening

Borough Market

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