Category Archives: Photographs: Travel

Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Arch, Michaelerplatz

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Arch, Michaelerplatz
View towards Michaelerplatz through an archway, Vienna.

Arch, Michaelerplatz. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

View towards Michaelerplatz through an archway, Vienna.

We came to international travel late. When I was younger I could never think of a good reason to travel far away when all of the enticements of California were so near — San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Sierra, the Pacific coast, the redwoods, deserts, and more. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that it occurred to me that the rest of the world might be worth visiting, too. A key moment: a month traveling through Alaska on bicycles, during when we were often in sight of truly giant mountain ranged I realized that “maybe the Sierra aren’t the only worthy mountains.”

During the last decade or so our horizons have broadened. All of this is my way of leading to admitting that this summer 2018 visit was the first time we had been to Vienna. I had lots of reasons to know about Vienna before this, but it was all theoretical until we arrived and spent days wandering and looking… and beginning to understand what an important center this place has been.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Travel

Spring On The Plain

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Spring On The Plain
A lone horseback rider heads onto a California plain filled with spring wildflowers and backed by distant snow topped peaks.

Spring On The Plain. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lone horseback rider heads onto a California plain filled with spring wildflowers and backed by distant snow topped peaks.

Continuing today with the bittersweet 2020 theme that is a combination of “wish I could be here” and “at least I can take a virtual trip,” here is a photograph from Spring back in 2019, when I was out and about and making photographs in several beautiful areas of California. (In truth, my current situation is much better than that of many other people — I don’t have that much to complain about — so let’s focus on the positive here!)

I had spent part of a couple of days exploring and photographing this area as I passed through on my way to a California desert location. Most of the time was spent making pure nature photographs, but I couldn’t resist taking advantage of a serendipitous moment when a group of horseback riders wandered into the foreground of this grand vista of flower-covered plain and distant snow-capped mountains.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Travel

Big Sur Coast, Clearing Fog

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Big Sur Coast, Clearing Fog
Clearing fog pulls back to the upper slopes of coastal hills along the Big Sur coast.

Big Sur Coast, Clearing Fog. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clearing fog pulls back to the upper slopes of coastal hills along the Big Sur coast.

As we follow the California “shelter-in-place” order, I’m photographing very locally and to digging back into my raw file archives. I try to do the latter at least once per year, and I am just now reviewing the 2019 files. Every time I do this I discover photographs that I originally overlooked or that I neglected as I moved on to other projects. I’m convinced that we see our own photographs differently a year or two later, and photographs that were not quite what we thought we wanted originally turn out to be interesting when viewed without the context of having just made them.

This photograph comes from a one-day visit to the Big Sur coastline just a few days short of a year ago. I remember it well. It was a day of tricky and challenging light as an early spring weather front moved down the coast. I traveled quickly, trying to stay near the leading edge of the clouds. At this spot just south of the town of Big Sur the surface of the Pacific Ocean glowed brilliantly in muted sun, the steep cliffs were in shadow, and fog was clearing from the upper slopes of coastal mountains.

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.

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

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Christmas Day, Central Park

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Christmas Day, Central Park
Visitors congregate in Manhattan’s Central Park on Christmas Day.

Christmas Day, Central Park. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Visitors congregate in Manhattan’s Central Park on Christmas Day.

As I have previously written, we spent a week in Manhattan right around Christmas and New Year’s Day, mainly with family visiting in mind but also, of course, to see Manhattan and other parts of New York City. We have visited during this season many times, and we’ve seen quite varied weather. The time before this we experienced recording-breaking cols, but this time the weather was hardly cold at all — the light and atmosphere looked winter-like, but temperatures were 20 or 30 degrees above what we experienced on that earlier visit.

On Christmas Day we took a long walk up the east side of Central Park, then crossed it before heading back down the west side. To no one’s surprise — this being Manhattan! — even on Christmas Day there were crowds everywhere. This large collection of people in Central Park may have been around a frozen pond, though the clear skies and sunlight took the edge off of the cold this time.

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.

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