Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building 237, Early Evening

April 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early evening light on the face of Building 237, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California

This is one of the rarest of photographs from me—a daytime photo from Mare Island! Although I have photographed here for quite a few years, virtually all of my photographs from this location have been made at night, when the industrial environment of the place is transferred by darkness and artificial light into something mysterious.

By day, many of the subjects that I find so interesting and even colorful at night are often quite bland and boring. Building 237 is the subject of one of my favorite photographs from Mare Island, “Yellow Buildings, Shadows, Moving Clouds.” In that photograph, these buildings glow with an intensely yellow light from nearby artificial lightning, and the motion of clouds during the long exposure creates an aura in the dark sky above them. But during the daytime, the color of the buildings is a somewhat faded and drab sort of yellow-tan shade, and this is even more washed out in typical daytime light. On this visit, largely because the sun sets later by the clock during daylight savings time, we found ourselves ready to photograph well before it was dare, so I decided to go out and look for golden hour light as the day ended. Here that light subtly colors the front face of building 237, whose color contrasts with the cold, blue tones of the next-door building that is already in full shadow.

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

Flock of Cranes, Marsh

April 25, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large flock of sandhill cranes gathers in a shallow San Joaquin Valley marsh

This large group of sandhill cranes was most cooperative with us during our mid-February visit to their habitat out in California’s San Joaquin Valley. While there are places in the valley where it is reasonably simple to get quite close to them, at this place they often hang out a good distance from the areas accessible to visitors—and many times the photography is therefore limited to very long shots or to birds passing overhead.

In general this was a somewhat different day as far as birds were concerned. The common mid-day lull in their activity was less pronounced, and for almost the entire day they tended to be quite active. Large groups of many different kinds of geese flew in and out, often collecting in large flocks in empty fields. Earlier a group of cranes had stood close to the access road near the larger group of geese. And a bit later in the day, a very large group of cranes settled in on this shallow pond and was willing to remain there as we photographed.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Old and New Ferns

April 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

New ferns grow against a backdrop of last year’s dead ferns

These ferns are an easily visible part of the annual cycle of growth and decay in the redwood forest. At the right time of the year they can produce very lush green growth in some areas, but later on in the season they die back and they are instead dry and brown. Each spring, after rain and as the days get longer, the cycle starts again and the new green shoots appear against the backdrop of the old, dead plants.

This is such a spot, and the main frond is, indeed, this year’s new growth. The shriveled plants underneath, hanging straight down the bit of hillside, are the brown plants left from the previous year. I initially was thinking of a color photograph when I made the exposure, looking at the obvious contrasts between the new and old and especially between the green and brown colors. But somehow, as I looked at it in post, the color rendition wasn’t working and it started to feel like monochrome might be more interesting. (Yes, sometimes I do not know which way I’ll go with a photograph at the time of exposure, and the post-processing phase ends up being as much a time of discovery as the time when I make the initial exposure.)

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Desert Mountains, Stormy Sunrise

April 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sun rises through the clouds of a developing storm over the Amargosa Range, Death Valley National Park

We arrived very early at this high overlook in Death Valley National Park’s Panamint Range, hoping to photograph a desert mountain sunrise. When conditions are good at this location, there is an almost 360 degree panorama of rugged and desolate mountain terrain, punctuated by deep valleys, especially the chasm of Death Valley itself which lies immediately below. Because the spot is so high, even further views abound—far out into Nevada to the east, and back to the crest of the Southern Sierra to the west.

But little of that happened on this morning. We arrived before dawn and I could tell that a cloud deck was coming over the Panamint crest behind us and extending out to the east over Death Valley. There was a gap in the clouds to the east, but it was a narrow one, and more clouds were beginning to build over the ridges in that direction. On a perfect morning here, beams of sunrise light play over the tops of the peaks and shine into valleys near and far. But on this morning things were rapidly tending toward gray. However, for a few moments there was a bit of brilliant color just over those eastward ridges, where the clouds had not yet closed down on their summits, and by using a very long lens I was able to isolate this scene just as the sun came up, backlighting the virga falling from the clouds above the silhouetted forms of the ridges.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Building 237, Early Evening

Like this:

Old and New Ferns

Like this:

Desert Mountains, Stormy Sunrise

Like this:

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

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

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