Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Levee Road, Clearing Fog

Image January 3, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Every New Year’s Day a group of us gather to greet the literal dawn of the new year and make photographs. This year Patty and I turned it into a three-day event, arriving on New Year’s Eve and hanging around through the morning of January 2. This isn’t your typical place to celebrate New Year’s Day — it is a quiet, isolated place in portions of of California that is likely not on most peoples’ maps. But there is beautiful light, quiet, and frequently the sun rising through tule fog.

It was quite foggy when we arrived before dawn on this morning, but not the incredibly thick fog that makes travel dangerous. In fact, the layer of tule fog was shallow enough that we could see the pre-dawn sky overhead. The fog began to thin soon after sunrise, and here along the levee road the intense color of early morning light was winning the battle with the remaining fog.

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: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Spain, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Utah

Customers Line up at La Fama

Image January 2, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Any American who has visited Spain knows that the Spanish meal schedule is very different from the schedule back home. The most striking difference, of course, is that dinner is likely to be quite late — 9:00PM is not uncommon and it could be later. Other timings are different, too — lunch can be late, but don’t wait until 2:00 or you may find your favorite place is closed for a couple of hours. In this photograph the Zaragoza locals are lining up at 4:00 PM outside and inside this churreria and chocolateria.

For us, that long interval between lunch and dinner was a challenge. But it was clear that there were ways to fill the gap (and the stomach) during those hours. Everywhere we went we saw people sitting down for some kind of late afternoon snack. We heard that La Fama was a nearby “locals” place, and that sure seemed to be the case when we showed up at the 4:00PM opening. People were lined up at the outside window and inside the place was completely packed. Speaking virtually no Spanish beyond a few key words and phrases, we stopped and observed what was going on before finding our way to the counter to order… with a bit of help from a friendly fellow-customer who had a few words of English.

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Spain, Photographs: Travel

Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar

Image January 1, 2025 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar — “*Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar*” — Dusk view of the Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar and the Ebro River, Zaragoza, Spain.

As the new year begins we are still thinking about our travels at the end of the old year. In late 2024 we spent six weeks visiting in Germany, France, Spain, and New York City — and we’ve only been back a few days. This photograph comes from Zaragoza, Spain, one of the pleasant surprises of this trip. We spent several days there and we loved the place. Seen here is the Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar, a remarkable cathedral on the banks of the Ebro River.

Something about this church feels different from many other European cathedrals. Perhaps it is the numerous domes and tall, thin spires. From some angles these structures almost remind me of mosques. The setting alongside the river is beautiful, and especially so in the evening when the place is lit up.

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Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Lake, Morning

Image December 31, 2024 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I have shared a few other Mono Lake photos made at this elevated location some distance from the lake. This camera position gives a different and broader sense of the lake and its surroundings. It is a huge body of water — there’s far more water on the far side of the islands than between them and the near shore. The desert mountains are many miles beyond the far edge of the lake. All in all, Mono Basin is a place of immense space and great distances.

I photographed very early in the morning. I had gone to this location to photograph something else, but by turning my camera 180 degrees the lake was in the frame. It was a generally clear morning with some high clouds, but the great distances still turned the atmosphere a bit blue with haze, and that haze mutes the details of the distant basin and mountains.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Levee Road, Clearing Fog

Customers Line up at La Fama

Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar

Mono Lake, Morning

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