Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Tile and Concrete Wall

August 26, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

A weathered tile and concrete wall at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.

I’ll throw things a bit off-kilter here and interrupt the stream of landscape images from the Sierra Nevada with a minimalist photograph of a tile wall that I made while walking around in San Francisco in July. This may not be quite as simple a photograph as it first appears, and in larger version or print it becomes more apparent that the tiles are varied and weathered in interesting ways that produce a range of textures and colors.

I do a certain number of “minimalist” photographs – some of the urban landscape and others of the natural landscape and seascapes. Sometimes when I’m photographing some of the urban subjects I get some very strange looks from passers-by! I guess it must be hard to imagine why some guy with a fancy camera is pointing it straight at a wall in downtown San Francisco when so many other seemingly more compelling subjects are all around. Or else they might wonder if there is something there that they just don’t see.

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.

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

Commentary, Site News

If You Follow My Blog via ‘Networked Blogs’ at Face Book…

August 25, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

… you need to know that this creates problems with the display of images I post, and I am going to stop using that method to post news of updates to my photography blog. There are some formatting issues with Networked Blogs re-posts that I cannot easily resolve, and because they involve photographs – the main content of this blog! – that turns out to be a deal-stopper. I think that the NetworkedBlogs service is a great idea and I understand that it is working well for many people… just not for me.

If you want to ensure that you see news of the daily updates at this blog, and you have been using NetworkedBlogs to handle that, I hope that you’ll stick with me! There are a number of alternate ways to get my daily (and sometimes more than daily) photographs and other commentary:

Go to my Facebook Photography Page at http://www.facebook.com/gdanmitchellphotography and “like” the page to ensure that you see updates.
Follow me on Twitter, where I virtually always post a quick link to new material at this blog.
Check out Google+. I have been posting expanded links back to the blog at Google+ that I think you might like. (I have some additional invites to G+ if you need one – let me know.)
Use a feed reader like Google Reader to subscribe to this blog.
Visit this blog directly.

Please leave a comment or contact me directly if you have any comments or concerns about this.

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

Boulders, Shoreline Reflections

August 25, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Granite boulders lie in shallow waters of a sub-alpine lake reflecting shoreline trees, Yosemite National Park.

This quiet little lake lies unobtrusively just off of highway 120 across the Sierra Nevada in Yosemite National Park. I’ve posted a few photographs from here before and noted that, as far as I know, the lake doesn’t even have an official name. There is just a small parking loop where you can pull out and then wander down to the lake, typically in complete solitude.

The light is a bit tricky here since the lake is in a depression where ridges to the east block the morning light. However, the wonderful rocks scattered along the shoreline make up for this! I made this photograph, and several others in the sequence, by shooting with a long lens from the other side of the lake. The low camera angle and still water created some very interesting reflections above the barely visible underwater logs and rocks.

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.

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

Pond with Boulders and Trees

August 24, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A small pond reflects trees and glaciated boulders, Yosemite National Park.

This is a little location that I’ve returned to since I first discovered it a few years ago when I made a random stop along Tioga Pass Road to photograph some fog, looked away from the road, and saw a faint trail leading off into a little valley that looked to be full of rocks. Later I returned and wandered out on the trail and discovered a surprising landscape with glaciated granite, small pools, open forest, and small meadows. The first time I photographed there I had little time, so it ended up being more of a scouting visit than a shoot. However, this summer I planned to reserve part of a morning to wander back up this trail during the time when the light would still be good.

The pools here are almost completely still. The water is flowing, but not much, especially in the small granite rimmed pools like this one. The light was just barely beginning to filter down through the trees, so I had to be a bit careful to avoid hot spots where the sun shone. I’d share where this spot is, except that if you think about what you are passing as you drive along Tioga Pass Road, and occasionally stop and look around, you can probably find your own little spots like this one.

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