Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Pond, Evening Reflection, Peaks

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Pond, Evening Reflection, Peaks
Evening light on peaks is reflected in a pond on an alpine stream

Pond, Evening Reflection, Peaks. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on peaks is reflected in a pond on an alpine stream.

Photographers often get to experience evening quite differently from the way typical backpackers do. I know, I’ve done both for years. A typical end of the day backpacking: Get to camp, find spot and set up tent, move gear into tent, set up cook area, filter water, perhaps wander around a little bit, fix dinner, then most likely sit around camp or take short nearby walks until night fall. A typical end of day for backcountry photography: Come back to life in the middle/late afternoon, grab a snack or even dinner, load up pack of camera equipment, head out of camp for some (occasionally distant) location, start photographing, work the scene as the light changes, stay on the move and keep photographing as sunset approaches, a burst of photography at sunset and a bit after, finally photography winds down, walk back to camp in partial or complete darkness, arrive back at camp and perhaps have dinner in the dar,.

In either case there is something — how to describe this? — slow and quiet about the approaching evening and then nightfall. Interspersed with moments of intense photography — after all, the light may change quickly — are longer moments of quiet contemplation. Frequently that is how the photography ends, with that work slowing to a stop I stop and often just stand or sit quietly a bit in the failing light. I made this photograph a bit earlier, as I headed up toward a higher ridge and a lake, but the feeling of oncoming quiet still pervaded the scene.

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: Nature, Photographs: Photographers, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Landscape With Landscape Photographer

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Landscape With Landscape Photographer
Photographer Scot Miller at work between Sierra Nevada peaks and a meadow full of late-season lupine flowers.

Landscape With Landscape Photographer. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Photographer Scot Miller at work between Sierra Nevada peaks and a meadow full of late-season lupine flowers.

Mainly this was to be a photograph of a beautiful patch of blooming lupines and their alpine setting. Sierra Nevada aficionados may be surprised to hear that I made this photograph on the first day of September and at about 11,000′ of elevation. By that date the summer wildflower bloom is mostly in typical years. But this year was not typical — last winter and spring brought much more precipitation to the range than usual, and that late start to the warm season combined with the abundant moisture kept the plants going late in the season. And these weren’t the only flowers we saw. Generally meadows were still fairly green and there were wildflowers everywhere, including several large patches of beautiful lupines in this area.

As I set up and composed this photograph I noticed that my friend Scot Miller was walking into the scene. Even though we often work quite independently in the field, we do sometimes end up in one another’s frame. In this case I decided to make a photograph that included Scot — look closely and you’ll spot him — as he set up to photograph the area where I was crouched down among the flowers.

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

Chinatown Store At Night

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Chinatown Store At Night
A woman walks past a San Francisco Chinatown District store at night

Chinatown Store At Night. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A woman walks past a San Francisco Chinatown District store at night.

My original idea was to render this as a color photograph, largely because the wild and bright colors in these stores attract me to the subject. But as I worked with the image in post it kept whispering, “I want to be monochrome…” In the end I decided to agree with that little voice. I like the noire quality of black and white in this case, and it also takes me back to my roots, when my early photography was all black and white… and done with film.

A photograph like this one poses several challenges, ranging from aesthetic to technical. The fill list of them is too long to treat fully in this post, but I’ll share a few. An aesthetic challenge comes from trying to include moving figures in such night photographs — both due to the difficulty in stopping their motion in low light, and because such figures don’t always appear in the. scene. My approach is often to find the “landscape” first and then wait for the “wildlife” (people) to arrive and populate the scene. It often requires both patience and multiple photographs to get it to work, and it doesn’t always succeed. The technical challenges are mostly about light. There are quite a few, but I’ll just mention some related to dynamic range and the locations of light sources. The brightest light in this scene is obviously coming from the bright interior of the store. But much of the scene is actually in near darkness, and the human subjects are mostly backlit. There is just a bit of ambient light coming from the lights on nearby businesses, but it isn’t nearly as strong as that coming from the shop. So I expose for that brightest source, with the intention of restoring shadow details in post. That isn’t always easy, but today’s cameras give us a ton of latitude for removing shadow detail.

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: Structures and Objects

Silos And Shadows, Morning

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Silos And Shadows, Morning
California Central Valley silos in morning light.

Silos And Shadows, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

California Central Valley silos in morning light.

This photograph might serve as an example of an approach I sometimes take when photographing, especially when the subjects I had in mind may not present themselves or at least not present well. Basically, I have a backup plan, and I’m happy to switch gears and improvise if my primary subject either isn’t working or isn’t at its best. That was the case on this morning when I had traveled to the Central Valley to photograph birds. I did that, but then I decided to head down a narrow country lane looking for whatever I could find, and in this case the search uncovered some agricultural subjects.

It is always a question whether to stay with the subject you came for or to switch to another target of opportunity. To be honest, I cannot recommend one over the other — I do both, and it is hard to rationalize why I choose one over the other. Sometimes, quite honestly, it is mainly a hunch. If you stick with a subject that isn’t quite working you may eventually find a way to make it work, or perhaps that light you hoped for will appear. On the other hand, you could just as easily wait and find that nothing changes!

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.

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

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