Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Two Trees

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Two Trees
Two trees and their reflections along the rocky shoreline of a Sierra Nevada lake

Two Trees. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two trees and their reflections along the rocky shoreline of a Sierra Nevada lake.

Last week I spent a few days in the Yosemite high country around Tuolumne Meadows. I had a few things in mind. Visiting one of my favorite places in the Sierra was, of course, one of them, as was making photographs in this location. I also had a more practical goal in mind — spending a bit of time adapting to elevation for an upcoming trip that has me “going high” on the first day. With that last goal in mind, each day I picked a hike that covered some miles, that climbed, and that had me over 10,000.

I had been planning to camp outside the park to the east of Tioga Pass, but much to my surprise there was still “space available” at Tuolumne Meadows when I passed through, so I changed plans and got a campsite there. This meant that when I wasn’t otherwise occupied, I could easily get to some of the well-known locations along this roadway. That’s just what I did for this photograph, getting up early and arriving here well before the day’s crowds… at an early enough hour that the place actually provided some solitude.

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: France, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

In Tatters

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In Tatters
Remnants of street posters, Paris

In Tatters. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Remnants of street posters, Paris.

One thing I look for when photographing in cities is examples of street art and posters and similar that have been up long enough to have been weathered and otherwise distressed. In some cases they reveal many layers of imagery and text — some painted, some in ink, and some pasted to walls and on top of previous materials.

Beyond being in Paris I no longer recall the specific location or larger context for this splash of color. I just recall that the bright colors, abstracted from their original context by being torn to pieces, caught my attention as we walked by, and that the background white field almost reminded me of paper product wrapping. There’s just enough form to the colors that I might imagine that I could figure out what was there originally…

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Evening Light, Clearing Storm

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Evening LIght, Clearing Storm
Summer storm clouds clear in the evening over the John Muir Wilderness

Evening Light, Clearing Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

One of the advantages of setting into one backcountrylocation for an extended stay is that I often get to experience the location in a variety of circumstances and conditions. I get to shoot in morning, midday, and evening light; in “perfect” blue-sky sunshine and thunderstorm conditions. And because the seasonal changes happen so rapidly in the high country, with its shortened growing season, I can watch wildflowers bloom and meadows transition from green to golden.

Along with fellow photographers, I spent a week in this spot two summers ago. On most days the sky was that Sierra Nevada “perfect blue…” that may not thrill photographers who are looking for something more interesting. But over the course of the stay those conditions changed. There was a morning with a deck of broken clouds, an night of thunderstorms, and this evening when clouds caught the light and high country pastels replaced the often stark

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.

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

Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building And Shadow, Tuscany

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Building And Shadow, Tuscany
A cloud drifts in the sky above stone buildings in Tuscany

Building And Shadow, Tuscany. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cloud drifts in the sky above stone buildings in Tuscany

If you follow my posts you may have noticed quite a few post from Italy recently, and you might be wondering why. Have you been to Italy? ;-) OK, there are more objective reasons I can share. I make a habit of reviewing older work a year or more after I make the photographs. I see the images differently with a bit more subjective distance from the actual experience. There’s another reason, too, and it ties the place I live (California) to Italy it ways that have only recently made more sense to me. This spring and summer as I’ve walked trails in California’s grass and oak lands on warm days, it has hit me just how similar the experiences can be. And a visit to an area winery on such a day reinforced that feeling. So I suppose I’ve been enjoying both the pleasant memories of the 2016 visit from which this photograph comes and the realization that I live in a place that shares some Italy’s pleasant features.

This is one of a pair of related photographs I made at an Italian vineyard and winery we visited — both focus on the stone buildings and midday shadows. (The related image will show up here in a later post.) The vineyard centers on a very old hamlet consisting of stone buildings surrounded by vineyard. We were there in the middle of the day, and the unique Italian light was wonderful. I’m not quite sure how to describe it in words, but it has some remarkable combination of the intensity of southern light along with the softness of the Italian atmosphere.

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.