Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Evening Clouds, Winter Wetlands

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Evening Clouds, Winter Wetlands
Dissipating rain clouds at dusk above winter wetland landscape

Evening Clouds, Winter Wetlands. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dissipating rain clouds at dusk above winter wetland landscape.

This past weekend I was doing the long drive back from Death Valley National Park to the San Francisco Bay Areas. This is quite a drive — a long one that takes the better part of a full day, and a route that begins in one of the most arid locations in North America and ends in the cool and moist Bay Area. I have various ways to break up the long drive, and one of them is often to make a final stop at one of the great Central Valley wetland areas a couple of hours from my destination.

In fact, that was my plan on this trip. I wasn’t sure of the weather of my timing, but as I came to the base of Tehachapi Pass in Bakersfield it looked more like my schedule and the weather might cooperate, so I eschewed the usual I-5 homebound route and instead headed up Route 99, with a plan to cut over to wetland further up the Valley. I arrived to find… not too many birds (it was, after all, late in the season) but ponds full of welcome water reflecting a sky filled with dissipating rain clouds.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: People, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Photographers

Three Photographers, Evening Dunes

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Three Photographers, Evening Dunes
Three photographers deep within evening sand dunes

Three Photographers, Evening Dunes. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three photographers deep within evening sand dunes.

In early March I had the opportunity to spend a few days back in Death Valley National Park. Although I was primarily there to meet up and camp with siblings, this was also a photographic opportunity. There were both pluses and minuses to the timing of this visit. Recent heavy rains and creating flooding everywhere, and many routes were closed by the flooding or wash-outs — there simply were quite a few places that one couldn’t go. At the same time, these are “special conditions” in this desert landscape, and there were quite a few unusual opportunities.

Once in the park I discovered that some friends from the Yosemite area were also their to make photographs. We managed to meet up on my second full day, and we combined forces to photograph Mesquite Dunes early one morning. Later I returned to this area of the Vally to photograph in fading light as clouds tried to clear. Right at sunset there was a break in the clouds just above the western horizon and brighter light came through to shine on the geography. I found myself a high place with a commanding view over a large swath of the landscape and began to photograph whichever areas momentarily picked up the light. As I looked down I spotted my three friends again, this time dwarfed by the large shapes of desert dunes.

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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Gated Community

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Gated Community
Doorways with metal security gates in a San Francisco neighborhood

Gated Community. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Doorways with metal security gates in a San Francisco neighborhood.

The title of the photograph is, obviously I hope, an ironic joke. This community relies on gates, but it is hardly the sort of place the comes to mind when we think of a “gated community,” an exclusive sort of place where “regular people” are perhaps not welcome. Here there are gates, too, but on individual doorways of residences and businesses, reflecting the reality of life in areas of inner cities.

The gates intrigue me — what lies behind them, and what is it like to live behind them? But the shapes and patterns produced by the gates, with their vertical texture, the colorful vertical row of painted tiles, and the larger wall surface that has clearly been painted over many times, most likely to cover up graffiti.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Mount Dana

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Mount Dana
Mount Dana, against a sky full of summer thunder clouds

Mount Dana. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Mount Dana, against a sky full of summer thunder clouds.

This photograph comes from last summer, on a lovely mid-July day when I was slowly poking around a few locations near the eastern Yosemite boundary on a relatively early visit to the high country. You never know, from year to year, what you’ll find there in July. In a very snowy year this scene could still hold a lot of snow, but in 2018 the snowfall had been less impressive, and most of it was already gone. The creeks were still high and meadow grasses were coming up, with the promise of wildflowers soon to arrive.

The peak itself is on the park boundary, and the view here looks toward the side that is inside the park. However, my camera location was outside the park, in an area that has long intrigued me — for this view, for views back up to the crest north of Tioga Pass, and for some of the more intimate nearby views. It was a cloudy day, and alternative light and shadow moved across the landscape, changing the appearance from moment to moment.

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.