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

Blue Hour: Lake and Fog

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Blue Hour: Lake and Fog
“Blue Hour: Lake and Fog” — Dusk fog rises from the surface of a subalpine lake reflecting a Sierra crest peak.

I had thought that I was done photographing for the evening when I passed this little lake and saw the fog rising in dusk light. The light was fading fast, so I quickly got out my tripod and set up for some relatively long exposures — this one was 15 seconds. The conditions arose after an afternoon and evening of rain ended and the skies began to clear, allowing fog to appear here and at every other similar body of water.

Photographs in these conditions — essentially twilight — test our understanding of what it means for a photograph to be “realistic.” The truth is that our eyes don’t see like this in extremely low light — so what you get here is a sort of “what the camera saw” image. (The eyes also do not interpolate drifting fog over a 15 second period!)

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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Croatia, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Travel

Lokrum Island, Adriatic Sea

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Lokrum Island, Adriatic Sea, Croatia
“Lokrum Island, Adriatic Sea” — Lokrum Island and the calm Adriatic Sea at Dubrovnik, evening.

We were in Croatia for a week and a half in the summer of 2023, at the end of a ten weeks of travel in (mostly Southern) Europe. Our visit to this country began with a few days in the remarkable old walled city of Dubrovnik. Late one day I decided it was time to circumnavigate the city on the walkways along the top of the old walls that surround it. The day came to an end as I walked, and I made this photograph right around dusk.

You have probably heard of the “rules of composition.” I’m pretty sure I violated most of them, if not all, in this photograph. “Rules” is the wrong context here — that word implies that there are specific right and wrong ways to approach composition. Instead the goal should be to understand the effects of compositional choices on the mood of a photograph. Here I wanted to express the stillness and lack of dynamism in this scene, its peacefulness and quiet. I think that the almost evenly divided vertical helps with that. And I wanted a bit of a sense of mystery — hence the bit of the island intruding into the frame from the far left.

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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

After the Storm — Mt Dana and Mt. Gibbs

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After the Storm: Mt Dana and Mt. Gibbs
“After the Storm: Mt Dana and Mt. Gibbs” — Mounts Dana and Gibbs in sunset light as a summer storm dissipates.

The best light often comes during or after photographically-challenging conditions. This view was no exception. It had rained for half of the day, hard at times, and I had been more or less pinned down, unable to do much photography. I watched and waited, ready to go, but it wasn’t until perhaps an hour before sunset that the rain finally stopped and it began to clear a bit.

I was camped just outside Yosemite’s eastern boundary, near Tioga Pass, so I quickly loaded up and went into the park. As I arrived in the Tuolumne Meadows area the clouds to the west were thinning and late-day light was staring to illuminate peaks, forest, and meadows, while the remaining clouds in the east made for a dramatic sky.

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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Portugal, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bubble Dancing

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Bubble Dancing
“Bubble Dancing” — Children dance and spread soap bubbles at the Praça do Comércio, Lisbon.

On our May visit to Lisbon (and a few other places) one of our first outings was to simply walk down the street to the Praça do Comércio square on the waterfront. It is a pretty obvious tourist thing to do, but it was the morning after a late arrival following about 20 hours of travel… so we were not up for anything too stressful.

Someone had a big bucket of soap and was making bubbles on the square, and a group of exuberant children was running and dancing around them, unconcerned about what anyone else might think.

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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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