Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Patterned Cliff Face, Detail

Image December 9, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small section of shaded Sierra Nevada cliff reveals remarkable details of dikes, fractures, color, and stains

Most often when I think of large rocky faces in the Sierra Nevada, the clean, smooth, and almost uniform faces of Yosemite granite come to mind — large expanses of nearly unbroken rock shaped by glaciers. However, when I get into the high country and the other areas of the range I am reminded that things aren’t quite so simple. In places you can find mountains cut through by giant dikes of non-granite rock, or you might encounter the remnants of more ancient layers that lay above the granite intrusions and today give us red, black and other colors of material.

Since I’m no geologist, I can’t explain the details of the face in this photograph, but I can share a few observations. It is the headwall of a high bowl that contains a subalpine lake, and the area does show signs of glaciation. The fact is gigantic, and this is just a small section. It is far from uniform, with mostly gray rock cut through by thick intrusions of lighter material, and the whole thing cracked and fractured. In many places the surface has been deeply stained as water has flowed or seeped across it.

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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: Germany, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Doorway, Heidelberg

Image December 8, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A graffiti-covered doorway on a narrow Heidelberg street

To the extent that a photograph can be “about” things — I tend to think that a photograph “is” a thing — this one is perhaps about my obsession with geometries, about light, and about the door, with its graffiti, and what that might tell us about the door and how people here treat this “street art.” And by “about” I don’t necessarily mean that it tells us about these things — more that it may be about questions raised by such things.

The doorway is on a back street in the old part of Heidelberg, where we wandered on an August day earlier this year. These colors and this sort of paint and decoration seem fairly characteristic of this area. As we walked, the left side of the street was in shadow and the right was struck obliquely by sunlight that was somewhat softened by hazy cloudiness. Without that filtering the light would likely have been almost to stark for the photograph. Here I notice, as I did with an earlier photograph from Amsterdam, that there seem to be some “rules” constraining the application of the graffiti. It is on the door but not, for the most part, on the walls. Oddly, it all seems to be in black or other very dark colors. (I actually wonder if it was created by the people who live/work in this building.)

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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

Trees, Granite, Reflections

Image December 7, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A granite outcropping and trees reflected in the surface of a subalpine Sierra Nevada lake

This scene was along the edge of a lake I visited on several evenings, hiking up from our base camp during our September week in the Eastern Sierra Nevada backcountry to make photographs. The logical starting point for photographs here was near the lakes outlet, where there was a small, rocky meadow and several nice granite outcroppings that extended into the lake. I initially began by photographing there.

But soon the light left that area and I decided to wander around a bit more. Not far away was a small bay extending off from the main body of the lake, and on the other side of this bay several attractively twisted and bent trees stood on and in front of a large granite outcropping.

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Photographs: Netherlands, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Garage

Image December 6, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Garage, Amsterdam

With some photographs I find it hard to explain what provoked me to stop and make and exposure, or even why I like it. Since not everything can be explained — though I may try! — I’ll share them anyway on many occasions. This is one of those images. We were walking quickly through a section of Amsterdam with very narrow streets when we passed this closed garage. At that moment I had the camera out and was photographing quite a bit… and this became one of the subjects.

There is something about the clean and simple patterns of the door, the stark contrast between very dark and very light tones, and the very simple sign above the door. In a world where such a business would more often have signage including a more lengthy and complex business name, plus descriptive text and probably things like phone numbers… this one simply states, “GARAGE.”

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Patterned Cliff Face, Detail

Doorway, Heidelberg

Trees, Granite, Reflections

Garage

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