Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Foliage, Wetlands

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Autumn Foliage, Wetlands
Autumn foliage and a reflecting pond under late Autumn skies

Autumn Foliage, Wetlands. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn foliage and a reflecting pond under late Autumn skies

Fall color varies a great deal from location to location. My East Coast friends remind  me that I haven’t seen anything quite like the forest-wide flood of color that happens there every fall — and they are probably right. (I still need to go to New England and photograph fall color. Too many subjects, too little time! ;-) On the other hand, we West Coast dwellers have a few special opportunities of our own, at least if we have learned where to look for them. One of these opportunities comes from the extraordinarily long color season.

I usually see my first indications of “fall” color in the Sierra as early as late-August. The first hints are subtle, but by halfway into September they are becoming pretty obvious, with the first aspens changing colors, and by early October the show in the Eastern Sierra is quite amazing. Because of the elevation range and north/south extent of the Sierra, the color lasts a long time — higher and more northerly color may come first, while lower elevation color may still be appearing over a month later. Once the aspens are done, the cottonwoods and other lower-elevation trees come into form. At the western Sierra foothill elevations the color can peak close to the beginning of November, and out in the Great Valley and closer to the coast there can still be excellent color in December! That’s when I photographed this group of trees, reflected in a pond and underneath autumn clouds… and at the peak of their seasonal color transformation.

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

Window, Shutters, Bicycle

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Window, Shutters, Bicycle
Heidelberg street scene with bicycle, window, and colorful reflections, shutter, and door.

Window, Shutters, Bicycle. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Heidelberg street scene with bicycle, window, and colorful reflections, shutter, and door.

This is another little scene we found on a walk along back streets of Heidelberg Altstadt. The main street is very busy, and lined with businesses appealing to the many tourists who go there. You can find some of that stuff on the other streets but much less of it, and there are fun little vignettes that seem a bit (humor me here!) less contrived… and you certainly don’t see the chain businesses that are part of the busier areas.

It was also a bit easier to photograph here since there the crowds of people are largely missing. So we walked these streets slowly, with two goals — making a few photographs and finding a place for lunch! Both had successful outcomes. This window, combined with the green shutter, the blue door, and the red/orange reflected wall produced a striking color pattern. Oh, and a bit later we located a little restaurant that wasn’t too busy where we ordered a beers and food.

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: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Beach, Evening Surf, Big Sur

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Beach, Evening Surf, Big Sur
Wnter surf rolls onto a Big Sur coastline beach at sunset.

Beach, Evening Surf, Big Sur. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter surf rolls onto a Big Sur coastline beach at sunset.

The Big Sur coastline, along the Pacific Coast Highway between San Francisco and Southern California is — not a secret! — a spectacular place. It is also a place of contrasts — between land and sea, between calm summers and stormy winters, between wild surf and quieter times. A week ago I visited during high surf, with waves of up to forty feet high battering the shoreline. This time, as we took the look route back north from Los Angeles, the ocean was quiet.

Since we were driving through and photography wasn’t my primary reason for being there, we took the scenery as it came. During the final hour of daylight I began to think about finding a spot to stop and photograph the last few minutes of light. With ten minutes to spare we came around a headland and I saw this familiar scene of coastal mountains and bays extending to the north, with the Pacific Coast Highway (and one of its famous bridges) dwarfed by the landscape. I quickly found a spot along the edge of the bluff to set p my tripod, and I had a few minutes to photograph gentle evening color and coastal haze before an offshore cloud bank “turned out the lights.”

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: England, Photographs: People, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

At the MillenNium Bridge

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At the Millennium Bridge
People, clouds, and sky, London

At the Millennium Bridge. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People, clouds, and sky, London

We have been to London a few times in recent years, and our latest visit was this past summer, when we spent just a few days there near the start of our long travels through portions of Northern Europe. We “staged” our transit, starting with a three-hour time change and a few days in New York, followed by the six-hour time change between there and London, and then a few days to adapt in London before heading on to the next place.

The visit was short, so we didn’t schedule a lot of specific events, aside from one of the “Proms” concerts. This left us with time to wander. As always happens at some point, we ended up crossing this bridge. On the south side, near the Tate Modern, the bridge sort of splits into two halves, with a descending ramp heading back between the two sections as it drops toward the walkway along the River Thames. On an early visit I become intrigued with this as a spot to photograph the bridge, the city, and the people passing by. As we dropped down that center ramp I looked up and saw this fellow “posing” against a striking 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” 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.