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February 25, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

For the past week I have been the grateful beneficiary of a Yosemite Renaissance “artist-in-residence” (artist-in-renaissance?) gig in Yosemite National Park. Here are a few brief, or so I hope, thoughts before I pack my vehicle, lock the cabin door, and head back to what passes for civilization.

I am grateful to Yosemite Renaissance and its director, Jon Bock, for giving me this opportunity. I appreciate your generosity, your belief in my work, and the chance to work uninterrupted and at my own pace for a week in the park.

I made a lot of photographs, though I almost never say too much about the results until I have a chance to work with the images over the next weeks and months. That said, the timing of this visit turned out to be fortuitous — in a season of too-warm temperatures and too-little precipitation, this week has been very cold and snowy! Yosemite in winter conditions are special — mist and flurries among peaks and spires, new snow on forest trees, colors and shapes muted by storms, all sorts of effects of light.

This morning I took a short walk near the cabin where I’ve been staying, and I thought a bit about what I got from this residency. I have come to Yosemite for decades. (My earliest memory is when I was perhaps five or six years old, and I was impressed by the boulders and rushing torrent of the Merced River behind our little El Portal motel — now long gone.) While I’ve spent lengthy periods in the backcountry, I don’t believe I have ever spent more than two or three successive days in the Valley. With this weeklong visit, the time pressure was off — I could investigate hunches, revisit locations several times, and work slowly and thoughtfully.

This led to another realization this morning. The week produced more than just one week’s worth of photography, and it connects previous experiences to future work. It fills gaps in my experience with the place and lays the groundwork for work to come.

This morning’s hike was an example. I carried camera equipment but made no photographs — the light wasn’t right. But I got to know a new area and spotted a few subjects for future photography, going so far as to consider how I might compose images there and what time of day and season might be ideal. I’ll be back.

Since I started by describing this as a “brief” note, and I’m already pushing the boundaries of “brief,” I’ll stop here, and conclude (for now!) by again expressing my thanks to Yosemite Renaissance.

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.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Coastal Cliffs, Mist And Shadows

February 25, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light illuminates ocean mist between cliffs descending to the Pacific Ocean

While spending a February morning and early afternoon photographing along the Big Sur coastline I passed by a rather famous and often crowded spot. Having visiting and photographed there many times, I wasn’t all that interested in stopping this time. However, I did look as I passed by, and I thought I saw some interesting light and spray down at the base of these cliffs.

By the time I saw it, there was no time to stop, so I continued on a bit, found a turnout, reversed direction and came back to look more closely. At this morning hour the western-facing cliffs are usually still in shadow, but the sun begins to rise high enough to send beams of light between them, lighting the mist and spray from surf and intensifying the color or the near-shore waters.

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

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Strolling Couple

February 24, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A couple walks past a white-painted brick wall

This photograph is a bit more “in your face” than most of my street photography. I’m generally not one of those “stick the camera in someone’s face” sort of photographers, preferring to be a bit less invasive of people’s space. (However, I can’t deny that photographing people who did not go out into the urban environment intending to be my subjects is, almost by definition, always at least a little bit invasive and aggressive.)

I’m hard pressed now to recall even making the photograph, which means it was most likely made very quickly and probably while I was walking. I could not have predicted the woman’s remarkable yawn — or perhaps she is singing? ;-)

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Point Sur, Horizon, Clouds

February 23, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Historic Point Sur is dwarfed by clouds and the Pacific Ocean

By the time I got to this point on the Big Sur coast on this February winter day, it was past early morning and the light was more that of the midday hours. Often that might mean that the light had become flat and uninteresting, but some clouds close to the shoreline, some sunlight in the distance, and some high clouds further on made even this daytime light interesting.

I’m very familiar with this spot, where a historic lighthouse facility sits on top of a remarkable hill that would be separated from the land but for a low, sandy peninsula connecting it to the shoreline. Photographing from some distance away with a long lens, and aiming pretty much straight into the brightest reflected light, the hill’s details almost disappear into shadow, and it appears to float in the light and water.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Heading Home

Coastal Cliffs, Mist And Shadows

Strolling Couple

Point Sur, Horizon, Clouds

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