Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest Floor, Late Summer

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Forest Floor, Late Summer
Forest Floor, Late Summer

Forest Floor, Late Summer. Yosemite National Park, California. September 6, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Late-summer forest floor littered with fallen cones, branches, needles, and leaves.

As summer comes to an end in the high country of the Sierra Nevada, as it was during my early September visit this year, the moisture, growth, and greenery of the early season begins to give way to the drier and more brown conditions signaling the coming of fall. The short period of rapid summer growth ends, and the mountains seems quieter.

We spent several days camping and photographing at a small lake, taking the time to explore and even to return to places to photograph them more than once. By staying in one place for a time, it becomes possible to see things that are easily overlooked during a shorter stay. Initially the dramatic granite features around the lake drew our attention, but after a few days we became more interested in subtler things, including a low, grassy area near the outlet stream of the lake that some of us might have first dismissed. On this morning I was simply wandering slowly though this area, now looking more closely and at smaller things, when I saw the still-shadowed ground densely covered by a carpet of pine cones.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Ideas, Morning Musings

Quotations and Photographs (Morning Musings 9/21/14)

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Self-portrait with Friedlander Poster - SFMoMA
Self-portrait with Friedlander Poster – SFMoMA

With partially ironic intent, I’m going to begin this Morning Musings post with two quotations. I snagged from the web by doing a quick search on “quotations about quotations” and, in line with common web practice, I simply present them for what they appear to be — I have not checked to validate the sources. Hey, it’s the internet! ;-)

“In the garden of literature, the highest and the most charismatic flowers are always the quotations.”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“He wrapped himself in quotations – as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.”
― Rudyard Kipling, Many Inventions

I’ve thought about this quite a bit, largely in the context of the (increasingly?) common practice of attaching quotations to photographs. I think that there are things about this practice that seem useful and beneficial, but there are also some aspects that seem a bit problematic, at least to me, and I’d like to briefly explore this in an entirely incomplete way.

I can call up a few relevant quotations pretty quickly when necessary. Some of you may have seen me post a favorite John Muir quote as a way of acknowledging that I’m heading of into the mountains: The mountains are calling and I must go.  Continue reading Quotations and Photographs (Morning Musings 9/21/14) →

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Urban/Street

Cloud Gate

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Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate

Cloud Gate. Chicago, Illinois. August 2, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Chicago’s Cloud Gate reflecting the city skyline

The Cloud Gate sculpture is one of the iconic sights of downtown Chicago, visited by many people and photographed by almost all of them! It stands in an accessible and central section of the lakeside Millennium Park, just across the street from central downtown areas. We wandered past twice on two different days as we walked around this area during our visit. (There are other fascinating public art installations in the surrounding area, too.)

The sculpture is impressive in photographs, but I did not realize how large it is in person. It is remarkable in a number of ways, not the least of which is the effect it has had on the public consciousness. In a purely objective sense, the existence of such a huge, unbroken and curving reflective surface is a marvel. And it is also, to be plain, a lot of fun — it is hard to imagine how anyone could resist playing around with the distorted reflections it produces. Having seen so many photographs of the thing I first resisted the temptation to shoot it, instead just looking. Then I thought that it might be interesting to photograph the ways that people interact with the sculpture, so I took the camera out and started shooting.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Morning Musings

Aspen Color Update (Morning Musings 9/20/14)

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Aspen Tree, Morning Light - An aspen tree with morning backlight, photographed high above Bishop Creek Canyon
An aspen tree with morning backlight, photographed high above Bishop Creek Canyon *

Today’s Morning Musings post is a brief summary of some things I’m hearing about the development of the eastern Sierra fall aspen color. With the exception of some things I saw a week and a half ago in the Yosemite backcountry, what follows is entirely second-hand information, gleaned from descriptions and photographs I’ve seen posted here and there on the web. (That means that you will likely want to do whatever other checks you normally rely on if you want more detailed and specific information.)

I usually target the first week of October for my first serious aspen photography in the eastern Sierra, but in recent posts I have mentioned the widespread feeling that the color just might come early this year. I also wrote about seeing some strong signs of autumn color in northern Yosemite during  the first two weeks of September, earlier than I would usually expect to see such things.

After reading some years of the annual excitement of “the aspens are changing early this year!” following the discovery of an odd tree here or there with some yellow leaves, I’m usually pretty cautious about reports of early color. However, I’m starting to hear and see a significant number of reports and photographs suggesting that things really are getting underway early this time. Continue reading Aspen Color Update (Morning Musings 9/20/14) →

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