Tag Archives: abstract

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Reflections

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Aspen Reflections
Autumn aspen trees reflected in an eastrern Sierra Nevada pond.

Aspen Reflections. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn aspen trees reflected in an eastrern Sierra Nevada pond.

Each year at about this time I ask, “Is it ever too early to start thinking about fall color?” The answer, of course, is no. Autumn is my favorite season for all kinds of reasons — the colors, of course, but also the return of cooler temperatures and “interesting” weather and shorter daylight hours. The period between Labor Day and the arrival of late-autumn snow is my favorite time in the Sierra. There’s nothing as beautiful as a late-September or early-October day in the high country.

As a person who has photographed Eastern Sierra aspens a lot — and who has written a book on the subject — the way I see this subject has evolved over the years. While I’m still impressed by a hillside completely full of colorful trees, I am constantly looking for other ways to photograph this subject. Here I aimed the camera down toward the surface of an Eastern Sierra pond, framing to exclude anything but the brilliant colors of a grove on the other side of the water.

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: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Virtual Surfaces

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Virtual Surfaces
Distorted reflections in the windows of a San Francisco building.

Virtual Surfaces. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Distorted reflections in the windows of a San Francisco building.

Almost every time I photograph in big city (and sometimes small city…) downtowns I end up getting distracted by the things reflected in the windows of tall buildings, and by how they relate to the forms of these architectural structures.

Buildings of certain styles and vintages have exteriors that are largely glass. While these buildings have physical forms and volumes, what we see of them is more a result of what is around them than of their own shapes. I’m intrigued by how little of what we see when we look at such structures is actually the structures themselves — most of what we see is virtual, imaginary, and transitory. In this photograph, all you see of the buildings actual exterior are a few non-reflective areas between windows — some dark horizontal strips and a few lighter vertical panels. Everything else in the image is either inside the building (a few interior lights seen through the windows) or a distorted reflection of the building’s surroundings.

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.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building and Reflections

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Buiolding and Reflections
One Front Street in black and white, San Francisco.

Building and Reflections. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

One Front Street in black and white, San Francisco.

At this point it is probably no secret that I like photographing urban subjects — not just nature — and that the urban landscape is near the top of my list. I’m fascinated by city subjects, from the bustle of people-filled scenes to the almost abstract possibilities found in modern buildings.

This is an often-photographed San Francisco building that towers above pedestrians in the central downtown area. The parallel curved structures extending skyward capture and reflect light in all sorts of interesting ways. Here the reflections of surrounding structures merge with the forms of the building itself.

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.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Sand Waves

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Sand Waves
Rising waves of sand in soft light, Death Valley National Park

Sand Waves. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rising waves of sand in soft light, Death Valley National Park.

This photograph comes from a memorable visit to a remote location in Death Valley National Park about eight years ago. I was in the park during the first few days of January. I saw far fewer other visitors than I usually encounter there these days, and I experienced some very cold temperatures! A few days earlier the thermometer in my vehicle registered at freezing as I drove below sea level very early one morning. On the morning after I made this photograph I finally got around to checking the temperature at around 9:00AM after the sun had come up, only to discover that it was still in the low twenties!

When I arrived at this location in the late afternoon there was only one other small group of visitors. (They were gone when I came back from photographing, and I had the place completely to myself that night.) I figured out where I would camp that night, and then I grabbed my photography gear and headed out into the nearby landscape of sand with distant vistas of playa and mountains. It was late enough the I soon found myself photographing the dunes in soft, post-sunset light.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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