Tag Archives: afternoon

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

Dunes, Mountains, Haze

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Dunes, Mountains, Haze
Afternoon winds and blowing sand soften the contours of sand dunes and desert mountains

Dunes, Mountains, Haze. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Afternoon winds and blowing sand soften the contours of sand dunes and desert mountains

For us, the drive to Death Valley from the San Francisco Bay Area is always a long one, even when we break it into sections as we did on this trip. We came through Trona and up the Panamint Valley, then following the newly reopened Wild Rose Canyon Road up into the mountains. Along the way to made a few stops in this range, and finally ended up in Death Valley itself in the middle afternoon. After getting settled in following the drive it is very tempting to just be lazy! However, we were there (mostly) to make photographs, so we got to work.

For me, the first photography of almost any trip amounts, to some extent, to a sort of warm-up exercise. I may (or may not) have a particular photograph or subject in mind, but it is important to get the camera out, head into the field, and start making photographs right away, if for no other reason than to “prime the pump” for the rest of the visit. We we headed to the dunes, stopping at a place where few others go, shouldered tripods, packs and cameras, and headed out to see what we could find. I had my sights on some low dunes where various vegetation grows, but along the way I looked toward the more distant higher dunes and spotted this beautiful backlight and haze as wind began to blow sand into the air from the dune ridges.

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: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Crossing Lexington

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Crossing Lexington
A man crosses Lexington on a winter afternoon in New York City

Crossing Lexington. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man crosses Lexington on a winter afternoon in New York City

I made this photograph on one of the coldest in a string of very cold winter days in New York City between Christmas and New Year’s Day. On such days we still were out walking around Manhattan quite a bit, but we also sought out shelter and warmer activities. On this day the plan was to visit an exhibit at the Guggenheim. We took the subway up there and arrived late enough that we had to join a line waiting, we presumed, for folks in the already-crowded building to leave so that we could enter. After fifteen or twenty minutes in the line, standing in freezing wind, we realized that the line was not moving at all, and we bailed out for a nearby restaurant where we could warm up.

After lunch we ended up on Lexington, where there was plenty to see and photograph. Many of my photographs on this afternoon took advantage of winter sunlight obliquely slanting across buildings and windows and reflecting onto the sidewalk and street. However, the light for this photograph was different — a sort of soft glow filtering down from the strip of sky above the street. This is a busy place, but during a momentary break in the pedestrian and vehicle traffic this solitary man slowly crossed the street in front of me.

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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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

Pedestrians, Lexington Avenue

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Pedestrians, Lexington Avenue
Pedestrians cast shadows as they walk past reflecting windows on a Lexington Avenue sidewalk, Manhattan

Pedestrians, Lexington Avenue. Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pedestrians cast shadows as they walk past reflecting windows on a Lexington Avenue sidewalk, Manhattan

I think that so-called street photography (which might be termed “urban landscape” photography) can do many things. Some try to constrain it, offering limiting definitions that call for monochrome, handheld cameras, photographs featuring people, and a certain direct approach to dystopian unpleasantness. While it can be that, it can be other things, too. The focus can be the light, the geometry, the individual and collective people, oddities, visual beauty, the constructed environment, and much, much more. And (despite this example!) there is nothing requiring it to be black and white and look like it was created with the photographic technologies of any particular era.

In this case, my thoughts were mostly about shapes and light when I made this photograph. (That doesn’t mean that we aren’t free to make other associations.) On this date, close to the winter solstice, the light shines obliquely up streets like this one in Manhattan, and because this section of Lexington is relatively wide and in an area with few really tall buildings, quite a bit of that light finds its way down to the street and sidewalk. As I walked into this light, I was looking for certain effects that are mostly found in such urban environments, especially the multi-directional light produced when the direct sunlight combines with light reflected from buildings and windows.

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

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

Back-lit Trees and Ridges

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Back-lit Trees and Ridges
Low, late afternoon sun back-lights autumn aspen trees and receding ridges, Eastern Sierra Nevada

Back-lit Trees and Ridges. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 8, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Low, late afternoon sun back-lights autumn aspen trees and receding ridges, Eastern Sierra Nevada

What can I say? I love back-light! The more difficult the light, the more I like it. Often I shoot almost directly into the sun when it is low in the sky, especially when there is some haze that makes the atmosphere appear to glow. (I’ve become adept at shading the lens from the direct light — using my hand, my hat, or anything else handy to try to prevent lens flare and reduce the hazy quality that comes when this light is directly on the lens.) The kind of light I’m looking for is the sort that is too bright to look at.

We arrived at this location late in the day, as per my plan. I know it well enough to recognize that the light can become quite interesting just before the sun drops behind mountains to the west. For a short time the light slants across the landscape, almost parallel to the slope of the land as it drops to the east. This produces that glow I mentioned, it accentuates the atmospheric recession effect, and the leaves of trees can glow with the light coming from behind. For this photograph I found a spot where lines of colorful aspens crossed the frame from bottom to about half way up, and then ridges continued the pattern until the final pattern with its row of conifer trees.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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