Tag Archives: america

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Abandoned Scooter

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Abandoned Scooter
A scooter lies abandoned on a San Francisco sidewalk

Abandoned Scooter. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A scooter lies abandoned on a San Francisco sidewalk.

I almost stepped on this scooter while walking through a section of San Francisco. Scooters are everywhere it our urban environment now — the new electric rental scooters abandoned on sidewalks along with the smaller number of scooters owned by individuals… some of which rely on old-fashioned muscle propulsion. It is hard to say precisely why I photographed this one — in fact, a lot of my street photography is done quickly and without a lot of careful consideration. Stuff happens quickly “on the street.” I know that its weathered and broken character caught my attention, and the green color on the wheel is the sort of thing that often attracts my notice. It also seemed like its color was not that different from the concrete sidewalk on which it had been ab abandoned.

If you like looking for meaning in photographs — beyond the intrinsic meanings of form and color and texture and all of that stuff — you could problem find some in this scene. I’ll toss out a few thoughts to get you started, but I’ll also warn you that I likely didn’t think of any of them, at least not consciously, as I made the photograph. The red curb line at the top of the image indicates a place where there is no stopping. Finding such a popular and commonplace item as an urban scooter turned to trash brights thoughts about the disposable economy. Why is that rear wheel green? Perhaps you can think of others…

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: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Egret, Morning Light

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Great Egret, Morning Light
A great egret in California’s Central Valley

Great Egret, Morning Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great egret in California’s Central Valley.

Way back when I was a college student I first “discovered” egrets. I was in a general education science course that consisted of a sequence of short seminars on various subjects, and the professor teaching one on ecology was obviously an egret fanatic. I don’t recall many specifics from the course, but I recall his passion for “snowy egrets.” Later on, as a dedicated cyclist, I often rode past creeks and canals in the Bay Area where I spotted great egrets (not the same critter as the snowy egret), often simply resting but sometimes in flight. At that time I regarded them as exotic birds, since they were still new to me.

Of course, I eventually learned that they are all over California, wherever there are wetlands — from the Pacific shoreline to the Central Valley. As I learned more about other birds — cranes, geese, herons, ibises — I came to regard the egret as a much less exotic bird. Yet, there is nothing quite like the flight of a great egret, with that long neck, the pure white plumage, and the gigantic wingspan. This one managed to stay put on the ground long enough for me to take its picture on a recent, first-of-the-season bird photography foray into the Central Valley.

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.

Events, Locations, News, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife, Shows

Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival

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Every November there is a Sandhill Crane Festival in Lodi, California, celebrating the return of these marvelous birds. I’ve been meaning to enter some of my crane photographs for the past few years, and this year I finally did. Here are the three photographs appearing in the art exhibit at the festival.

I made the first one, “Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog” on a marvelous February morning a while ago. I had never seen so many birds at once, nor seen them quite this active. On top of that, the tule fog was just beginning to break up, and the atmosphere was luminous.

Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog
A foggy San Joaquin Valley winter landscape filled with geese and cranes

The second is “Two Sandhill Cranes in Flight,” a juxtaposition of two of the birds against the blue winter sky.

Two Sandhill Cranes in Flight
A pair of lesser sandhill cranes in flight above California’s San Joaquin Valley

Finally, “Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes” is a photograph of a group of cranes taking off from a shallow pond and heading toward the faint light of the rising sun on a very foggy morning.

Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes
A group of sandhill cranes takes to the morning sky above foggy marshland

If you are curious about these birds and want to know more and you life in Central California, a trip to the Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival this weekend can get you started. In addition to the art exhibit, there are lectures and guided tours to some of the nearby locations where you can find these birds. And the birds are there — I saw thousands of them this morning.

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: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Basin, Morning

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Mono Basin, Morning
Autumn wildfire haze slighlty obscures mountains on the far, eastern side of Mono Basin

Mono Basin, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn wildfire haze slighlty obscures mountains on the far, eastern side of Mono Basin.

Early on this autumn morning, before heading off to find aspen trees to photograph, we made a side trip to a high spot with a view of the Sierra Crest, Mono Lake, and most of the the Mono Basin. We arrived before sunrise and set up our equipment to photograph the sunrise, which turned out to be a subtle experience due to the prevalence of drifting wildfire smoke east of the Sierra Nevada.

Mono Basin is a gigantic landscape. It is one of those places where the scale is so grand that it is actually hard to realize just how big the distances are. This photograph looks across the surface of the huge lake to its far, eastern shoreline and to the dry mountain ranges beyond. That distant landscape lies in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, and it quickly takes on the dry quality of Nevada’s basin and range country.

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.