Tag Archives: america

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Meadow, Tarn, and Trees

Image July 29, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Small trees near timberline grow in a meadow surrounding a subalpine tarn

In the Sierra Nevada photographers are nearly always grateful for clouds. There is a reason that these mountains are referred to as the “range of light” — there is a lot of light! In the summer months we often experience many days of perfect blue skies, often without a single cloud in sight, at least if you don’t include jet contrails from the many routes passing above the range. Clouds play a small part in this photograph, but I think they make a difference.

I made the photograph very near Tioga Pass, along the Sierra crest. I rarely photograph in this specific spot since it can be busy place and it is a bit overdone. (I have plenty of work in my archives that I have photographed from right around here.) But on this day the late light, as the sun was just about to pass behind the tall ridge to the west, was both warm and softened by the clearing overcast. So I stopped and wandered briefly into this intimate landscape of trees, meadow, and tarn.

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Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrian With Bucket

Image July 28, 2018 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Two men walking, one with safety vest and bucket

I share this in my ongoing effort to perplex those who like my landscape photography… but aren’t so sure about the other stuff! Don’t worry, my intentions are entirely positive. I’ll remain a bit circumspect, but not entirely so. I like photographing urban scenes for a bunch of reasons, ranging from aesthetic to practical. On the practical side, they are often much more accessible — I can literally step out my front door and make photographs or perhaps find them at the end of a one-hour train ridge. They also challenge me to see in ways that are not in my native comfort zone, and they hone my ability to see quickly… which is a good thing. On the aesthetic side, if you know much about the history of photography and photographers, it is obvious that good work can be done in these places.

As to what is going on in this photograph, you shouldn’t view it though the lens of landscape photography. Well, OK, perhaps you could do that. This is a kind of landscape. It even includes some native “wildlife.” When you look at photographs of natural landscape, you probably look beyond the pure “beauty” of place and subject to consider the abstractions of from and color and implied motion and so forth. It might be worth trying the same thing with other subjects!

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Forest, Dome, and Ridge

Image July 27, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Stormy evening view from Tuolumne Meadows, across forest and granite dome, to the Sierra crest

This had been a challenging day for photography for the most part. While there was some good light in the early part of the day, later on the sky was covered by monsoonal clouds and building thunderstorms. It never really rained much where I was, but the potential was there and it did rain not far away. Thunderstorm photography can be exciting, especially if you are in a position where you can see the tops of the clouds… but down below, if the sky is completely overcast, the light can become blah and gray.

But there is always a hope that evening will bring a break-up of the clouds and even allow in some sunset light. By the time I made this photograph that process was already starting. The uniform cloud ceiling had begun to break up, with openings to blue sky here and there, and an occasional beam of light moved over the landscape. Here the light from the west, shining in beneath the clouds, illuminated the foreground meadow and the gigantic forests winding up the slopes toward granite peaks further away.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Tree, Lake, Reflected Mountains

Image July 25, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary tree, subalpine meadows, lake, and reflection of Sierra Nevada peaks

For this photograph I again travel back almost a full year, to a late summer photographic adventure into the High Sierra with a group of friends. We had much of our bulky and heavy equipment packed into this remote spot, though we carried our photographic equipment in on our backs. We remained here for about a week, with lots of time to explore and photograph the surrounding landscape.

The closest feature of interest was the meadow holding this subalpine lake. (We camped behind my camera position and on a rise that kept us out of the meadow. ) Early and late in the day the light around this lake could be beautiful, and I made this photograph in the morning while the water was still and the light slanted in from the east and left dramatic shadows on the landscape.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: america

Meadow, Tarn, and Trees

Pedestrian With Bucket

Forest, Dome, and Ridge

Tree, Lake, Reflected Mountains

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