Tag Archives: america

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

Summer, Sierra River

May 30, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Tuolumne river flows past forest and granite outcroppings on a summer afternoon.

This is a sort of “Sierra dreaming” photograph — a scene from last summer, of the sort that I’m looking forward to experiencing again this coming season. It is also a bit of a distraction from the fact that circumstances (nothing bad, just busy-ness and a deadline) have kept me away from the Sierra recently and will probably do so for another month of so. (Though I am sure that this particular spot, photographed in mid-July during a drought year, may look quite a bit different on that date this year!)

Many Sierra Nevada photographs focus on the monumental and spectacular — and for good reason. There are plenty of spectacular and monumental things in the range! But after many decades of wandering around these mountains I find that more and more it is more subtle features that define the experience for me and which draw me back again. This season I have started to see the reports of those venturing very early into the back-country, and each time I see another photograph of a bit of rocky trail, a path through forest, or a fast-flowing creek, it brings back my own memories of many such places — memories that go beyond the mere visual qualities to include sounds of water and rock, the fragrance of the trees, and the feeling of the breeze. Humor me with this somewhat unspectacular photograph of a place that isn’t special enough to be named — it, too, brings back almost all of those associations!

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

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

Tourists, Evening, San Francisco Bay

May 28, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Tourists pause in the evening at the end of a pier on San Francisco Bay

I was in San Francisco to meet up with a group of fellow (mostly) street photographers, first for dinner along the fringe of Chinatown and then out to make photographs afterwards. We finished dinner and headed out before sunset, beginning by photographing in the long shadows cast by early evening light in the downtown canyons. Since many in the group wanted to photograph the waterfront we headed that direction. I was geared up more for night street photography — typically done handheld rather than with the tripod I might choose to use for architectural or urban landscape photography — but I hung in with the group anyway.

At the waterfront, after wandering in and around some buildings, the group was of a collective mind to head out on one of the pedestrian piers that juts out into the Bay. Again, this was a bit different from what I had in mind, but there is no denying the attractions of being out over the surface of the Bay as the evening comes on and things quiet down. I photographed some fishermen, a few passing boats, bridges, and back towards the urban waterfront buildings.Eventually, as it became quite a bit darker, I took a moment to photograph a small group of what I assume must have been friends, sitting out near the end of the pier and conversing in the fading light.

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

Dunes, Mountains, Dust Storm, Rain

May 27, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening dust storm and rain in the evening in Death Valley

During the nearly two decades since my first visit to Death Valley I have seen my share of exceptions conditions there — a wildflower “bloom of the century,” snow on more than one occasion, unreal golden hour color, wild animals of various sorts. Once we even photographed wildflowers in a snow storm… in Death Valley. But this day was one of the wildest I have experienced, and the evening was like nothing I had seen or even imagined before. Much earlier in the day we photographed high in the Panamint Mountains, and by the middle of the day we could tell that a big dust storm was brewing. The atmosphere was opaque and glowing, and before long tendrils of blowing dust were passing high above the mountains. By the time we descended back into Death Valley a full-blown storm was underway. I had never seen as much dust or experienced winds quite so strong. In places this was no mere dust storm — it was a sand storm and even a pebble storm on at least one occasion. We finally gave up and headed to Stovepipe Wells and shut ourselves in our room as huge winds howled around the building and sand came into our room through every crack in the door or windows.

Hours later the wind began to subside and a bit of light appeared, so I decided to head out and see what I could find. I took a little-used gravel road up to a high spot overlooking a section of the Valley and waited to see what would happen. The dust storm was stilling in progress, but occasional breaks in the wind allowed me to make some photographs – only to be interrupted by huge gusts and more blowing dust. As the dust storm began to thin a bit it became apparent that there were storm clouds above the Valley, too, and — I’m not making this up! — as golden hour light began to arrive I watched thunder showers begin to drop sheets of rain onto the mountains above the still-raging dust clouds blowing along the Valley floor. “Apocalyptic” was the word that came to mind when I tried to describe what I was seeing. We respond to landscapes in many ways — they can be pretty, beautiful (not the same thing!), quiet, peaceful, static, dynamic, and more. But this landscape and these conditions provoked a powerful mixture of wonder and amazement and a kind of fear in the face of a landscape full of forces that made me feel very small.

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

Dunes and Sky

May 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light and clouds, sand dunes, Death Valley National Park

For photographers (and probably for others, too) sand dunes are a source of endless fascination. There is always something interesting, from the smallest scale (footprints of insects?) to the largest, all-compassing landscape. None of this is ever the same twice except in the most general ways. While the general configuration remains from year to year, the specific details change quickly, sometimes as you watch. And because the sand itself is a fairly neutral subject, the effects of light — its angles and qualities and colors — play out in unending ways on the dunes.

As is typical, we had wandered out amongst the dunes before sunrise, beginning to photograph in predawn light and then moving to larger landscape subjects as the first pink sunlight struck distant desert mountains. Before long the sun was up and the light began to lose the early hour color. This can make the scene extremely stark and harsh, but on this morning high clouds muted its intensity and we continued to photograph. I had a vague idea of a photograph combining dune textures and sky in a mostly abstract form, and this area of the dunes provided a subject that fit that concept.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: america

Summer, Sierra River

Dunes, Mountains, Dust Storm, Rain

Dunes and Sky

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