Tag Archives: basin

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Tree, Morning Light

October 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An aspen tree with morning backlight, photographed high above Bishop Creek Canyon

I’m continuing to indulge in my fascination with back-lit subjects today. This solitary aspen tree was located in an odd, out-of-the-way spot in the North Lake area, high in the Bishop Creek drainage. I had finished shooting at the lake and in the nearby aspen groves when I got the idea of walking the approach road a bit and finding a spot with a view to the canyon far below and to its shadowed walls on the far side of the canyon. For the sort of shot I had in mind, almost any small aspen tree would do as long as it was in the right place with the right background, and you would not think of this one as being anything special if you saw it – it is small, located on a dry and rocky section of hillside, and among a few other scattered small trees. However, it turned out to have what I wanted – a clear shot of the shadowed far hillside for background, separation from other trees, a few remaining leaves, and that backlight.

Photographing a location like North Lake can be an interesting experience. It holds at least a couple of the iconic Sierra autumn scenes with which many are familiar. (You can often find workshop participants lined up along a particular beautiful spot along the shoreline.) As with so many such subjects, most start with those impressive and familiar views – and they are worthy of photographs. But it is equally true that return visits to such a place, especially when they lead to more thorough observation, turn up a lot of interesting subjects that are not those familiar ones that first attracted our attention and lead to a much more complete knowledge of the place.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Owens Valley

Sand Tufa, Mono Lake

July 19, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light on details of sand tufa formations, Mono County.

I have wanted to photograph this subject for some time. The sand tufas are not found in the same location as the better-known “tufa towers” that are so often photographed, and they are smaller and somewhat subtler (if that is the right word) subjects. If you weren’t aware of what you were looking for, it would be very easy to pass right by them and barely notice their presence at all. They also appear to be very fragile, so great care should be taken if you ever happen to come across them. Walk around, not over or through them, and minimize your impact on them to the greatest extent possible. If you come across examples, it is probably best to not blast a lot of specific information to the world. I don’t know all of the details of their formation, but judging by their locations and by the recent history of lower lake levels, I suspect that they may have been underwater before the historically recent extraction of water from the eastern Sierra by Los Angeles.

If you are thinking of looking for an interesting and easy to shoot photographic subject, don’t bother with the sand tufa. You’ll probably have much better luck and more fun shooting the impressive and better known and larger “tower” features at other areas. These small structures do not tower above anything. Some are only inches tall, and the largest are just a few feet tall. Their natural color is a muted and, let’s be honest, boring gray color. Their location does not particularly allow them to be paired with more impressive and distant large-scale landscape features such as the expanse of the lake’s surface or the surrounding mountains and hills, with the possible exception of certain kinds of cloud formations. When I went there I had some pre-conceived ideas about I might photograph them, perhaps including the Sierra’s eastern escarpment in the images, but these ideas did not pan out. However, by shooting in the first few minutes of light and working with a long focal length to crop tightly I found some interesting fluted patterns to work with.

Community, Technique

Backpacking Photography Season Once Again!

June 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

It seems like a good time to once again share my Backpacking Photography Equipment post, since summer is nearly upon us, and many of you will soon be joining me to head into the back-country to make photographs. Some of you are trying to figure out the best balances of gear, weight, bulk, and complexity for doing photography on the trail using the trial and error (trail and error? trail of terror?) approach. Few years back I thought it might be helpful to share “my own backpacking equipment” list along with some ideas about how to select and use it.

The article is here: My Backpacking Photographing Equipment.

Enjoy! And see you on the trail!

A little more about the photograph included in this post… The two backpackers are my long-time “trail buddies,” Owen and Caroline, with whom I’ve spent many weeks on the trail in the High Sierra. On this trip we visited a lonely and less-visited area in the Upper Kern River drainage. The night before we had camped in a place where it was almost possible to convince oneself that no one else had been there before – a truly rare and cherished Sierra experience. The next morning we descended a drainage that passed through beautiful rock-garden meadows filled with tumbling streams. As the two of them crossed this meadow I quickly dropped my pack and made a couple of handheld shots.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building Facade, Reflections

June 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The facade of a San Francisco building reflects the image of nearby buildings and the sky.

I enjoy looking for reflections in large, glass-facade downtown buildings in San Francisco and other urban centers. I find the reflections fascinating, especially when they hold complete images of other buildings or sky, the way that they acquire various distortions, and when the reflections begin to visually merge with the image of the building itself.

I spotted this building as the train approached the Fourth and Townsend Caltrain Station in San Francisco, so by the time the train stopped I had figured out that I needed to wander on over to this spot to see if I could find a photograph. I made a bee-line for the general area of the building that I had seen, and I soon figured out who to put together an image that included a wide range of materials: the building itself, the interior spaces beyond the window glass, the reflections of sky and clouds, and more. I especially like the bits of orange reflection from a building behind my camera position.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: basin

Aspen Tree, Morning Light

Sand Tufa, Mono Lake

Backpacking Photography Season Once Again!

Building Facade, Reflections

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