Tag Archives: black and white

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Ocean, Winter Light

March 2, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Intense winter sunlight reflects on the cloud-shadowed surface of the Pacific Ocean along the Big Sur coast, California

From my perspective, winter is by far the most interesting time to visit and, especially, to photograph along California’s Pacific Ocean coastline. While summer is the popular season for travel, during that time of year the ocean tends to be tranquil and the weather is often foggy. While it is likely to be warm and sunny elsewhere in California in the summer, along the coast it can feel more like winter! But winter along the coast brings much more diverse conditions and even some surprising warmth when conditions are just right. When large Pacific storms churn away far north in the Gulf of Alaska, lines of huge waves may crash on the shoreline. When the storms arrive, the coastal areas can be whipped by wind-driven rain. But between the storms there can be days of crystal clear weather.

That was the weather on the last day of January when we took a long round trip down the Big Sur coast and back. Aside from some (beautiful!) coastal haze that glowed in the midday light, it was a clear day and surprisingly warm for the most part. Along the Big Sur coastline the Pacific Coast Highway alternates between the coastal lowlands and a track that takes it high into the rugged mountains along the shoreline. Vast expanses of the surface of the Pacific are visible from the highest spots, and as we started down from one of these high points we saw the water, with the color and texture of molten metal, stretching away into the sun and towards the horizon, with a few shadows from thin clouds darkening the water near the shore.

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

Lake and Rocky Peninsula

February 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Smooth water behind a small rocky peninsula reflects clouds above a high Sierra back-country lake, Kings Canyon National Park

We stopped at this small lake along the route to and from our destination during our September 2013 nine-day photographic excursion into the high Sierra back-country of Kings Canyon National Park. Between the trailhead and the 11,000′ basin where we camped for nearly a week, there was a 15+ mile hike, two near-12,000′ passes, and a final climb of well over a thousand feet – too far for our party to travel in a single day. So we ended up making a stop here on the inbound and outbound trips. This is a view a few steps away from our campsite near the outlet stream.

My previous visit to this lake had been several decades earlier, back on my very first solo Sierra Nevada backpacking trip. That is a story worth its own lengthy post at some point, but the most striking point may be that I decided that my very first solo trip would be two weeks long! Given that solo backpacking may strike some as a stretch in several ways, a shorter first trip might seem more sensible – but in retrospect I’m glad that I went out for so long. After a few initial days of dealing with the expected “issues” of solo backcountry travel, I got past those concerns and have rarely felt as connected to the natural world as I did during the second half of that trip. At about that point I stopped at this lake on the walk between Bubbs Creek and Rae Lakes, and I recall the next day’s climb to the Pass, where I sat for a long time, in no hurry to leave or get to any place in particular.

Commentary, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures

Illuminated Wall Panel

February 11, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Woven wall panel photograph — “Illuminated Wall Panel” — The patterns of an illuminated and woven wall in a New York City Chinese restaurant

We had arrived in New York earlier this afternoon, taking the subway in to Manhattan from Kennedy to get to our hotel on Canal Street. The plan was to get settled there — where we would stay for the next week — and then meet up with family and friends and walk to the Chinatown district for dinner. Christmas Eve, New York City, meeting friends and family, Chinese food – what could be better?

We found the restaurant and some of our party were already there. In a city like New York I almost always carry a camera and, yes, I took one to dinner with me. Most of the photographs are of people in our group – and I won’t likely post those here. But as we sat down, across the table was a very interesting wall — wide panels of some material that looked like very thin wood were woven together and lit from behind. I thought that the pattern might make an interesting photograph, so I made a single exposure… and went back to paying attention to the party!

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Person, Stairs, Wall, Windows

February 9, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A person ascends stairs inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

On this day, halfway through our late-December week in New York City, we finally had some bad weather. Not as bad as the snowstorms that shut down the city a week or so later, but enough cold rain that walking around Manhattan was starting to seem a lot less appealing than it had been the day before. We decided that the weather would make it a good day for indoor activities, so we got on the subway and headed up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art… where we joined what seemed like about half of New York City in using the Museum as a rainy day activity!

If you have been there, you know that this museum is huge – far too big to see the whole thing in a day. We’ve gone a number of times, each time poking into new areas that we had not seen before and visiting a few familiar areas. This time we visited some galleries displaying photography and finally ended up way in the back of the facility in a section of newer architecture. This seemed like an odd spot to me. What here looks like the exterior windows of a building, with a sidewalk in front, is actually inside the museum. If I recall correctly, it is in an area where new and old architecture meet.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: black and white

Ocean, Winter Light

Lake and Rocky Peninsula

Illuminated Wall Panel

Person, Stairs, Wall, Windows

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