Tag Archives: blue

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Colorful Desert Hills, Morning

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Colorful Desert Hills, Morning
Multi-colored strata in eroded desert hills

Colorful Desert Hills, Morning. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Multi-colored strata in eroded desert hills.

The colors of some of the strata laid bare in desert regions like this one are sometimes wild and occasionally unbelievable. The blue tones often provide some of the most striking surprises, since that may be the last color we expect to see in soil or large expanses of rock — reds, browns, yellows are far more common.

I made this photograph in a little area that is almost a lab of eroded forms and varied colors. I like to photograph here in the morning, when I often have the place to myself and when there is the possibility of soft, low-angle light. Here the strata of tan, red, and blue materials run at right angles to the lines produced by erosion.

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: Nature

Lupine And Paintbrush

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The flowers of lupine and paintbrush plants, Pinnacles National Park
The flowers of lupine and paintbrush plants, Pinnacles National Park

Lupine And Paintbrush. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The flowers of lupine and paintbrush plants, Pinnacles National Park.

I found these wildflowers — lupine and paintbrush — along the High Peaks Trail and Pinnacles National Park on a recent visit this spring. I had gone there to try to catch the tail end of the spring wildflower season, which was quite good this year following heavier-than-average rainfall. I also felt like it was time for a good hike over some mountainous terrain. This route gave me both.

While wildflower photography constitutes a small portion of my work, I’ve been attracted to the subject ever since I started going into outdoor places decades ago. This year, for the first time, I finally have a macro lens, arguably the ideal tool for this subject. My ideal wildflower subject probably has some combination of the following: an interesting flower or flowers, perhaps some colors that are both striking and interact well, soft light, a background that is either not distracting or which can be made so with focusing techniques. This one group of flowers gave me most of that. In an area that was largely in sun and mostly featured clumps of individual types of flowers, here I found the red paintbrush and the blue/purple lupine juxtaposed in a narrow band of shade.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Creosote Bushes, Dunes

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Creosote Bushes, Dunes
Creosote plants and soft, blue-tinted pre-sunrise light on Death Valley sand dunes.

Creosote Bushes, Dunes. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Creosote plants and soft, blue-tinted pre-sunrise light on Death Valley sand dunes.

No, I’m still not done with the Death Valley photographs! This shouldn’t be a surprise — I was there twice so far this year. Both trips were made primarily for the purpose of photography, and I had a total of about eight days to do this work. I made this photograph on the second visit, during the first week of April when the seasonal change takes off, the weather begins to noticeably warm, and when the plants tend to come back to life.

We were out in the dunes reasonably early on this morning, and I made this photograph before the sun had yet risen, in that quiet and still time before dawn when the light is soft and still has a bluish cast. Shortly after we entered this area of the dunes I climbed to a ridge of sand overlooking a large area and set up. Most of the photographs I made here on this morning came from essentially this one spot — I probably didn’t move more than 25 feet from the initial spot as I looked to refine compositions. I loved the foreground line of creosote plants. Most of them seemed to be dead or dormant, though the plant at the left was turning green and sending out new flowers.

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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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.

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Purple, Green, Blue, And Red

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Purple, Green, Blue, And Red
Objects along the sidewalk, San Francisco

Purple, Green, Blue, And Red. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Objects along the sidewalk, San Francisco.

Given its title, it should be obvious that this photograph is, at least in part, about the colors I found in this little downtown San Francisco scene. The specific location probably isn’t too important, though it is a central city area that is not one of great wealth and privilege, but which is perhaps under some pressure from the developmental forces currently bringing radical changes to the qualities that made this city famous.

Sometimes I just make photographs without analyzing too much, and you could look at a photograph like this in much the same way. But sometimes I do ask myself questions, such as “Why would I want to photograph something like this?” The answer is too complex for a two-paragraph web post — and I’m not sure that I know the complete answer — but I do know that I’m looking for order relationships among things that might not be objectively related. (Here those elements include the conjunctions of color and objects.) I’m also, I think, trying to see things for “what else they might be.”

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.