Tag Archives: brown

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees and Meadow, Morning

September 19, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late season golden morning light on trees at the edge of Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

It is probably no secret that there are certain kinds of light that especially appeal to me. Among my favorite is early morning sunlight, shining through a bit of atmospheric haze, and illuminating trees. On top of that, I’m a big fan of the warm golden-brown tones of September and autumn in the Sierra. With all of that in mind, how could I resist this subject?

I was in Tuolumne Meadows for a couple of nights in mid-September, with two main goals in mind. First, I wanted to spend a few days at altitude before heading over to the east side to meet friends for a short pack trip up into McGee Canyon. Second – or perhaps this should be first – I wanted to do some photography in the area along Tioga Pass Road between roughly Olmsted Point and the pass itself. I arrived late the first day, with just enough time to set up camp, grab something to eat, and head out to shoot the evening light. I was up reasonably early the next morning and out and about looking for subjects before the sun came up. I decided to stick fairly close to the meadows this time, and after heading to the west end and looking back I saw this beautiful warm light coming across the meadow as the sun topped the crest near Mount Dana, and silhouetting a small group of tall trees at the meadow’s edge.

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: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brown Wall with Pipes and Worn Paper Figures, Fremont District

May 30, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Worn paper figures glued to a brown wall with pipes and conduit, Fremont District, Seattle Washington.

This was one of the first photographs I made on my early May visit to the Fremont district of Seattle with a group on a “Seattle Photowalk” between Fremont and the Gas Works Park. Although they were going to make an evening of it, I was only able to join them for about an hour – but it turned out to be a productive hour as I came back with nearly a dozen photographs that I like.

Once I got in the spirit of the place, I found the visual opportunities in Fremont to be quite interesting. There is a lot of the expected urban funkiness, with old buildings, small business crammed in odd corners, old structures, a waterfront, bridges overhead, and a few truly odd features such as the Lenin statue where the group met up. It is the sort of place I might initially look at and wonder what I’m going to shoot, only to discover ten minutes later that there almost more potential subjects than I know what to do with. This section of a brown wall was one of my first subjects. Initially the interesting pattern of crisscrossing conduit and pipes caught my attention, but when I looked closer I noticed the remnants of what might have been a small collection of paper figures glued to the wall.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Creek, Late Winter

March 7, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Golden light reflects on the muddy winter flow of Redwood Creek as it flows over boulders and new late-winter growth.

Even in this dry year in Northern California, there is finally water running in the creeks of the redwood forests. I arrived fairly early on this early March day, looking for trillium flowers. (Although they are not the subject of this photograph, I did find those flowers later on this visit.) As I walked up the trail to enter this park, the sun had risen but it was too early for its light to make it down to the forest floor or to the creek. However, the reflected light of the sun hitting trees high overhead was turning the water a sort of golden brown color, which contrasted in a striking way with the bluish light on the rocks and in some of the shaded areas of the water. New spring (though that season was still several weeks away) growth was coming up everywhere, including in shallow areas of the creek such as this one.

Because I could not get right down to the creek here, I actually photographed this with a fairly long telephoto lens. I had to look around carefully to find a spot where there was enough of a break in the foreground vegetation to provide me with a gap to shoot through. I was also lucky that the plants were not moving a lot in the creek, since the exposure time was surprisingly long – there isn’t a lot of light down in the bottom a canyon through the redwood forest!

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Owens Valley, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Owens Valley, Tungsten Hills, and Mount Tom

January 29, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Massive Mount Tom rises above the Tungsten Hills and the high desert terrain of Owens Valley near Bishop, California.

When I’m driving to a photography destination, I often have to suppress the desire to stop and make photographs along the way. If I’m not careful, I can end up spending extra hours on the drive and arrive too late. (Sometimes I plan extra time for my long drives just to accommodate my need to stop and photograph en route.) I cope with sighting photographic potential as I drive by either pretending it isn’t there, filing it away for a later trip… or occasionally giving in and stopping.

As I headed down highway 395 on this winter afternoon, on my way to get a camp site in Death Valley, I was aware of the fact that if I took too long I would end up having to find a camp site and set up camp after dark when I arrived – and my destination was still hours away. But after descending to Round Valley just north of Bishop, California I became more aware of the interesting and somewhat unusually afternoon winter light and I finally just had to make a quick stop. The foreground Owens Valley high desert plants had lost all of their “green,” and now had a range of shades of yellow, brown, red, white, black, and even a bit of near-purple. Beyond them the Tungsten Hills began the rise from the valley toward the crest of the eastern escarpment of the Sierra, here dominated by the bulk of massive Mount Tom, a very tall peak that appears even larger because it sits more to the east than most of the other high peaks. The combination of backlight from above the range and high, thin clouds created a sort of muted sunny effect.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: brown

Trees and Meadow, Morning

Brown Wall with Pipes and Worn Paper Figures, Fremont District

Redwood Creek, Late Winter

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