Tag Archives: brown

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 is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.

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

Mustard Hills

January 27, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Evening light on the Mustard Hills, Death Valley National Park.

This photograph was made in a fairly accessible and “civilized” part of Death Valley not far from Furnace Creek and the old Harmony Borax Works. I have passed these hills many times, barely stopping aside from a time or two when I did a little loop drive while on my way to some other place. I did photograph in the area once before and even got one or two interesting photographs.

This time I decided to use one of the small, rounded hills as a overlook for shooting some distant shots of various portions of the Valley near sunset. By walking away from the highway, one can end up on top of any number of hills which happily show little evidence of being visited even though they are relatively accessible. I first did a bit of investigation to find the “right” hill, then hiked back to my car to pick up my camera, tripod, and bag of gear. Once I got back to the top of the hill, the shadows of the Panamint Range were already well across the main Valley and moving east quickly. I made a few photographs of the shaded valley and the lower slopes of the range, and then I turned my attention to the nearby yellow-tinted hills, looking for interesting near/far juxtapositions. I found this one literally seconds before the oncoming shadow of the Panamints arrived – in fact, it is beginning to diminish the foreground light in this shot, and in the one I made a few seconds later the light is greatly diminished.

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

Vacant Retail Space

January 25, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

An empty retail space after being vacated by a departing tenant.

Switching gears from the natural to the constructed, this is a photograph of a large and very vacant retail space in San Jose, California – shot on a late-December walk in a part of the city not far from where I live. This was once the location of a very busy and popular retail establishment that got caught by the current economic problems and some changes in technology that put their business model at risk. Only a very few hints of the nature of the original business remain at this point. The facility has now been vacant for several months, and despite new construction nearby it does not yet show any sign of new occupants coming in.

Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bench and Cinder Block Wall

January 5, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A bench, chained to the sidewalk, in front of a cinder block wall with male/female symbols.

This is one of “those” photographs – it probably completely baffles many who like my landscape and nature photography… and perhaps a few others as well. ;-)

I’m not quite sure why I wanted to photograph this little scene. The color palette, mostly fairly drab except for the pink circle, seemed a bit different. The almost random gender symbols (as much of them as you can see) on the wall behind the bench seem odd and surprising. (There was probably once a shop in this building that was connected to that sign, but it is no longer there.) If we want to get philosophical – and why not? – the juxtaposition of an unoccupied bench with those symbols could be read in a variety of ways, and the fact that the bench is cabled to the ground is also interesting. In any case, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: brown

Mustard Hills

Vacant Retail Space

Bench and Cinder Block Wall

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