Tag Archives: califoria

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Tall Aspen Grove, Autumn

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Tall Aspen Grove, Autumn
A small group of tall aspens with long, white trunks and colorful autumn foliage, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Tall Aspen Grove, Autumn. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A small group of tall aspens with long, white trunks and colorful autumn foliage, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This photograph is yet another example of the variety of colors during the Sierra Nevada autumn aspen transition. There’s still a bit of green, a lot of brilliant yellow, and highlights of red and orange here and there. Earlier in the season the predominant colors tend to be the yellows set against the greens. But by the second half of the month much (though not quite all) of the green is gone, and the more characteristic autumn colors clearly dominate.

This photograph is also another example of the value of long lenses for landscape photography. I use everything from 16mm to 400mm and sometimes longer for landscape. The long lenses let me photograph subject that are simply not accessible. They allow me to work at a distance from an elevated perspective that isn’t available closer to the subject. They are useful for narrowing down the scope of a composition and eliminating distractions. All of those were in play when I made this photograph.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Creosote and Curving Dunes

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Creosote and Curving Dunes
Curving sand dunes rise beyond a few scattered creosote plants.

Creosote and Curving Dunes. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Curving sand dunes rise beyond a few scattered creosote plants.

Well, this is becoming a bit ridiculous. More than once I thought I was at the end of this year’s Death Valley photographs. More than once I’ve been wrong, and a deeper dive into the files produced more images that seemed worthy of sharing. It appears that I’ve been wrong yet again! There’s this photograph, and I still see a few more that will get post-processing love in the near future.

We made a late afternoon visit to these dunes at the end of March. I felt that we’d need about an hour or an hour-and-a-half to photograph them leading up to sunset. The light looked promising in the afternoon and even as we arrived, but soon a thick bank of high clouds developed in the west. By “golden hour” the light was impaired by this development, though there were moments when the sun lined up with thinner clouds and the light took on a bit of a directional quality.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

December Surf, Big Sur Coast

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December Surf, Big Sur Coast
Huge December surf, fog, on the rugged Big Sur coast.

December Surf, Big Sur Coast. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Huge December surf, fog, on the rugged Big Sur coast.

This photograph is a square format counterpart to one I shared a few days ago from the same location, photographed on the same wild December day. As I stood on a rock cropping along the Big Sur Coast, huge waves rolled in, alternately revealing and burying the offshore rocks and producing prodigious spray that made the atmosphere above the water almost opaque. Beyond, above, and slightly inland the sun was up, and its backlight reflected off the water and made the fog glow. To say that this was an impressive scene would be an understatement!

I’m intrigued by the various ways we see (perceive, understand, interpret) color. In certain kinds of atmosphere and light, the colors can drain from the scene, leaving us with a virtually monochromatic effect. As was the case with the previous photograph from this spot, this is a color photograph, believe it or not. It was almost impossible to tell in the other photograph, but in this one you may be able pick up a difference between the blue tones in areas of the water and the slightly warmer tones in the backlit fog.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

560 Blue

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560 Blue
“560 Blue” — A man walks past a blue San Francisco building in morning sunlight.

Let me start by pointing out that this is not the first time I have shared this photograph. An earlier interpretation of it exists using a different aspect ratio. I came across it again recently as I scanned through my old raw files, and I decided to take another look at it. This time I altered the aspect ratio, retaining the original 3:2, though I more typically work with 4:3. This allowed me to include the decorative rectangles at the upper right and left. In addition, as I thought more about the role of the blue color in this photograph I decided to simply remove a few elements that were dissonant with that.

The scene is a San Francisco street, and I made the photograph on one of my day trips up to “The City” by train, something that was a regular photographic event for me prior to the pandemic. I was walking up into the main downtown area from the train station, pausing along the way to photograph interesting subjects in the full morning sun across the wide street. I had already made a couple of photograph of this very blue building when I saw the man walking into the scene.

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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


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