Tag Archives: california

Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

21 Choices

March 29, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A Pasadena street corner on a winter afternoon

To some extent, although I’ll write a bit about it, this is one of those photographs that you’ll need to sort out for yourself. It may seem like a snapshot, or it may seem like something else, or it might seem like both.

Just after New Years Day we went to Southern California for a few days, driving down the Coast Highway (before the winter storms closed it) and then visiting areas at the northern and southern ends of the Los Angeles Basin. We stayed in Pasadena, a place I hadn’t visited for a while and one that I don’t know all that well, aside from the typical Californian’s knowledge of a place that comes from driving past on freeways. Because we had some unscheduled time we ended up wandering in downtown Pasadena a bit, and I had time to begin to get a bit of a feeling for the place, at least as it is in mid-winter light of the sort in this photograph.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Bridal Veil, Ice and Mist

March 28, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Bridal Veil fall with winter ice and mist

Many photographic subjects in Yosemite Valley are quite dependent on time of day, season, weather conditions, and other variables, some of which are completely beyond the photographer’s control. You simply must, first of all, be there, and then you must try to predict (or know) when the odds are better, be attentive to special conditions, and sometimes be ready to act quickly.

This is not exactly the rarest of conditions, but several pieces had to occur together to produce this scene. First, it had to be winter and it had to be cold — and the latter is less a certainty in California during the past few years. Second, despite the cold, it had to be warm enough somewhere up above to melt sufficient snow to get Bridal Veil Creek flowing at a pretty high rate for this time of year. Third, the light had to come over the lip of the canyon at the top of the wall to illuminate the rising mist but not the fall itself. Finally, if you look closely, you might notice three (somewhat blurry) ravens flying between the trees.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Winter Oak, Cliff

March 26, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A dormant winter oak in back-light, against the backdrop of granite Yosemite cliff

Near the end of February I spent a few days in and around Yosemite Valley. I scheduled my visit to coincide with the opening reception of the 2017 Yosemite Renaissance exhibit at the Yosemite Visitor Center Museum Gallery. The annual show features work by artists focusing on Yosemite and the Sierra, including almost every medium imaginable — and one of my photographs was in the show this year.

Almost any visit to Yosemite Valley calls for photography, so I arranged my schedule to be there for three days. While I hiked a lot on some days, on this day I hopped in my vehicle and headed down the Valley to visit various areas including El Capitan Meadow with its beautiful winter-bare trees and the backdrop of huge cliffs. The face of Sentinel Rocks, almost always in shade at this time of year, rises behind this single back-lit dormant oak tree.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Trees and Stone

March 23, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees, a boulder, cliffs and towers — Pinnacles National Park

Visiting Pinnacles National Monument last week presented me with an unusual experience. Typically I photograph in two kinds of places. To simplify a bit, one sort is the places that I have photographed repeatedly over long periods of time, and which I have gotten to know intimately. The other type would be places that I don’t know at all, and which I come to with an almost “blank slate,” discovering their character directly as I encounter them. “The Pinnacles,” as I’ve referred to the place for years, doesn’t quite fit into either category. When I was much younger I frequently visited the place, starting with my parents when I was quite young and continuing into my twenties when I was a rock climber. So some memories and sensations from the place a deeply embedded in my memory and experience. But they I stopped going there and has been decades since I was last there.

With that in mind, it is no surprise that my first visit included quite a few “I remember this!” moments, combined with about as many “This is new!” moments. We mostly visited the east side when I was young, but this time I arrived from the west. I had hiked the high peaks trail, and even climbed some of its pinnacles, but I was surprised to (re)discover just how narrow, steep and exposed it is. So my approach to the place was a combination of working with what I know and discovering what was new. In the end it felt like I was sort of “feeling my way” back into familiarity with the place. I could not yet quite see how to photograph some seemingly obvious subjects, such as the high peaks area, so I focused on many non-iconic subjects, such as the scene of gray and red rocks and trees in this photograph.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: california

21 Choices

Bridal Veil, Ice and Mist

Winter Oak, Cliff

Trees and Stone

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