Tag Archives: california

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

Sierra Forest, Morning Light

September 9, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light arrives in dense Sierra Nevada forest

Spend enough time somewhere and you begin to develop surprising relationships with surprising little places that perhaps no one else would even notice. Since I’ve been going to the Sierra for decades, I’ve had plenty of time to find my own “little places” and to begin to understand and value this. Some decades ago, when my backpacking experience became extensive enough that I often found myself back at places that I had previously visited, I was surprised to discover that particular rocks (like one at a high country lake where I often set up my camp kitchen, or another where I once sat and watched a storm blow in), creeks (such as one near 11,000′ in the southern Sierra where I have camped alone and with friends), trees (such as the one we discovered decades ago on a trip with kids, shortly after it had been blasted apart by lightning), and others acquire a quality of old, familiar friends.

This little bit of forest has become one of those places. It is not quite in the “back-country.” In fact, it is a scene that I drive past on my way to other places. But a few years ago it caught my attention and I began to inspect it every time I passed by, sometimes stopping to look more closely. I cannot quite articulate why or how it is that this bit of forest became “mine,” but it did. I was camped nearby on this morning and had gone out to look for light when I remembered the spot and arrived just as the first direct morning sunlight was beginning to enter the grove.

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

Passersby

September 8, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A couple passes a man with a dog on a San Francisco sidewalk

There are stories behind all of my photographs, but the stories of street photographs can be a bit more involved — they often include not only my own story but also the stories of the events and even the people who may appear. There is a bit of both in this photograph of some people along a sidewalk in the Chinatown area of San Francisco, a photograph made in the early evening at the beginning of a night of street photography. I can’t try to describe everything that might be here, but I’ll share a few hints.

The first subject I see in this photograph is the woman, whose gaze is somewhat averted and whose demeanor does not express complete ease. The young man she accompanies is, obviously, facing away from the camera as she clutches his arm. Look to the left and notice the figure near the lamppost — a man clothed in a tie-dye “robe” (for lack of a better description of his improvised attire), carrying a backpack, and walking a very large and hairy dog. That man was the first subject to catch my attention, and when I first saw him he was behind my camera position and walking towards me. Believe me, he was quite a subject himself, but I am not fond of grabbing photographs of people who seem to perhaps be down and out — that sometimes feels like a bit of cliché. So I let him pass without a photograph, but then instinctively turned to see the scene unfold in the wake of his passage.

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

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

Land Meets Sea

September 7, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Steep coastal ridges run down to the edge of the Pacific Ocean, Northern California

Having lived not far from the Pacific Ocean for more than a couple of decades, I am lucky to have regular access to the California coastline and its often dramatic meeting of land and sea. Due to proximity, my home territory is the section between just north of San Francisco and down through the upper portions of the Big Sur coast. The shouldn’t be any surprise, given the number of photographs of that area that I have made.

Oddly, for a near-native Californian, I had little experience with the coastline farther north. I had made it up as far as Fort Ross a few times, but every time I went north in the state I headed inland. Some years back we began to rectify this omission with some visits to the Mendocino area. I still haven’t gotten my mind completely around photographing this particular coast, but I’m learning. While we think of the coast as being somewhat civilized, with roads traversing it and passing from town to town, the actual meeting of land and water remains mostly a rugged wilderness. I made this photograph from a spot that it at the edge of one of these wilderness sections, where the roads cut inland and leave the coast to the birds and the sea life.

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

White Building, Overpass, Empty Lot

September 6, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Urban scene, downtown San Francisco

This is another urban landscape, and it is at least partially about light. I was walking north toward the central Market Street area of The City when I passed underneath this highway overpass. I had stopped to photograph some interesting columns and fences there, since the area is currently transformed by a major construction project, with lanes close and fences up everywhere.

Emerging from the underpass I looked across the street and back at the edge of the highway above and saw the start nearly-white building, the empty lot, the cyclone fencing, the bridge and the way that all of these forms fit together, especially with the linkage from diagonal lines of the large shadow and its smaller twin, the foreground fencing also descending from left to right.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: california

Sierra Forest, Morning Light

Passersby

Land Meets Sea

White Building, Overpass, Empty Lot

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