Tag Archives: curve

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Flow Lines, Morning Light

April 4, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft early morning light illuminates curving erosion patterns of a desert gully, Death Valley National Park

Today I’m back from my annual spring photography visit to Death Valley National Park. I first visited this place a bit more than 15 years ago, though photography was not the purpose of that first trip. My first view of the Valley was magical. We had arrived the night before and set up camp in the dark at the first camping area we found, a tiny campground near below Towne Pass at the turnoff to Wildrose Canyon. I had little idea where I was nor what my surroundings looked like, as I had literally never been in this place before. Early the next morning I stepped out of my tent and was greeted by an astounding and unexpected view down into the huge and rugged landscape of this Valley, a first sight I will not forget.

Since then I have returned many times — much of that landscape has become familiar to me as I’ve pushed the boundaries of my knowledge of the place outwards in all directions. I’ve been into areas that I didn’t imagine existed on that first visit, and I’ve learned to see past the geology and geography of the place and see the human history of the park and the sometimes-hidden beauties of wildflowers and more. Today when I visit I still look for that astonishing and grand landscape, but I also slow down and stop and look for more subtle things that I surely missed nearly completely on that first visit. This little miniature landscape of curving erosion and stones and first light is one that I would have missed completely on that first visit, but which I now know can be found almost everywhere in this park once I slow down to the pace of the desert and take the time to really look.

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

Merced River, Branches, El Capitan

December 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Branches in the still water of the Merced River with floating autumn leaves and the reflection of El Capitan, Yosemite Valley.

This photograph is almost a bit of an optical trick. I’ll let you look for a second and figure it out…

… Does it make sense now? The foreground is composed of some intertwining dead branches just above the surface of a very still section of the quiet, late autumn Merced River in Yosemite Valley. The leaves floating on and just beneath the surface of the water give it away. Because there are so many branches, their dark reflections seem, to me at least, to almost merge with the shapes of the actual branches, creating a complex pattern. And, reflected in the surface of the water and appearing as a backdrop to these elements, is the sunlit face of El Capitan.

I would love to tell a great story about making this photograph… but I don’t remember making it! I discovered it only recently while reviewing all of my old raw files, and all I can say for sure is that I made it on one of my annual late October trips to The Valley to photograph the fall colors. For those who follow the technical stuff, I made this photograph with some pretty low-level gear back at a time when I was experimenting with my first DSLR. The camera was the very humble (but better than some think, at least for this sort of thing!) Canon Digital Rebel XT, an early 8 MP body. Even more humble was the lens, the not so swell EFS 17-85mm Canon lens.

(Note: This was originally posted on September 21, 2011. I’m moving this photograph back up on the home page today as this is a new revision of the original photograph — the date of the revision is December 26, 2014)

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cottonwood Trees, Potholes

December 22, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cottonwood trees grow in potholes in the curving sandstone terrain

In the evening of our first day camped in this somewhat remote Utah location, we left camp and headed to a nearby sandstone landscape featuring the sorts of gullies, potholes, rounded domes, steep inclines, and curving patterns that are so common in this part of the world. Later we would walk further into the landscape, but on this first evening we only had time for a short visit.

The group walked up a steep slope and came to a landscape that is perhaps familiar to many who know this region, with some features that are often photographed by those who visit. The light was “complicated” — at times a beautiful glow came through high, thin clouds, but at times the cover thickened enough to truly mute the light. It is tempting — unavoidable, actually — to photograph certain subjects here in the ways that I have seen before. On the other hand, I also like to see such subjects for what they are and not just for what others seen in them. Wandering around the curving sandstone and skirting the edges of large potholes, I looked for juxtapositions of these rounded shapes with variations in color and with the cottonwood trees that grow sparsely here. The foreground tree seems to be at just about the peak of autumn color, even though the other tree a short distance away is still almost completely green.

Photographs: Nature

Tropical Leaves

December 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Lines and curves on tropical plant leaves at a Southern California botanical garden

We were recently in Southern California for a holiday visit to “our kids,” and once the food-focused festivities had ended (though they never completely end!) we moved on to other family adventures in the Southland. On the day after Thanksgiving we headed up to Pasadena to visit the Huntington Library and its museums and gardens. I had not visited this place before, though I was well aware of the Huntington wealth from reading about the California Railroad Barons, composed of Huntington, Hopkins, Crocker, and Stanford, names that Californians may be familiar with. (There is a group of four peaks in the “Recesses” area of the Sierra that are named after them.) Suffice it to say that Huntington was clearly a 1%-er among 1%-ers!

We visited several gardens while we were in Pasadena. I wasn’t there primarily for photography, though I usually travel with sufficient gear of the right sort (a small mirrorless system) that I can do real photography when the opportunity presents itself. While waiting for others I happened to see these beautiful big leaves and I made a few quick exposures, including this one. There are many things to like about these leaves as a subject: The sit on a boundary between realistic depiction and abstraction of form and line, their color is beautiful, they catch light in such interesting ways.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: curve

Flow Lines, Morning Light

Merced River, Branches, El Capitan

Cottonwood Trees, Potholes

Tropical Leaves

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