Tag Archives: dark

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Night

Mono Moonrise

Image 4 Comments
Mono Moonrise
Autumn full moon rises over Mono Lake, California.

Mono Moonrise. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Autumn full moon rises over Mono Lake, California.

The scene is an autumn moonrise over Mono Lake, a scene that I often encounter on my fall photographic visits to the Eastern Sierra. I’m there often enough that it seems like I have this opportunity almost every year. I had been photographing more typical autumn subjects earlier in the day — largely the fall colors of aspen trees — but I decided to finish that activity early enough to get myself to a likely location to see and photograph the moonrise over the lake. These days, with the help of various digital tools, we can come very close to putting ourselves in precisely the right spot at precisely the right time. On this evening the moon rose in early twilight, but I continued photographing until it became quite dark.

On a technical note, there are some challenges to including the full moon in a photograph made after dark. The biggest issue is that the moon is a lot brighter than the landscape — the landscape is in darkness but it is essentially noon on the moon! There are ways to deal with this, one of which is to photograph before the landscape becomes completely dark, and I did that here. But I was pushing that boundary a bit, and I was initially unable to get the balance between the moon and the dark landscape that I was looking for. However, as sometimes happens, the sophistication of post-processing software advanced, most notably with the introduction of some powerful new selection tools in Lightroom and Adobe Camera RAW. (Despite the popularity of Lightroom, I’m still a Bridge/ACR/Photoshop user.) These tools enabled me to make some important adjustments to the dark portions of this image while retaining detail in the moon. (NOTE: This is a re-working of a photograph that I had previously shared back in 2019.)

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

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

Solitary Aspen, Dark Forest

Image 2 Comments
Solitary Aspen, Dark Forest
A small autumn aspen tree in the light in front of dark forest.

Solitary Aspen, Dark Forest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small autumn aspen tree in the light in front of dark forest.

There is something about solitary trees standing against some sort of background. A friend has referred to them as “brave little tree” photographs — something I now think about every time I make one or see one. Landscape photography doesn’t always come quite this close to eliciting metaphorical associations, but I can certainly understand how one could make this association with these subjects. On a more prosaic note, from a purely compositional perspective, a single central subject posed against a larger and contrasting background often works visually, too.

This photograph was also an extra reminder to me about why I like to photograph non-iconic subjects. (Though I do have to admit that the solitary tree is a sort of generic icon, if that makes sense.) I rediscovered this photograph recently while reviewing some raw files from a couple of years ago. I usually record location information as I work on photographs, but with this one I could not even determine exactly where I made it! By sequencing the files before and after this exposure I was able to narrow it down to one very large drainage, but I don’t actually recall making the photograph! I I had worked with the file back when it was new, but I wasn’t fully satisfied with the result. When I came back to it I saw it in a somewhat different way, and I saw how to apply some newer post-processing tools to get the result I was after.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

People Standing By Window

Image Leave a comment
People Standing By Window
Two people stand against a dark wall next to a window, Museum of Modern Art.

People Standing By Window. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two people stand against a dark wall next to a window, Museum of Modern Art.

This photograph comes from a Manhattan visit a few years back. We usually are there for at least a week each year — though we have not been back since before the start of the pandemic. We miss the place! We have some traditions when it comes to these visits. One is to indulge me in a lot of “museum time.” (The amount of time I’m willing to spend in such places occasionally makes me the butt of family jokes.) We visited the Museum of Modern Art on this visit, and the photograph comes from there.

I’m often a bit surprised — though by how you’d think I would not be — by how interesting I find museums as photographic spaces. They are full of interesting and sometimes unusual architecture, and they are often designed to incorporate a lot of investing lighting, especially natural lighting. In many cases there is some sort of central atrium or similar that creates a tall, vertical open area… and that provides some wild and off-kilter angles of subjects that would look quite different if photographed on their own level. Here a pair of people stands at the base of a stairway, positioned in the angle between a nearly-black wall and a window.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Skylights, Manhattan

Image Leave a comment
Skylights, Manhattan
Skylights glow in the gathering darkness on a Manhattan rooftop.

Skylights, Manhattan. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Skylights glow in the gathering darkness on a Manhattan rooftop.

Given the right camera position and the right light, small and easily overlooked bits and pieces of the urban architectural environment turn out to be interesting. I’ve long noted that in dense, urban environments the exteriors of living spaces are often far from attractive — at best they are utilitarian and at worst they can be downright ugly. My theory is that people, for the most part, do not regard the exteriors of their spaces the way we might in space-filled suburban environments. They don’t use these exteriors to present themselves to the world —no gardens, no fancy paint, no cute signs… just the functional and often well-worn necessities.

I don’t know for sure what is beneath these skylights, but I suspect that it could be someone’s living or work space. I’d also bet that whoever occupies the space has little or no idea of what these skylight look like from the outside, and they may not even think about the potential that people like me walk by every day and may look at them. From inside, the skylights are a way to let light in. But at night, to the passer-by, they become a source of light themselves as they radiate outwards.

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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