Tag Archives: dense

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Within the Grove

November 27, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Filtered light inside an eastern Sierra Nevada aspen grove with fall colors

This photograph reminds me that I like to encourage people to find their own special places when they go out looking for photographs or just to look. It is easy — and we all do it — to focus too much on the famous “places you must see,” even though there are places that may be just as beautiful and with which you can create personal relationship that is yours alone. After years of traveling in the Sierra, I have collected many such places — a rock I like to sit on here, a particular little peninsula next to a lake there, a nondescript aspen grove somewhere, a particular view.

This spot could be one of the newest on my list. It is just an aspen grove which, like quite a few in the eastern foothills of the Sierra, grows along the length of a stream dropping down from the mountains and into the eastern foothills. Several times I had looked up that way and noticed several thin lines of color in the fall and wondered what I might find, and this time I spent a little time exploring and found this grove. I’m quite serious when I say that it isn’t any more special in a general way than any other similar grove, but it is now one of “my” groves! Along the spectrum of Sierra Nevada aspens, these trees lean toward being a lot taller and straighter than the average, and the foliage beneath the canopy of aspen leaves is thick and overgrown. At first I thought that I would walk right into the grove, but when I tried I found it heavy going and I settled for a photograph made just inside its perimeter.

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: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Streamside Foliage, Autumn Color

November 27, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Colorful autumn foliage along a Utah stream at the base of sandstone cliffs

This photograph includes several things that attract me. For one thing, the subject is visually very complex — and I enjoy the challenge of trying to create a coherent composition from such subjects. For another, it includes several visual elements that I like a lot. One is the juxtaposition of foliage and red rock, which is found so frequently in the Southwest. Another is the state of the fall color transition here — it is at the interesting point where there are still quite a few green leaves, but where the transition is unmistakable. On top of that, the varied foliage includes a wide range of original colors, from bright green (and the autumn hello) of the main trees to the blue-green and dusty colors of the smaller plants at the bottom of the frame.

This little vignette is found along the Virgin River in Zion Canyon, where the river provides water along its course to support a lot of rich vegetation. More specifically, here the river makes a curve at the base of a very tall section of sandstone cliff, a bit of which is seen beyond the trees. The cliff is so high and the canyon so deep that little direct sunlight makes it down to this spot, and instead there tends to be a lot of beautiful soft light.

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Downtown Chicago Buildings, Morning

October 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on dense downtown buildings, Chicago, Illinois

This is yet another photograph made from the architecture boat tour of downtown Chicago. At one point the boat head out toward the mouth of the river, where the water widens. Here the boat turns around and provides the most open and distant view of waterfront buildings. (During much of the rest of the tour the river passes very close to most buildings, so one is aiming almost straight up at them in many cases.)

The kind of view in this location and in this photograph is actually a bit rare when photographing big cities — a view from just enough distance and one that is not blocked by closer buildings. The greater distance reduces the issues of converging perspective lines and also allows more buildings to be included in the photograph, as here where more than half a dozen overlapping buildings fill the frame.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Forest, Spring

June 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dense spring growth and fog-filtered light in the forest at Butano Redwood State Park

I’ll stick with the redwoods theme for a bit longer and share another photograph from my recent first-time photography visit to the Butano Redwoods State Park along the California coast between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. I had not visited this park before, much less photographed it, though I had photographed along the access road that leads to it from the Pacific Coast Highway. It is a pleasure to actually “discover” a new park so close to home!

I chose to visit on this day at least partly because of the promising light. It remained foggy and cloudy along the coast pretty much all day, so I figured that if I went inland a few miles toward the redwoods I might catch the thinning fog and the soft light that it can produce. I found a trailhead, loaded up the camera pack and tripod, and headed out. There was so much to see in this lush forest that I made very slow progress, stopping every couple of minutes to consider and sometimes make another photograph. From this spot along the trail I found a view past closer trees and on into more distant growth, and I stopped to make a few photographs. In this one I chose to work with a vertical composition to emphasize the slender forms of the second-growth redwoods and other trees reaching toward the light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: dense

Within the Grove

Streamside Foliage, Autumn Color

Downtown Chicago Buildings, Morning

Redwood Forest, Spring

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