Tag Archives: detail

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

Red Rock Face

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Red Rock Face
Detail of a sandstone face, Capitol Reef National Park.

Red Rock Face. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a sandstone face, Capitol Reef National Park.

Many times when I have photographed in red rock country I find myself looking for other subjects that work with the sandstone to produce compositions — juxtapositions of features, trees, a bit of sky or clouds, water, light and shadow, and all of the other things that are part of the experience of this Southern Utah landscape. But at times it strikes me that the rock itself can be the entire subject. This is one of those photographs.

These masses of sandstone are remarkable on their own. They may first seem somewhat undifferentiated, but a closer look in the right light — in my view, the shaded light in canyons is ideal — reveals remarkable variations and detail. The color of the rock varies greatly depending upon time of day and, especially, the color of reflected light bouncing between anyone walls. Cracks and imperfections mark the rock even on the smoothest sections. And an infinite variety of markings combine on the surface — internal irregularities, color differences where the surface has been disturbed, and everywhere vertical lines formed by seeping and flowing water.

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco

Detail, Palace of Fine Arts

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Detail, Palace of Fine Arts
Detail of a small section of the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco.

Detail, Palace of Fine Arts. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a small section of the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco.

Perhaps I was channelling my inner Atget when I made this photograph a few years back. I was wandering around San Francisco with a camera — a favorite activity in non-pandemic times — and I ended up at the Palace of Fine Arts near the waterfront. It is a remarkable place with a remarkable history. Originally constructed as part of the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, it was the only structure that wasn’t taken down afterwards. Originally meant to be a temporary feature of the Exposition, it deteriorated and was eventually completely taken down in the 1960s and reconstructed by the mid-1970s. .

Something in the photograph illustrates how I do (and do not) see when I’m making photographs. One one hand I and other photographers often see things that others might miss. On the other hand, because we are focused on one way of seeing our subject we may entirely miss things that are completely obvious to others. Sometimes we “discover” these elements of our photographs later. (Someone pointed out that a difference between photography and painting is that the photographer cannot know everything in the image.) In this case, it was only years later that I noticed the rather striking symbols that appear on the surface of this building — symbols that no sane person would include today. This led me to some quick research that suggests that in 1915, and before the atrocities of WWII, the symbol in question had an entirely different meaning.

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 and Amazon.

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

Sculpted Sandstone

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Sculpted Sandstone
Detail of a section of eroded sandstone cliff at Arches National Park.

Sculpted Sandstone. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a section of eroded sandstone cliff at Arches National Park.

To be honest, I’m not sure I could find this bit of sandstone cliff again if I went back to Arches National Park and looked for it. I think I have a vague idea of where it was, but if I’m correct it was just one small section of a much larger wall that ran for a significant distance. But isn’t that part of the challenge of the red rock country, that there are so many impressive and fascinating walls with unending variations of color and form?

The basic shapes of the rock walls, arches, buttresses, and ridges are fascinating in their own right. But the surface textures of the rock are immensely varied and interesting. The blue material coats these rocks in many places, and it can outline erosion patters in the rock. There are vertical lines everywhere, formed by water oozing, dripping, flowing, and occasionally flooding across the faces. And the color can vary from hour to hour as the angle and quality of the sunlight change, and as light reflected from other red rock surfaces intensifies the color.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature

Flower Detail

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Flower Detail
Macro photograph of the center of a delicately colored flower

Flower Detail. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Macro photograph of the center of a delicately colored flower.

A few weeks ago I accompanied the local flower photographer — the one I live with — to one of her favorite area botanical gardens where we spent a morning photographing flowers and plants. I’ve been having some fun with this recently, perhaps because i finally got the right lens for photographing this subject close-up!

Many things intrigued me about this flower. The remarkable patterns in the flower’s center, of course, were prominent. But working in soft light, at least partially created by using a scrim for shade, an amazing range of subtle colors became visible — it seemed at first like a white flower, but in this light the presence of tones ranging from blue to pink became clearer.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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