Tag Archives: diagonal

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

Plants and Fractured Granite

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Plants and Fractured Granite
Plants and Fractured Granite

Plants and Fractured Granite. Yosemite National Park, California. September 15, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Various rain-moistened plants growing in a fracture in lichen-encrusted glacial granite slabs, Yosemite National Park.

This photograph was made in almost exactly the same spot as the photograph I posted yesterday, in an area of water-stained granite along the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. Not only was I fortunate to have soft light, but it was cloudy and it had been raining lightly just before we went out to shoot. You can’t ask for much better conditions for such a subject: soft light from the clouds, colors saturated by the moisture, and a few small drops of rain still on the leaves of the plants. (The latter may not quite be visible in this little jpg image.)

I’m always on the lookout for this little intimate landscapes, especially if they include Sierra granite. I had been wandering around this area trying to find ways to make compositions out of the reddish and rain-moistened rock, shooting trees and small plants and even a few isolated rocks. This plant was growing out of a narrow crack and hanging downward, its green contrasting with the reddish-brown color of the rocks . The arrangement of the nearly vertical crack, the diagonal boundaries between the red rock and the gray rock, and the mottled texture of the lichen also caught my eye.

When I share a photograph like this one, I’m reminded of my friend Mike, a retired Yosemite ranger, who pointedly reminded me once that sometimes there really is no good reason to name the precise location of such a scene. The location is irrelevant to the photograph, similar little scenes are repeated thousands of times over throughout the Sierra, and it isn’t really about the specific place at all.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Morning Light, Zabriskie Point, Detail

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Morning Light, Zabriskie Point, Detail
Morning Light, Zabriskie Point, Detail

Morning Light, Zabriskie Point, Detail. Death Valley National Park, California. April 2, 2009. © Copyright 2009. G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of eroded gullies and hills at the edge of Gower Gulch in morning light, Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park.

This photograph focuses on a small section of the contorted and folded geological shapes along the edges of Gower Gulch at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park. These details fascinate me, not only for the amazing variety of forms that they present but also because they change continuously as the light changes. Here they are illuminated by fairly stark light from early morning sun light that has just appeared as the sun rose above the hills to the east. The contrasts between the brightly lit tops of the small hills and the deeply shadowed gullies is clear, but if you look closely you may be able to see that the shadows are lit, as well, by the light reflected into them from the obscured sunlit faces of the gullies that are not visible from this position.

When I return to Zabriskie, I may take a few moments to make photographs of momentary soft light as the first sun strikes Manley Beacon, but I have become much more interested in photographing these small details of the scene. I usually work with a very long lens, and continue to shoot long after the “golden hour” sunrise light has gone since some of the small subjects are better lit by higher light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Man on Escalator

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Man on Escalator
Man on Escalator

Man on Escalator. San Francisco, California. August 29, 2007. © Copyright 2007 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A man rides an ascending escalator in San Francisco, California.

There is a lot I could write about this photograph, but I think I’ll keep it short and simply describe. I made the photograph in 2007 while on one of my walks around San Francisco – walks that usually start at the CalTrain station and then head off in a variety of directions, almost all of which provide opportunities to photograph the urban “landscape and wildlife.”

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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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.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

People, MoMA

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People, MoMA
People, MoMA

People, MoMA. Museum of Modern Art, New York City. August 18, 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People moving on multiple levels of lobby and walkways at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

I’ve been sitting on this photograph for a while, but I’ll interrupt the recent series of Sierra Nevada photographs to insert something more urban.

The photograph was made handheld inside a central atrium-like area of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, a space from which layers of walkways could be seen. Although the slow shutter speed was somewhat a matter of necessity (but not totally) it also allowed me to let the moving figures blur, which suggests their motion more than would a faster shutter speed. I also removes the specific features of many of the closer people and lets them function more as generic figures in the image. There is more going on in the scene than might be apparent with a cursory glance.

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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.