Tag Archives: evening

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Sky

July 4, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening winter sky above California’s San Joaquin Valley

From that hour between late afternoon and the sometimes-fiery colors of sunset, a winter sky over the San Joaquin Valley of California, photographed on New Years Day 2014. Every so often I see a sky and what to photograph it, separated from the landscape below, and forming its own sort vaporous cloudscape.

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

Golden Hills, Desert Sky

June 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early evening clouds fill the sky above golden hills, Death Valley National Park, California

Today’s photograph is about as much of a contrast with yesterday’s photograph (winter in Yosemite Valley) as you can find in California, though both were made at close to the same time of the year. This photograph comes from the golden hills and broad washes along the east side of Death Valley south of the Furnace Creek Area.

Earlier that afternoon we had arrived in the park for a visit of several days. After getting settled we had a bit of daylight time still in the late afternoon and early evening, so we headed south towards these clouds. (The clouds were perhaps a harbinger of the strange weather we would have later on during our visit, including a full day of very cold weather and even snow high in the Panamint Range.) Many of the hills in Death Valley are not exactly of brilliant colors—this desert is quite different from that of, say, Utah. But in this particular area colorful formations rise from the edge of the Valley, and the rocks that have washed down carry that color out into the Valley… at least if you happen to be there late in the afternoon before the sun drops behind the tall mountains on the other side of the valley.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building 237, Evening

June 9, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light on Building 237 at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California

This is one of a pair of buildings that has featured in several of my night photographs at the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, where I’ve been photographing after dark for about a decade now. The location is the site of the former and now historic naval ship yard that was the first on the west coast of the United States, being established way back in the 1800s. It was decommissioned in the 1990s, and since that time the facility changed in many ways. Parts of the island are now open space, others have been turned into urban developments, businesses and others are using some of the old buildings and spaces—yet parts of the facility have been retained as a sort of informal historic site.

The buildings in the cluster of which this one is a part are very close to the “historic core” of the ship yard. Although many of the buildings give the appearance of being abandoned, some are in use and all are kept in a sort of state of suspended animation. Almost all of my photography here has been at night, when a diversity of light sources transform it in magical ways. During the day, much of it can seem quite mundane. Buildings that are wildly colorful when lit by brilliantly colorful sodium vapor lights and other colorful light sources often turn out to be quite drab in the day time. On this visit I managed to arrive before sunset, and I headed out to see if the golden hour light might offer some opportunities for a different sort of visual transformation of these buildings, and this one was photographed during the final few minute of daylight.

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

Evening Clouds, Tuolumne Meadows

May 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening Clouds, Tuolumne Meadows

Early season evening clouds above Tuolumne Meadows and snow-capped peaks, Yosemite National Park

Another orbit around the sun; another cycle of summer, autumn, winter, and spring; another Sierra Nevada high country summer season begins to come into view. This year’s seems to come early and leaves me with an uneasy feeling—it never really did feel like we had a winter, aside from a few stray storms here and there. But every season is different and who knows what this one will bring. Regardless, Tioga Pass Road through the Yosemite high country opened this past weekend and the high country once again became accessible, as did the eastern slopes of the Sierra. Every year when that happens, the mountains call and I must go. Sometimes, especially when the pass opens later in the season, I may have a few days and I can stay up there and explore a bit more. Other years, like the one, I have to squeeze in a quick visit between other responsibilities. But I virtually always go during the first weekend when the pass opens, and this event marks the beginning of another season that will likely stretch at least into October, when the snows fall again and the aspens change color.

The pass opened on Friday, but I had other plans and responsibilities. I had other things to do on Saturday, too, so that left Sunday. One of those Saturday activities had me returning home at about midnight, and I managed to get to bed at about 12:30… leaving just enough time for three hours of sleep before my 3:30 alarm went off. I was up, stumbling around the house in the dark to dress and make coffee, and in a half hour or so I was on the road to the Sierra. The sun rose as I entered the foothills, where I stopped to photograph some spring oak trees and green grasses, and while it was probably 7:30 or earlier when I reached the park entrance it already seemed like the day was quite far along. I turned east onto the very familiar highway 120, and eagerly watched for special places I know, looking to see how they were developing this year. Was there water in that pond? Early signs of corn lilies? Water flowing in that creek? The Sierra certainly does look dry, but this was masked a bit by the remains of a snow storm from past week, which covered the ridges with white. Eventually I made it across the range and dropped down to Mono Lake and then drove up a quiet east side canyon to sit and listen to the wind for a while before starting back. I made this photograph during the last hour of daylight in Tuolumne Meadows, as the color of the light changed and the clouds of a passing weather front assembled above the crest.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: evening

Winter Sky

Golden Hills, Desert Sky

Building 237, Evening

Evening Clouds, Tuolumne Meadows

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