I am very grateful to The Ansel Adams Gallery for including five of my photographs in the exhibition that opened this week in Yosemite Valley: “The Great Certainty: Photographs Commemorating 100 Years of National Park Stewardship,” August 6 through September 10.
A great variety of photographers are represented in this exhibit, and I feel honored to be included among them and to count many of them as personal and professional models, mentors, and friends: Ansel Adams, William Neill, Charles Cramer, Keith Walklet, Michael Frye, Mark Citret, Bob Kolbrener, Scot Miller, Rex Naden, Charlotte Hamilton Gibb, Mike Reeves, Franka Mlikota Gabler, David Hoffman, Evan Russel.
Stop in for a visit if you are in Yosemite Valley!
Stong winds lift clouds of sand high into the air above desert sand dunes, Death Valley National Park.
“Submerged Boulders, Lake, and Cliff” — Sunlight illuminates submerged boulders near the cliff face along the High Sierra Trail – Sequoia National Park.
Autumn plants and lichen lend color to basalt columns, Devils Postpile National Monument
Dawn clouds about the peaks of Capitol Reef National Park
“Fractured Granite, Reflection” — The base of a rugged granite wall reflected in the still surface of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake
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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
Visitors at the new SFMOMA museum in San Francisco
The newly expanded and refurbished SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) reopened recently, and we had an opportunity to spend a day there during the week before the public opening. The new building is a success in our minds — full of interesting and sometimes surprising interior spaces, with new portals connecting it visually to the surrounding city, and beautiful galleries to display the work. (There are a few oddities — the space on the ground floor seems sort of sprawling and disorganized, but I digress…)
I always like photographing in museums, especially those with more modern architecture. The light and the angles of walls and entry ways are often fascinating, and people behave in ways that are much different from what I might see in other venues. I usually photograph quickly in these places, partly because I don’t want to intrude on the experience of other visitors and partly because scenes and juxtapositions often assemble themselves and then disappear so quickly.
My web presence has long included this blog and a separate online gallery housing a large archive of photographs — perhaps about 3000 of them at last count. Earlier this week the gallery had a technical issue that snowballed and eventually took that gallery completely offline.
During the past few days I have spent way to many hours trying to get the gallery working again, and I have (mostly) succeeded at this point. A new version of the gallery now holds essentially all of the photographs that were at the old gallery. The format is a bit different, though the underlying organization of the images is similar. At this point, the titles ofphotographs do not display correctly, and you’ll see file names where there used to be titles. This is fixable, but not right away.
If you tried to find the old gallery and couldn’t, thanks for your patience. If you haven’t seen the gallery, feel free to wander over there and take look!
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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
“Fractured Granite, Reflection” — The base of a rugged granite wall reflected in the still surface of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake
Today I am reprising a photograph that I shared previously since it is part of the Yosemite Renaissance XXIX exhibit opening this weekend in the Yosemite Museum Gallery in The Valley.
An exhibition of contemporary art of Yosemite and the Sierra Saturday, March 1 to Sunday, May 11, 2014 Yosemite Museum Gallery, Yosemite National Park
The first event of the show is tonight…
The public is invited to the Awards Reception, Friday, February 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM
Perhaps I’ll see you there!
Now, to the text of the original post, plus a more recent addition…
The base of a rugged granite wall reflected in the still surface of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake
A few days ago I returned from a 9-day trip into the back-country of Kings Canyon National Park. I was one of a group of four photographers who traveled to a remote location at about 11,000′, where we remained for more than five days, photographing the surrounding terrain morning and evening. We followed the common routine of such work – up before dawn and off to investigate and photograph some valley or lake, back by mid or late morning for breakfast, generally hanging out and doing camp chores during the midday period when the light is often less exciting, then back out in the late afternoon for a few more hours of exploration and photography before returning to camp for a post-sunset dinner. Unlike a typical backpack trip, where one rarely stays in the same place for long, we remained in the same camp for six nights, allowing us to really get to know the surrounding area very well.
With so much time, we were frequently able to return to places that we had already visited – perhaps coming back in the evening after a morning visit, returning to try again to catch a subject that didn’t have the right light the first time, or shooting the subject in various conditions ranging from clear skies to rain. This bit of interesting rock was next to a lake that I walked to on a number of occasions, and on this morning I arrived when the lake was still in shadow but illuminated by light reflected from nearby rock faces. Because it was so early the air was very still, allowing me to photograph this very sharp reflection of the fractured granite cliff where it entered the water. A bit of vegetation just above the waterline has taken on early fall colors.
Addendum: It occurred to me last week that there is a (perhaps tenuous?) connection between this photograph – with its theme of a vertical rock face above placid water – and this one by Ansel Adams that I had an early connection to: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/photographs/ansel-adams-lake-precipice-frozen-lake-and-5056399-details.aspx – I have a personal connection to the place, which I wrote about here: https://gdanmitchell.com/2010/01/14/a-photograph-exposed-submerged-boulders-precipice-lake
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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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