Tag Archives: green

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn Aspen Grove

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Autumn Aspen Grove
An eastern Sierra Nevada aspen grove beginning to change colors

Autumn Aspen Grove. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 3, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An eastern Sierra Nevada aspen grove beginning to change colors

How about a bit of fall color on this early summer morning? Every summer I begin to think about fall. There are wonderful things about summer — schedules, warmth, easier access to mountains, and more — but I prefer autumn. It is partially something as mundane as my preference for cooler temperatures, but it is also that I like times of obvious transition and times when nature has a slightly sharper edge. I’ll enjoy this summer, but I’m sure that every aspen tree I see in the Sierra in the next few months will make me look forward to autumn.

This aspen color vignette is a small scene from a much larger grove that runs up a hillside in the eastern Sierra Nevada. I prefer to photograph it early and late in the day when the surrounding peaks cast shadows across the trees, both softening the light and opening up the shadows a bit. Among the larger grove are many small scenes where straight trunks (not the norm in the Sierra) are visible among the leaves. On this very early October day most of the grove was still green, but the seasonal change was beginning with some of the smaller trees.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Mules Ears Flower

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Mules Ears Flower
A spring mules ears flower in the early stages of decay.

Mules Ears Flower. Santa Clara County, California. April 29, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A spring mules ears flower in the early stages of decay.

Someone suggested that this might simply be called “The World’s Saddest Flower.” It also occurred to me that it might be a fine metaphor for certain political events currently transpiring, or possibly for a number of other things. I find a kind of poignant beauty in this flower, still brilliantly colorful but also clearly falling into decay.

I found this flower on a short hike at a place not far from where I live, a spot that I have gone to for perhaps twenty years in spring to find local wildflowers. It is not a place that most would find remarkable — in fact, I was able to hear urban sounds including heavy equipment in the distance — but it is a place that I know well. I knew that I would find certain flowers — blue dicks, larkspur, Chinese lanterns, California poppies, and a few others — but this one was a surprise. I had never seen it or anything similar in this place, and I wasn’t sure of what it might be. Friends who know more about flowers than I do suggested that it is probably mules ears — a very sad specimen at this point!

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Trees and Stone

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Trees and Stone
Trees, a boulder, cliffs and towers — Pinnacles National Park

Trees and Stone. Pinnacles National Park, California. March 17, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Trees, a boulder, cliffs and towers — Pinnacles National Park

Visiting Pinnacles National Monument last week presented me with an unusual experience. Typically I photograph in two kinds of places. To simplify a bit, one sort is the places that I have photographed repeatedly over long periods of time, and which I have gotten to know intimately. The other type would be places that I don’t know at all, and which I come to with an almost “blank slate,” discovering their character directly as I encounter them. “The Pinnacles,” as I’ve referred to the place for years, doesn’t quite fit into either category. When I was much younger I frequently visited the place, starting with my parents when I was quite young and continuing into my twenties when I was a rock climber. So some memories and sensations from the place a deeply embedded in my memory and experience. But they I stopped going there and has been decades since I was last there.

With that in mind, it is no surprise that my first visit included quite a few “I remember this!” moments, combined with about as many “This is new!” moments. We mostly visited the east side when I was young, but this time I arrived from the west. I had hiked the high peaks trail, and even climbed some of its pinnacles, but I was surprised to (re)discover just how narrow, steep and exposed it is. So my approach to the place was a combination of working with what I know and discovering what was new. In the end it felt like I was sort of “feeling my way” back into familiarity with the place. I could not yet quite see how to photograph some seemingly obvious subjects, such as the high peaks area, so I focused on many non-iconic subjects, such as the scene of gray and red rocks and trees in this photograph.

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

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Support Columns, Purple and Green Wall

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Support Columns, Purple and Green Wall
Support Columns, Purple and Green Wall

Support Columns, Purple and Green Wall. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. March 11, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of dilapidated building in green and purple, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

In contrast to the huge and somewhat garishly lit iconic towers and cranes of Mare Island, there are innumerable little quiet and hidden subjects to photograph. I think that most of us start with the obvious subjects and eventually, after shooting them many times, begin to look for these other possibilities. I photographed this in very low light, complicated by a bit of wind, and I could barely see the subject as I worked. (In order to focus I had to shine a small light on the edge of part of the structure.)

The colors were almost a bit of a surprise. At Mare Island there (or, in too many cases used to be, now that the lighting has been “modernized”) a wild variation in lighting types. There is often the moonlight. A glow comes across the water from Vallejo. Sodium vapor lamps can produce a sort of sickly yellow color. Tungsten light is warm colored, and fluorescent light can be very strange. As a consequence, the colors of this nighttime world are more about the colors of the lighting than the colors of the subjects themselves. The side of this building, which is probably quite drab in daylight, picked up subtle green and purple tones under the artificial light.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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