Tag Archives: green

Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon

Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon
“Large Cottonwood Tree, Side Canyon” — A large cottonwood tree with fall colors in front of sandstone walls and a side canyon

During a bit of hard drive housekeeping this week I found a folder full of files from a Utah visit in 2012. Because I have a hard drive that is about to fill, I’ve been looking for unused and unneeded files that invariably get left behind after work on various projects — you know, the files that I “just might want to keep around, just in case.” I think that the batch in this folder were transferred from my laptop, and they are most likely files that I worked on quickly in the field and planned to update on my desktop computer later. My first thought was that I’d just delete the folder, but then I looked more closely and found several files that I want to keep.

This is one of the keepers. Although I hadn’t thought if it for quite a while, I now recall this little canyon junction quite distinctly, a place were a smaller side canyon dropped down into the larger canyon through which we walked. Scale is hard to judge against this landscape, but the old cottonwood is very large, especially for one in the base of a narrow canyon. This photograph reminds me of something else, too — I need to get back to these canyons!


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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Signore Verdi Sings the Blues

Signore Verdi Sings the Blues
Street art, modeled after a painting of Giuseppe Verdi

Signore Verdi Sings the Blues. Florence, Italy. August 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Street art, modeled after a painting of Giuseppe Verdi

There was street art everywhere we went in Europe and the UK this past summer. In some places, such as Heidelberg, a lot of it was overtly political and it relied a lot on text. In other places there was more that was purely visual or almost so, like this example and some that we saw in Paris. In other places, such as some parts of Bologna,  much of it reminded me of simple tagging, similar to what we see in the US.

This example caught my attention for several reasons. Because of my musical background I recognized it as a riff on a famous picture of Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. (At the time of this posting you can see it at the Wikipedia entry on the composer.) The intense blue color and its juxtaposition with the green (think “Verdi”) plants also seemed interesting. I don’t know what it “means” or why it was here, but I couldn’t help photographing it!


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.

Wall, Shutters, Window With Heart

Wall, Shutters, Window With Heart
A window in an old building in the Heidelberg area, Germany

Wall, Shutters, Window With Heart. Heidelberg, Germany. August 14, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A window in an old building in the Heidelberg area, Germany

Yes, I still have more photographs from this past summer’s visits to New York, London, and several European locations — lots more! After London and Paris we headed to Germany, and returned to Heidelberg, which almost seems like a home base for us. Patty’s brother and his wife live there, and in the middle of five weeks of travel it was wonderful to spend time in their Heidelberg home.

This time we hopped on a boat and travelled up the river a ways to a more distant suburb (?) of Heidelberg, where things feel a bit more rustic, at least to this first-time visitor to that particular spot. When we got there we spent some time simply wandering around, walking up narrow and hilly streets. I spotted this window in a weathered wall along the shaded side of one of the buildings we passed — so on this one week anniversary of the American election you get a heart in a window.


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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Aspens, Green and Yellow

Aspens, Green and Yellow
Transitional early autumn aspen color in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Green and Yellow. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 1, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Transitional early autumn aspen color in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

These tall aspen trees with their straight trunks are not the most common sight in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where smaller and more twisted trees are more the rule. But in protected and well-watered locations the trees can grow straight and tall. I photographed these at the beginning of what most would consider the prime aspen color season in this region, the first two or three weeks of October. The color starts up high (often even earlier than this) among small, high elevation trees and then works its way down into the canyons and out into the drier lands east of the Sierra. At this spot, though not within the view of the camera, there was an entire hillside covered in bright yellow small trees, but among these larger trees the show was just beginning.

This demonstrates something that Sierra aspen-chasers eventually learn, namely that if the trees in one spot are not ideal we can simply look higher or lower, north or south, and we’ll probably find trees in good condition. Although I did not make it back after this visit during the 2016 aspen color season, I’m quite sure that those who came to this spot a week or two after I was there found that some of the yellow trees had lost their leaves and that the trees that are green in this photograph were brightly colored.


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 | FacebookGoogle+ | LinkedIn | Email


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