Tag Archives: green

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Green Building and Tracks

December 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ambient light floods the side of a building and old railroad tracks with green-tinted light, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

A friend recently shared a photograph of a bit of curving railroad track, and I recognized it as being the same track that appears in this photograph from seven and a half years ago. I went back to look it up to share it with him, and in doing so I realized that I seem to have not shared it previously — so I’m rectifying that with this posting!

I have been photographing this location at night for over a decade now. I’m pretty certain that my first visit was back in 2003, when I happened to see an announcement of an event sponsored by The Nocturnes the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group. I had seen photographs made at night, of course, but it wasn’t anything that I had ever done, so I showed up. I was quickly hooked, especially when it comes to photographing urban and industrial areas in ambient light. This photograph is fine example of what attracts me about that light. If you were there in person, you would not really see anything quite like this — it was so dark that most of the details would be lost in shadow, the intense colors would be invisible to your eyes, and the only real details would be on the small lighted wall in the distance. But the camera can see what the eyes cannot. Here that includes not only the details in shadow areas, but also the wild colors that are produced by artificial lights.

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: Nature

Tropical Leaves

December 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 6 Comments

Lines and curves on tropical plant leaves at a Southern California botanical garden

We were recently in Southern California for a holiday visit to “our kids,” and once the food-focused festivities had ended (though they never completely end!) we moved on to other family adventures in the Southland. On the day after Thanksgiving we headed up to Pasadena to visit the Huntington Library and its museums and gardens. I had not visited this place before, though I was well aware of the Huntington wealth from reading about the California Railroad Barons, composed of Huntington, Hopkins, Crocker, and Stanford, names that Californians may be familiar with. (There is a group of four peaks in the “Recesses” area of the Sierra that are named after them.) Suffice it to say that Huntington was clearly a 1%-er among 1%-ers!

We visited several gardens while we were in Pasadena. I wasn’t there primarily for photography, though I usually travel with sufficient gear of the right sort (a small mirrorless system) that I can do real photography when the opportunity presents itself. While waiting for others I happened to see these beautiful big leaves and I made a few quick exposures, including this one. There are many things to like about these leaves as a subject: The sit on a boundary between realistic depiction and abstraction of form and line, their color is beautiful, they catch light in such interesting ways.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Two From the Waterpocket Fold Area

November 16, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

I’m going to double-up here and share two photographs in a single post — both are from the Waterpocket Fold (Strike Valley) area just to the east of Capitol Reef National Park.

Utah’s Waterpocket fold, viewed from high in the southern part of Capitol Reef National Park

The “Waterpocket Fold” is a gigantic geologic formation in Utah, a good portion of which runs the length of Capitol Reef National Park and beyond. As I understand it, the formation is a monocline, where strata change depth at a fairly steep angle, and subsequent erosion has worn away and exposed these strata in amazing ways, especially where the up-trending layers end. This photograph, made from a high point along the ridge of Capitol Reef, looks south into the waterpocket valley as it bends and continues to head south.

Cottonwood trees with autumn foliage follow a wash up a canyon toward Waterpocket Fold area cliffs

This photograph looks to the east across the strike valley of the Waterpocket Fold feature from along the ridge of Capitol Reef. A wash (which may be Bitter Creek?) winds away and upwards toward the giant cliffs along the east side of the Valley. The scene illustrates, I think, quite a few common features of this terrain. It is quite arid and rugged — except that along the bottom of the wash, which periodically floods, a long grove of cottonwood trees and other vegetation has taken hold and seems to thrive.

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

Aspen Tree in Transition

October 20, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Aspen tree with leaves beginning to change from green to yellow

This fall I think I hit the timing just about perfect for aspen color, as I visited areas between Lake Tahoe in the north and Bishop Creek Canyon to the south. The colors were generally intense in the middle elevations, not completely gone yet at higher elevations, and beginning to come on strong down lower, where the aspens mix with cottonwoods and other foliage. By moving a bit north or south, or to higher/lower elevations, I was able to find just about every stage of the fall aspen color transition, from groves that were still green, though every phase of intermediate color, to bare trees that had already lost their leaves.

I was also reminded, yet again, that the specific spots you go to find Sierra fall color probably don’t matter as much as staying alert, thinking about the conditions, and watching for color wherever you happen to be. Yes, there are a few especially notable places. But it turns out that there are absolutely wonderful trees to photograph almost anywhere you travel at this time of year. This tree is perhaps a case in point. I was, in fact, in one of the prime aspen color areas near Lake Tahoe. However, on this evening, when the sun was dropping behind ridges and the light was softening, I simply happened to pull over at a wide spot in the road near some creek. I got out of my car to look at the trees, which were much like the trees filling the rest of this long valley, and it happened that one of them exposed the skeleton of its branch system against a background of mostly green leaves that were just starting to change. I’m quite certain that it would be nearly impossible for me to find this particular tree again — but why would I? It is just one of the uncountable trees in the range, and everywhere among them there are beauties to be photographed.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: green

Green Building and Tracks

Tropical Leaves

Two From the Waterpocket Fold Area

Aspen Tree in Transition

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