Tag Archives: green

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brooklyn Rorschach Test

September 8, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Layers and paint and removed paper create patterns on a concrete wall in Brooklyn

There isn’t really a lot to say about this photograph, but there might be a few things to ask. This was more or less a quick “grab shot,” taken while walking not far from the waterfront at the Brooklyn Bridge Park, where it isn’t uncommon to find places where various signs and billboards have been posted and then removed.

So, what you are looking at here is the result of various layers of paint and the after-effects of material that was glued to the walls and then removed. I think it is interesting to ask what you see in these patterns when you look at them. The more I look the more I see, but I won’t try to convince you that what I see is the “right” thing to notice, and I think that lots of other interpretations are possible — or that you might even choose to simply see it as a place where stuff was removed from a black and green wall!

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, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Morning Forest

June 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light filters through forest trees near the shore of Lake Tahoe

Although we were not at Lake Tahoe primarily for photography, and although the previous day had been a busy one — a long drive and a wedding! — I got up before dawn and headed out to see what the morning light might bring. Shortly after 5:00 AM I was out and driving south along the west shore of Lake Tahoe. (Note to others visiting the lake: Get up early! It is beautify and almost no one else is out yet, turning this usually crowded place into one of near solitude.)

The light was tricky. High clouds were in the sky above the mountains along the far, eastern side of the lake, and the early sun was mostly blocked by them. But the clouds were not solid, and as I headed south I started to see sun breaks, and pools of light traveled across the landscape of the west side of the lake, separated by bands of shadow. As I passed this otherwise nondescript spot, a bit of beautiful backlight shone through the trees, so I quickly pulled over… and the light immediately went dark! But soon it returned, and I had found composition that included these sparse trees set in a small valley below me, and I was ready to make this photograph.

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Redwood Forest, Spring

June 5, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dense spring growth and fog-filtered light in the forest at Butano Redwood State Park

I’ll stick with the redwoods theme for a bit longer and share another photograph from my recent first-time photography visit to the Butano Redwoods State Park along the California coast between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. I had not visited this park before, much less photographed it, though I had photographed along the access road that leads to it from the Pacific Coast Highway. It is a pleasure to actually “discover” a new park so close to home!

I chose to visit on this day at least partly because of the promising light. It remained foggy and cloudy along the coast pretty much all day, so I figured that if I went inland a few miles toward the redwoods I might catch the thinning fog and the soft light that it can produce. I found a trailhead, loaded up the camera pack and tripod, and headed out. There was so much to see in this lush forest that I made very slow progress, stopping every couple of minutes to consider and sometimes make another photograph. From this spot along the trail I found a view past closer trees and on into more distant growth, and I stopped to make a few photographs. In this one I chose to work with a vertical composition to emphasize the slender forms of the second-growth redwoods and other trees reaching toward the light.

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

Spring Oaks, Sierra Foothills

May 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring oak trees and meadows, Sierra Nevada foothills

In this drought year Tioga Pass, the trans-Sierra route through Yosemite National Park, opened earlier than usual. For me, the opening of this pass marks the end of the winter season and the beginning of the summer, with its easier access to the high country. Virtually every year I mark this event by visiting the Yosemite high country on the opening day or as close to it as possible. This year’s early May opening fell on a busy weekend, so I couldn’t be there on the actual opening day, but two days later I was able to squeeze in a one-day up-and-back trip from the San Francisco Bay Area.

I was up way before dawn and on the road before 4:00 AM. During the winter months such a start time would get me into the Sierra for dawn photography, but with the longer days at this time of year the sun rose when I was still in the foothills. While many might regard the foothill terrain as something to pass through on the way to the more interesting goal, I have come to love the soft, curving foothills, with their covering of grasses (green at this time of year, but brown to golden most of the time) and oak trees, either standing individually or as part of large oak forests. When I came to this spot, where I have stopped to photograph before, I found the meadows in that transitional state between the remaining greens of this year’s (meager) spring moisture and browns of California’s summer.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: green

Brooklyn Rorschach Test

Morning Forest

Redwood Forest, Spring

Spring Oaks, Sierra Foothills

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