Tag Archives: haze

Photographs: Arizona, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: The Southwest

Rain Squall, Monument Valley

2 Comments
Rain Squall, Monument Valley j- Distant mesas and towers of Monument Valley, veiled by a passing rain squall
Distant mesas and towers of Monument Valley, veiled by a passing rain squall

Rain Squall, Monument Valley. Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona, October 12, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Distant mesas and towers of Monument Valley, veiled by a passing rain squall

I have a bit of a surprising confession to make. Utah is not the only state in the American Southwest that I had not previously photographed. Although I have been in the state before, I had never photographed there prior to this year, when we made a quick pass though the upper portion of the state on a drive between Moab and Zion National Park. Several things explain this. First, as I’ve written before, I’ve long been a California landscape bigot – the “local” landscapes of ocean and mountains and deserts and redwoods and more have been, and continue to be, such a focus that I’ve felt little inclination to shoot elsewhere. More recently, as I discovered Utah, I felt a bit of an obligation to avoid Arizona for certain other reasons that I won’t go into right now.

That’s right. I’ve never photographed the Grand Canyon. In fact, I haven’t even seen the Grand Canyon except from the air while flying over the state. And, no, I had not seen Monument Valley either. As we left Moab and headed south, I was excited about seeing this new landscape, but a bit concerned about the potential for photography as a storm – and not just the afternoon monsoon – was moving through. Sure enough, just about the time we got near to Monument Valley the clouds thickened, the wind blew, and it began to rain in earnest. However, I soon caught sight of the towers and mesas of this valley in the distance, familiar from so many photographs I’ve seen, and I quickly realized that the rainy conditions were actually going to provide some very special light and effects. This photograph is a case in point. It was cloudy but not raining at my camera position. Just beyond, a passing squall was dropping rain across the desert terrain and muting and blurring the features, but beyond that the sun was shining on the stupendous distant formations, and beyond them broken clouds were moving.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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

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: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove, North Bishop Creek

1 Comment
Aspen Grove, North Bishop Creek - An aspen grove along North Bishop Creek in late afternoon light.
An aspen grove along North Bishop Creek in late afternoon light.

Aspen Grove, North Bishop Creek. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. October 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An aspen grove along North Bishop Creek in late afternoon light.

While I like huge, expansive groves of aspens, I also like small, isolated groups, especially when set against the background of what I think of as sage brush country. This group of trees is actually part of a long, thin grove that stretches along a small dirt side road up in the Bishop Creek drainage. The grove and the road are on my “must visit” list for my annual aspen-chasing trips to the eastern Sierra, so by now I’ve learned a lot about the “personality” of this particular spot. Like a number of other spots to which I return each year, you might not notice anything spectacular about this grove – but by means of repeated visits I have learned where to look for certain little subjects: a creek that flows past boulders beneath colorful trees, a particular thick grove of very thin-truck trees, groves of trees that seem barely taller than I am.

I made this photograph in what might seem like unlikely lighting conditions. It was late afternoon, and the trees were back-lit. The sun was close to dropping behind the very tall ridge that lies above and beyond the border of the photograph, so the light was angling across the several background ridges running down into the valley, and lighting their upper edges. And, of course, the leaves glow when the light come through them from behind.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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

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: Ocean & Coast

Sea Stacks and Coastal Bluffs, Northern California

Leave a comment
Sea Stacks and Coastal Bluffs, Northern California - Haze obscures sea stacks and bluffs along the rugged Pacific Ocean coastline of Northern California
Haze obscures sea stacks and bluffs along the rugged Pacific Ocean coastline of Northern California

Sea Stacks and Coastal Bluffs, Northern California. Mendocino Coast, California. October 30, 2011. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Haze obscures sea stacks and bluffs along the rugged Pacific Ocean coastline of Northern California.

I made this photograph almost a year ago, from just about the same location as a more recent photograph of this scene that I posted a month or so ago. The location is along the Mendocino County coastline of northern California, a rugged and beautiful section of the state. Here the coast highway travels very close to the water along high bluffs that overlook the Pacific, and this particular cove holds this two-peaked island or sea stack and is backed by receding coastal bluffs that extend out into the water. In the far distance the shoreline to the south curves gently back towards the west, creating a large and very shallow bay.

The personality of this land and seascape changes constantly. On a (rare) completely clear day, the view to the farther shoreline might be easier to make out, but on the many foggy days the foreground scene could well be completely obscured. On this morning, most of the fog had cleared back from the coast, leaving a softly hazy atmosphere that amplified the effects of distance, and the surf was creating low clouds of spray along the coastline.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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

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

Steelhead Lake, Shoreline

Leave a comment
Steelhead Lake, Shoreline - The curving shoreline of Steelhead Lake, photographed in early evening light.
The curving shoreline of Steelhead Lake, photographed in early evening light.

Steelhead Lake, Shoreline. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. September 15, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The curving shoreline of Steelhead Lake, photographed in early evening light.

This is a fairly simple shot, and I think it represents a sort of scene that many Sierra Nevada back-country travelers know well. Steelhead Lake sits high on a bench up in the McGee Creek drainage, with a very tall ridge running to the east (and blocking early morning light) and a deep canyon to the west and northwest, with views toward the Sierra crest beyond. Unusual for an east-side location, there is much better light in the evening than in the morning. (More typically, east-side high country areas are open to the east and the morning light, and the evening light is blocked by the Sierra crest.) Most of the shoreline of the lake is forested, with the exception of a section at the upper end that is covered by the base of a talus field spilling down from the higher ridges.

We camped on what almost amounted to a peninsula, at least when viewed from the direction from which the trail arrives at the lake. Our spot on the peninsula was high enough to command a view of most of the moderate sized lake, and especially back across this little cover below our position. Late in the day as the setting sun approached the crest of the Sierra out of the frame to the left, low angle light slanted across the valley below and onto the low ridge along the edge of the lake, illuminating the atmospheric haze and back-lighting the trees along the shoreline.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer 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

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.