Tag Archives: highlands

Highland Trees and Fog

Highland Trees and Fog
“Highland Trees and Fog” — Fog and trees along the Great Glen Way in the Scottish Highlands above Loch Ness.

Most of our hike on Scotland’s Great Glen Way passed through various bucolic landscapes: flatlands, tree-lined canals, the shores of the lochs, lowland and hillside forests. But on a couple of occasions the trail ascended above the forest and into true highlands terrain. Both times the gentle (though occasionally a bit wet) Scottish weather turned more dramatic. In this location, on the boundary between forest and open highlands, the fog drifted in and out, occasionally obscuring the view of the Glen and Loch Ness far below.

This photograph comes from the section of the walk that lies just north of Fort Augustus. Here the trail quickly climbs out of town, passing the iconic “View Catcher”, crossing a ridge, dropping into a valley, and then ascending steeply to a ridge high above Loch Ness.


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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Detail, Wildcat Hill

Detail, Wildcat Hill
Detail, Wildcat Hill

Detail, Wildcat Hill. Wildcat Hill, California. September 28, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a building at Wildcat Hill

This is the third and final (for now, anyway) photograph from my visit to the historic Wildcat Hill home of Edward Weston and other members of the Weston family, today including Kim and Gina Weston. I suppose that visiting the Weston compound is something of a photographer’s pilgrimage, given Edward Weston’s influence and the work of the other photographers in the Weston family. (I believe there now may be as many as five generations of Weston photographers.)

The place is fascinating in many ways. Given its location, today not far from a very busy tourist byway, it is especially intriguing to think about what the place must have been like many decades ago. The main building is maintained in much the way it must have been many years ago, and it is a rather humble structure. Inside are many fascinating artifacts — Weston prints, paintings, sculpture, objects from the home, the small Edward Weston darkroom, and more. Over the years the place seems to have picked up a large number of small bits and pieces of “stuff” that is found everywhere — on shelves, attached to walls, scattered around the grounds. These things make fascinating subjects for almost any photographer.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

La Sirena

La Sirena
La Sirena

La Sirena. Carmel Highlands, California. September 28, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

I had a chance to visit a historic location in the Carmel Highlands on this late-September Sunday afternoon. We were there for several reasons: to see the place, to meet the people who live there, to look at some beautiful photographs. Since the main reasons for the visit was not to make photographs, I didn’t make too many — but I can’t stop myself from making at least a few!

The place is filled with all sorts of knick-knacks of the sort that accumulate when one family occupies a place for a long time. Among things of great and obvious value there were also silly and whimsical things, including the juxtaposition of figures attached to this exterior redwood wall.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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.

Holding an Artifact

Holding an Artifact
Holding an Artifact

Holding an Artifact. Wildcat Hill, California. September 28, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Holding a Brett Weston negative — “Brooklyn Bridge, New York, 1946”

During our visit to the Weston Home at Wildcat Hill in late September, Kim Weston shared a wide range of photographs and photographic objects , and accompanying stories, with us in his studio. (That’s him at the lower right of the frame.) He shared and talked about work by many of the Westons, from Edward Weston to himself. He even passed around various photographs and objects for closer inspection, including this negative of a very important Brett Weston photograph, “Brooklyn Bridge, New York, 1946.”

And — no surprise! — he has a lot of stories to tell. If I have this one correct, it goes sort of this way. Brett Weston’s photographs are very much about the print and the initial image in the negative served as source material for the final interpretation. That interpretation was the thing — not the negative. As I understand it, he wanted the prints, not the negatives, to remain as his legacy, and he had announced that we was going to destroy the negatives for many great photographs. He discussed this with Edward (?) Weston, who did not feel the same way about limiting editions and who apparently convinced Brett to let him pick a few negatives to save. Brett agreed, Edward chose, Brett went and brought back the selected negatives… which he had defaced with a hole punch. (You can see the holes near the four corners of this negative.)


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist 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 | FacebookGoogle+ | 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.