Tag Archives: hills

Desert Lake, Island and Mountains

Image September 30, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Desert Lake, Island and Montains — Distant desert mountains stand in morning light beyond Mono Lake and Paoha Island.

Distant desert mountains stand in morning light beyond Mono Lake and Paoha Island.

Mono Lake is known for a few particular things: the picturesque tufa towers along its shoreline and its extremely salty water. (It is landlocked, so all water — except that stolen by LA — leaves the lake by means of evaporation.) But other things that characterize the Mono Basin for me, too. One is the surprising juxtaposition of essentially high desert and the vast surface of this lake. Another is the huge expanse of sky. And at times, the area can be as still and silent as almost any place I’ve been.

This time I went in the morning, primarily to visit two places. One, seen in some other photographs that I’ll share from this visit, is an old ponderosa pine forest that was consumed by wildfire. The other is the spot in this photograph, on a ridge along a roadway, where I can look across hills and the periphery of a volcanic crater toward the lake, its own volcanic islands, and desert mountains in the far distance.

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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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Italy, Photographs: Travel

Firenze Duomo, Evening

Image September 21, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Duomo of Firenze/Florence, Italy in evening light.

Florence, or Firenze in Italian, is a remarkable city full of remarkable places and artifacts. And, yes, it is also really crowded with tourists during the peak travel season… which is when we were there this summer. But still… it is one of those places that is amazing enough that it is worth braving those crowds. And, on occasion, the crowd can even be part of the fun. That’s how it turned out on this evening.

We wanted a longer, elevated view of the city, so we headed to the Piazzale Michelango, a sort of park perched on a hillside overlooking the Arno River and the central city, with views extending into the far distance. To be honest, we were not looking forward to the crowds, but we really wanted to see and photograph this view. When we arrived, there were so many people that it was a challenge to even find a place to stand. But gradually we figured out that it was a sort of grand party. Vendor were selling refreshments (including adult beverages) and food, musicians were playing, some guy was doing essentially improv theater in front of the crowd, the light was increasingly magical, and people began to sing as they watched the sunset.