Tag Archives: ice

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Bridal Veil, Ice and Mist

March 28, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Bridal Veil fall with winter ice and mist

Many photographic subjects in Yosemite Valley are quite dependent on time of day, season, weather conditions, and other variables, some of which are completely beyond the photographer’s control. You simply must, first of all, be there, and then you must try to predict (or know) when the odds are better, be attentive to special conditions, and sometimes be ready to act quickly.

This is not exactly the rarest of conditions, but several pieces had to occur together to produce this scene. First, it had to be winter and it had to be cold — and the latter is less a certainty in California during the past few years. Second, despite the cold, it had to be warm enough somewhere up above to melt sufficient snow to get Bridal Veil Creek flowing at a pretty high rate for this time of year. Third, the light had to come over the lip of the canyon at the top of the wall to illuminate the rising mist but not the fall itself. Finally, if you look closely, you might notice three (somewhat blurry) ravens flying between the trees.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: France, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Ice Cream Shop, Paris

August 9, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

I made this photograph on my first day (night, actually) in Paris, France. We arrived from London in the afternoon, found our hotel, took a few minutes to get our bearings, and then went for a walk — coffee first, then a bit of wandering and sight-seeing, then dinner, then a bit more wandering that included after-dark photography in the streets of Montmartre.

We ate outside as the sun set and twilight came on, and from our table I watched this small ice cream shop across the street. The colors were wonderful, especially with lighted display cases that alternated red, green, blue, purple, yellow and other lights. I decided I would try to photograph it when we left our restaurant, and I caught it at the moment when the only remaining customers were the two people sitting at the table outside.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Memorial Pool

January 25, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Memorial pool at the National September 11 Memorial, New York City.

It is hard to know precisely what or how to write about this place as it evokes so many responses of all different sorts. On that September day over a decade ago we were on the opposite coast, watching the events unfold as if in a dream. A year and a half earlier we had stood on top of these buildings at night. Since then my oldest son has moved to New York and now works within a very short distance of this place. Our first visit to the site was a few years ago, when almost all original traces of the September 11 events were gone (though if you looked closely you could see chips and cracks in places), and it had become an incredibly busy construction site, with more cranes than I had ever seen in one place and with the new tower climbing skyward. It was hard to connect what we saw on that visit to what had occurred – until we walked around a corner and saw a memorial to firefighters from the closest fire station.

This time we first walked here on Christmas morning. We didn’t pick that day for any particular reason except that we were not far away and it seemed like a place that we wanted to visit. We walked down, looked up at the new tower through trees, and walked back. The next day we wanted to visit the Memorial, so we returned and stood in the lines with thousands of other people in freezing weather as light snow flurries fell. Once there I knew I wanted to photograph, but I didn’t want to intrude on anyone else, so I photographed things more than people in the flat, cloudy light. This photograph includes a bit of one of the pools, where water that has just fallen down the upper walls, leaving ice behind on this cold day, pauses momentarily before continuing its descent into the center void of the memorial.

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 Leaves on Snow

October 17, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Frost covered autumn aspen leaves lying on new-fallen snow, Sierra Nevada

Early October is the time of the annual aspen color transition in the eastern Sierra Nevada. For me, the combination of the dramatic color change and the seasonal weather changes clearly denote the fact that summer is over and that we are heading toward the cold part of the year. (I like this – I find that the fall through spring seasons are more photographically compelling, and I’m no longer a “hot weather person.”) While October in the Sierra can bring some beautiful and even warm days, there is not question that nights are both longer and colder, and the occasional passing weather front will drop enough snow to make it feel distinctly winter-like.

Although we knew that much of the iconic color at North Lake had already passed, we decided to go there anyway on this morning and look for more subtle things that remain. The road past the lake is on a north slope and we drove through plenty of recent snow as we passed along this shoreline in 22 degree temperatures. As expected, most of the trees had lost their leaves already, though we also found some trees that still held enough colorful leaves to make the visit well worth our time. And, when those leaves fall, they don’t simply disappear! On a snowy morning like this one they collect in piles on top of the snow, providing beautiful little compositions and highlighting the intensity of their colors.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: ice

Bridal Veil, Ice and Mist

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Ice Cream Shop, Paris

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Memorial Pool

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Aspen Leaves on Snow

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