Tag Archives: immense

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Redwood National & State Parks

Old Growth Forest

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Old Growth Forest
Immense coast redwood trees in an old growth forest, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Old Growth Forest. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Immense coast redwood trees in an old growth forest, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

On an early June day our long driving loop took us out to the Lost Coast on a narrow, winding, somewhat lonely, and very scenic road. After dropping precipitously from coastal mountains to an isolated beach it followed to coast south for several miles before again turning inland. The route eventually passed though small hamlets (with the tell-tale plastic covered greenhouses in abundance) and began to climb drier, inland ridges. Finally it once again dropped steeply, entering one of the quietest and most still redwood forest groves I have been in.

After the long drive it was time to stop and this seemed a perfect place. Before long we decided to get out camera equipment and simply wander for a while in the still forest of giant old-growth trees. Even after years of visiting the coastal redwoods, it still surprised me to see how dark it is along the forest floor — little light makes it down from the crowns of the trees hundreds of feet above. This photograph looks off into the forest, and if you inspect it closely you may notice that, aside from the foreground ferns, the entire scene is comprised of the trees.

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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Desert Mountains, Blowing Dust

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Desert Mountains, Blowing Dust
Immense desert mountains partially obscured by blowing dust.

Desert Mountains, Blowing Dust. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Immense desert mountains partially obscured by blowing dust.

For some reason, this week I seem to be reviewing photographs from Death Valley and many of them want to be monochrome. This is the second in two days. Recently I’ve been thinking about the subject of rugged, desert ridges receding into distant haze, and when I came across this old raw file it seemed to fit right into that theme.

My recollection (not completely certain, since the photo was made nearly eight years ago) is that we were headed up Death Valley towards a dust storm rising in the flats and dunes north of Stovepipe Well. That’s not an uncommon occurrence at this time of year. The atmosphere was filled with that diffuse haze that often develops around dust storm, and as we approached the source of the blowing sand we began to see clouds of dust rising above the landscape in the center of the valley.

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Photographer In The Landscape

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Photographer In The Landscape
A solitary photographer works the evening light in a dust storm, dwarfed by an immense landscape of dunes and desert mountians.

Photographer In The Landscape. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A solitary photographer works the evening light in a dust storm, dwarfed by an immense landscape of dunes and desert mountians.

You may wonder about the title of this photograph: “What photographer?” You’ll need to look closely, especially if you are looking at a smaller version of the photograph. The photographer is small! Or, more accurately, this landscape is very big.

There are some experiences in the landscape that are particularly powerful. Some are hard to articulate. Once, many years ago, I wandered away from the rest of my party at a timberline camp, sat on the ground and just looked, and I experienced a sudden sense of connection and content in that landscape that I’ve been unable to describe in words. On another occasion — halfway through a two-week solo backpack trip — it seem like the right thing to just sit atop a 12,000′ pass for a couple of hours. Many of these moments seem connected to the experience of being a very small figure in a very large landscape like this one.

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 and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Green Shop Doors

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Green Shop Doors
Green Shop Doors

Green Shop Doors. Mare Island Naval Ship Yard, Vallejo, California. April 5, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Green doors to an immense industrial shop building, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

I’m intrigued by doorways, especially doorways painted in interesting colors, or which suggest a size different from their reality, or which hint at something beyond the doors. These doors, both the obvious small door at the left, and the larger three section doors to its right that you’ll see if you look a bit more closely, are along the front of a gigantic shop building at Mare Island. Many years ago they were, no doubt, devoted to work related to the ship construction that went on here for many decades. That work ended decades ago, the facility was decommissioned, and much of it was left vacant for a long time.

More recently things have begun to move again on the island. While some areas still lie dormant and others have succumbed to weather and vandals, many others still stand and quite a few of them are now used by small operations. Looking through the windows on this night, portions of the interior were dimly lit and it appeared that a few workers were busy inside. Incongruously, it looked like at least one computer screen glowed on a desk near a window.

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.