Tag Archives: intimate

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Rocks, Water, Reflection

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Rocks, Water, Reflection
Granite slabs and submerged rocks at the edge of an alpine Sierra Nevada lake

Rocks, Water, Reflection. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Granite slabs and submerged rocks at the edge of an alpine Sierra Nevada lake.

One advantage of photographing for a long time in one small area is that you may begin to see things that you initially overlooked. I’m often immediately attracted to the large scale landscape — lakes, peaks, forests, sky — and it takes more time, patience, and attention to start to start to see subtler, smaller subjects. These often constitute what has been called the “intimate landscape,” made up of distinctly non-iconic elements, and frequently offering and almost abstract quality of shape, color, and texture.

To find these things I have to slow down a lot. It is easy to become anxious about finding that Great Photograph that will knock viewers over. But those don’t come every day or even every week. Sometimes, in fact, there are long gaps between them. At one point on this trip one of my fellow photographers mentioned that he had seen me from where he was working, and that I seemed to be doing a lot of “contemplation.” Guilty as charged! In a sense, most of the work of photography may be done without the camera. Sure, the camera is in my bag or attached to my tripod, but I’m looking and considering and thinking more than I’m actually making photographs. This photograph comes from one of those moments — I had simply been walking along the edge of “our” lake, spending a lot of time just looking, when I noticed this pattern of granite and still water than I had walked past quite a few times before.

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

Redwood Forest Plants

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Redwood Forest Plants
New growth among the plants growing on the dark forest floor beneath redwood trees

Redwood Forest Plants. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

New growth among the plants growing on the dark forest floor beneath redwood trees.

The gigantic trees are, obviously, a primary attraction in Northern California’s remarkable redwood forests. Having been brought up around them, I sometimes forget how unusual and striking they are. Two things remind me. One is when I see someone entering these forests for the first time, not quite believing what they are seeing. Another is when I leave the redwood forest and again see “normal” trees… which now seem very small! One advantage that comes with many years in the redwoods is that it becomes more possible to look away from the huge trees (though they are always in your thoughts) and take in smaller and things, and elements that are more subtle… like these delicate new leaves growing in the shadow of these trees.

As I worked on this photograph I thought about the process of photographing in the landscape. It can be a difficult thing to describe: What am I looking for? What causes me to stop and make a photograph? What is my state of mind when I’m working? Do I work slowly or quickly? (The answer to the last question is, “yes.”) But one thing is certain — the process is more about looking than about photographing. Those who have been with me in such places sometimes report being mildly annoyed by my slow, stop-and-start progress though the landscape. I’m constantly on the lookout for some subject, some light, some juxtaposition of shapes and forms. Most of the time when I spot something and stop… it turns out not to be worthy of a photograph. So I keep looking until I find “it,” whatever “it” is.

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.

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

Photographs: Coastal Redwoods, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Rhododendron Blooms, Redwood Bark

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Rhododendron Blooms, Redwood Bark
Spring rhododendron blooms against the bark of a coast redwood tree, Redwood National Park

Rhododendron Blooms, Redwood Bark. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Spring rhodendron blooms against the bark of a coast redwood tree, Redwood National Park.

We spent the better part of a week in far Northern California in early June, and a major goal was to spend time in the area of the Redwood National and State Parks. This late-spring period usually marks the peak of the rhododendron bloom, and it can also provide a weather bonus comprised of less rain and more fog. We got the “less rain” part (none at all!) but we missed out almost entirely on the “more fog” part. I seem to have a special knack for chasing away redwood fog, at least in this part of the state. So far I’ve seen a total of about five minutes of fog… while everyone else seems to encounter it regularly!

That rumored fog provides a photographic advantages. The fog can render the already monumental and cathedral-like redwood forests even more mysterious. It can simplify the complex and busy forest scenes by muting more distant elements. It eliminates the “pizza light” contrasts between deep shadows and spots of sunlight, allowing more hours of photography. And when the fog is clearing or thin, beautiful and muted light can create a magical effect. I’ve seen all of this — but just not in this region! On the plus side, the rhododendron bloom was spectacular, and there were beautiful flowers everywhere. (There is often debate about when to expect the bloom. I can report that one week into June it was still going strong and even increasing in many places.)

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.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fractured Rock

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Fractured Rock
Detail of a fractured rock wall in the John Muir Wilderness

Fractured Rock. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of a fractured rock wall in the John Muir Wilderness

There are quite a few “photographer jokes” that you’ll hear if you hang out long enough with these folks. (I should make a list sometime!) Some of them come up in answer to the common question, “What did you photograph?” (A variation on, “What are you photographing?” and not totally unrelated to, “Did you get anything good?”) In a lot of cases, when asked the “what did you photograph?” question, you have choices: given a long answer (often the truest response) and make your questioner wish they hadn’t brought it up, give a very short superficial answer, or make a joke. One joke answer among some folks I know and sometimes photograph with is a cheery, “Rocks, water, and trees!”

If you have been watching recent photographs from this location in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, you may be forgiven for noting that in some cases I seem to have been reducing the subjects from “rocks, water, and trees” down to the minimal, “rocks…” This is — obviously! — one such example. It is the sort of thing that most folks would probably not see, since it wasn’t in an obvious place and is in a location where you could easily walk past while looking at other, larger things. But I wasn’t looking for the obvious, at least not only for the obvious, so I stopped here and poked around a bit, discovering a small section on a larger rock fact where the remnants of an old layer of pink rock were gradually breaking away from the underlying gray material. One more thing — when I make a photograph like this one, focusing on some compositional aspect of some small and non-iconic thing, I often think of the photographs of Mike Osborne, one of the original “First Light” photographers and a person with a unique and wonderful way of “seeing” the Sierra Nevada landscape.

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