Tag Archives: island

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Crew Members, Staten Island Ferry

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Crew Members, Staten Island Ferry
Two crew members against a railing in morning light on the Staten Island Ferry, New York, City

Crew Members, Staten Island Ferry. New York City. October 7, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two crew members against a railing in morning light on the Staten Island Ferry, New York, City

The photograph is something I grabbed while riding the Staten Island Ferry from Manhattan to the island. It is almost a bit embarrassing to admit this in retrospect, but I made the photograph while the whole family was on the ferry on the way to the wedding of our youngest son. They hired an actual wedding photographer — there were two of them, actually — but, of course, I could not leave my camera behind. I had been making a lot of informal photographs of the wedding party when I saw these two guys against the orange-painted steel of the ferry.

Technically the photograph was a little bit tricky. Not only were parts of the scene in deep shadow, but the two figures were backlit and the sunlight on the urban landscape beyond was extremely bright. I exposed to (barely!) keep a bit of detail in those bright areas, planning to bring the shadow details back in post. Amazingly, it worked! :-)

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: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Mono Basin, Wildfire Smoke, Dawn

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Mono Basin, Wildfire Smoke, Dawn
Smoke layers from a nearby wildfire drift across Mono Basin at dawn

Mono Basin, Wildfire Smoke, Dawn. Mono Lake, California. September 17, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Smoke layers from a nearby wildfire drift across Mono Basin at dawn

Late summer and early fall are the wildfire season in California and especially in the areas around the Sierra Nevada. (That statement used to be more accurate than it is these days, as drought and anthropic climate change have now extended the fire season in the state.) Like most people who spend time in the outdoors I have complicated responses to wildfire. I hate to see forests and wild lands destroyed, especially by some of the recent super-hot fires that have done more serious damage. At the same time I fully understand that fire is a natural and even necessary component of the natural life in these areas. In recent years I have tried to find beauty alongside the destruction, and it has opened my eyes to seeing fire in different ways.

During my recent mid-September Sierra Nevada photography jaunt, mainly focused on visiting a few high places and scouting early aspen color, a very smoky fire broke out in the Owens River area. I first spotted in while driving down from Yosemite in the evening after a backcountry hike, and the next morning there was a big cloud of smoke over the lands southeast of Lee Vining. Mono Lake was still mostly clear, except at the south end, but beautiful layers of smoke were beginning to drift across the lake before and during sunrise, muting details and rendering more clearly some of the larger elements of the landscape. I moved around the lake and surrounding areas looking for vantage points for several hours, until eventually the smoke-filled Mono Basin so much that I decided to leave.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Fog, Water, Island

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Winter Fog, Water, Island
Winter fog obscures the view of a wetland island

Winter Fog, Water, Island. Central Valley, California. February 15, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter fog obscures the view of a wetland island

This is one of a pair of similar photographs I made in this spot on a lovely dense fog morning out in the winter Central Valley. (The other is simpler and doesn’t include the foreground plants.) We had arrived quite a bit earlier and had already done a circuit of the gravel road that encircles the location, and we were now on our second loop. Believe it or not, the fog had become a lot less thick by the time I made the photograph!

Imagine that everything is still, but that the sounds of birds are everywhere — a combination of visual stillness but audio tumult in every direction. As I watched this little island the fog continued to thin and thicken, and at times it almost became invisible. Shortly after I made the photograph the clearing began in earnest and the beaks began to develop in the shallow tule fog.

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.

Photographs: Mono Lake Basin, Photographs: Nature

Storm, Mono Lake

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Storm, Mono Lake
Dark clouds of a massive summer thunderstorm move across Mono Lake.

Storm, Mono Lake. Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. August 7, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dark clouds of a massive summer thunderstorm move across Mono Lake.

This has been the “summer of the monsoon” in the Sierra Nevada. Although the range is terribly dry after four years of drought and this past winter’s truly anemic snow pack, summer has brought a greater than usual amount of monsoonal flow from the south, producing a great deal of thunderstorms and rain. In July I saw an odd juxtaposition of nearly snow free peaks and ridges that looked like late September of a dry year… along with green meadows and full ponds where the rains had fallen.

By the time of this early August visit to the Yosemite High Sierra and then a few days of backpacking on the east side of the range further south, things were drying out a bit and the foliage was taking on the usual late-August dry appearance. I camped down in Lee Vining Canyon the first night, and being close to Mono Lake I managed to head out there and make photographs after setting up camp. Thunderstorms were forming above the Sierra crest, and they had sprinkled on my camp. They then drifted east of the range and continued to build, so as I looked along this section of the north shore of Mono Lake, with Black Point and Negit Island visible in the foreground, the sky in the distance was turbulent, dark, and full of falling rain.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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