Tag Archives: island

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Building Clouds, Upper Young Lake

September 23, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Black and white photograph of clouds building in the sky above Upper Young Lake and Ragged Peak, Yosemite National Park.

Young Lakes in general, and the upper lake specifically are among my favorite places in the Yosemite back-country. This little Basin has a lot to offer, especially to photographers. For one thing, it is almost completely open to the west and late day light, and the upper lake is one of my favorite places to be as a summer evening comes to an end. (There is, of course, then the matter of the typical walk back to my campsite at the lower lake in the near darkness, but that just adds a bit of adventure.)

If I recall correctly, this was one of those days when I did not quite predict the weather accurately. I saw these beautiful clouds beginning to build fairly early in the day, but figured that I’d have plenty of time to get to the upper lake and perhaps even investigate some areas beyond before the weather got “interesting,” so I headed off without any real rain gear. (You know where this is leading…) Here at the upper lake, the clouds don’t look bad at all – definitely in the “interesting” category, but not all that threatening. With that in mind, after shooting here a bit I headed on up above the lake to check out some higher ridges and so forth that I’d been thinking about visiting.

Much to my surprise, within a few the wind picked up and giant raindrops began to fall. I heard a few claps of thunder. And there I was at timberline without any rain protection at all. Needless to say, I high-tailed it back down, stopping briefly to get a bit of shelter under a tree near the middle lake. Arriving back at my camp, I had the ever-so-fun opportunity to practice the skills of a somewhat wet me into my bivy sack without totally soaking my sleeping bag…

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Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Staten Island Ferry

August 29, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Details of the Staten Island Ferry in black and white.

This photograph may need a bit of explanation. Though it might be fun for you to try to parse out what you are seeing first. Go ahead. I’ll wait…

We did the cheap thing on this afternoon after walking around parts of south Manhattan – we wandered over to the Battery Park, saw a ferry approaching, figured we had just enough time for a scenic round trip, ran to the terminal, and did the free over-and-back on the Staten Island Ferry. The price is certainly right, and the ferry provides interesting views of the Brooklyn shoreline and the south end of Manhattan.

This is a photograph of… not much. The only in-focus element is the vertical metal bar near the left side of the frame. There are windows in the frame as well, and they provide several layers of reflections along with some other “stuff” from the glass itself. (The fence-like object at lower right is actually behind my camera position.) I shot this with a very large aperture to get a narrow depth of field, so everything beyond the metal column is out of focus – the sliding windows, the portion of a person at the right edge of the frame, the water and horizon, and the barely visible bit of the Verrazano bridge in the right window.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Greenstone Lake, Morning

August 18, 2011 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light on Greenstone Lake and surrounding trees and rocky terrain.

Greenstone is a relatively small lake just beyond the upper end of Saddlebag Lake, which is itself located just east of the Sierra crest and Yosemite National Park in an area dominated by Mount Conness and the tall ridge on which it stands. I had arrived before dawn at the Saddlebag Lake parking lot so that I could be on the trail before sunrise. Rather than giving in to the temptation to pay for a “water taxi” ride to the other end of the lake, I took the trail along the left shore, and arrived at Greenstone Lake just about the time that the first direct light was making its way down to this lake and the surrounding rocky hillside.

In this wet year with its late arrival of summer conditions, everything was still very wet around the lake and the meadow plants were still green and growing. (In dry years they start to finish up their growth spurt and begin turning brown by this time.)

I think this lake is a bit tricky to photograph in morning light. The light could be lovely at sunrise, but it would still be well up on the high ridges above the lake. It takes a long time for the sun to get high enough to rise above the ridge leading to Tioga Peak, and by that time most of the early morning warm light quality has given way to more typical daytime light. There were a few challenges in this photograph. They included trying to figure out how to find a workable composition in such a complex scene that was made even more complex by the reflections in the water. I think the triangle of rocky terrain in the upper half of the frame may help with this. The light posed several problems, mainly related to the very large dynamic range between the bright rocks and the shaded areas of forest at upper right. The light color was also tricky – because the shadows tend to be much bluer in a photograph than your eyes register when you are there, I had to mute the very blue quality of the shadows. This was done partly with an overall adjustment to color, but some additional work had to be done directly on the shadows.

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Events, News, Shows

Night Photography Exhibit: Mare Island Nocturnes – Artist Reception This Sunday

August 9, 2011 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

The artist reception for “Mare Island Nocturnes,” an exhibit of night photography done at the iconic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard and featuring the work of San Francisco Bay Area night photographers is this Sunday, August 14 at 2:00-4:00 p.m. on Mare Island. The exhibit is sponsored by The Nocturnes and the Mare Island Historic Park Foundation, and is part of the year-long celebration of the 20th year of The Nocturnes, the influential San Francisco Bay Area night photography group. I hope to see you there!

: Yellow Buildings, Shadows, Moving Clouds

The Mare Island Naval Ship Yard is a remarkable historical and visual treasure. The place was the major west coast ship yard for the Navy since early in the 1800, and was decommissioned in the 1990s. While portions of the island have been and continue to be “redeveloped,” the historic core of historic ship yard buildings remains. This area has been a favorite of night photographers for some years and a lot of wonderful photographic work has emerged from this subject. I have photographed there many times during the past five years or so.

The exhibit runs through September 15 at the Mare Island Historic Park Foundation Museum, 1100 Railroad Avenue, Mare Island – see the flyer below for specific days and times of viewing.

The reception for the artists is on Sunday, August 14 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. Five of my prints are in the show, including “Yellow Buildings, Shadows, Moving Clouds,” the image shown above. I’ll be at the reception – hope to see you there!

Press release follows:

: “Mare Island Nocturnes” Night Photography Exhibit Press Release

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