Tag Archives: landscape

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building, Windows, Blinds

February 28, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An urban building with vertical windows and blinds

I think I’ll stick with the black and white theme for one more day. This is a photograph I made five years ago. I remember stopping at this oddly plain little building on a walk not far from where I live. It was Christmas Eve day, and things were slowing down in anticipation of holiday festivities, so I went out on one of my local “photo walks” in the surrounding neighborhood. I do this from time to time for reasons that range from the desire to practice and tune up my “seeing” to wanting to see my surroundings more clearly — there is nothing like wandering with a camera in hand to encourage me to see things I would otherwise overlook. (One of the first times I did this in the neighborhood I was shocked to notice the upper stories on nearby business buildings that I had walked past for years.)

I think this must be some sort of office building, and perhaps behind these tightly shut blinds there is some sort of personal world that the rest of us cannot see. The outside of the building seems incredibly boring and lacking in any intentional design sense, yet the odd but functional windows start to look very strange when shot close up and without the rest of the building visible. The late afternoon sun was casting shadows from nearby trees to produce the mottled light.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Wetlands, Winter Fog

February 26, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Wetlands with thick early morning tule fog, San Joaquin Valley, California

The initial draw of this area of the San Joaquin Valley, with its wetlands and winter tule fog, was birds — the many thousands of seasonal migratory birds including geese, sandhill cranes, and ibises along with egrets, herons, pelicans, owls, hawks, an occasional eagle, and more. During winter, this agricultural area is given over almost completely to the is wildlife — something that I did not know for many years, despite living in California almost my entire life. However, the more I’ve photographed out here, the more my interest has evolved beyond just the birds to include the landscape itself, and especially the foggy landscape.

It is hard to describe the experience of being here in winter to a person who doesn’t share the experience. Frankly, the terrain is easily dismissed as the sort of thing you would drive through or past on your way to some place more interesting. That was certainly my notion, as I passed though here for years on my way to and from the Sierra. But out here on a cold, foggy and still winter morning, when your world closes down to perhaps a radius of a few hundred feet at best, and the sounds of birds come through the fog from all directions, this becomes a very special kind of place unlike any other that I know in this state.

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

Riparian Thicket, Yosemite Valley

February 21, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hazy afternoon winter light in a thicket of trees along the banks of the Merced River, Yosemite Valley

A shorter than usual post today, as I’m dealing (successfully!) with an unexpected eye problem, and one effect of the treatment is that I need to minimize computer/reading/writing time for a few days. (The short story is that I had retinal detachment, we caught it right away, were able to treat it on an out-patient basis, I’m home, and the results look fine. In short, what looked scary at first appears to be heading towards an excellent outcome.) So, briefly…

A week ago I was in Yosemite Valley for about two hours between visits to a couple of other places, and I had time to photograph around one of the large meadows late in the day, as the afternoon sun was dropping toward the tops of the cliffs and the hazy air became luminous. I wandered over to a section of the Merced River where I like to photograph cottonwood trees in spring and fall, and looking down the river I saw this little vignette in the backlight.

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

Forest, Afternoon Light

February 18, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Hazy afternoon winter light in a Yosemite Valley hardwood forest

This may have been just about the briefest visit to Yosemite Valley that I have ever made. We drove up from the Bay Area for two days and one night so that we could attend the opening reception for an art exhibit (Sierra Art Trails) in Oakhurst. We had thought that we might visit one of the Central Valley wildlife refuges on the way — and we ended up spending enough time there that it was after 3:00 when we got to the Yosemite Valley. We briefly stopped to watch people setting up to try to photograph Horsetail Fall, which we did not intend to do, and then headed up to one of the large meadows where I thought that I could photograph trees backlit by the low angle afternoon light.

I started out in a meadow, photographing trees to my west silhouetted against the hazy backlight. Finishing with this subject I wandered over to the banks of the Merced River to look for closer subjects, and as I looked west I saw this tangle of trees which gradually resolved into patterns of downward curving branches superimposed on taller tree trunks leaning to both sides. One challenge was trying to find a composition in this complexity, and another was shooting straight toward the sun without ending up with lens flare. The first took some careful thought, while the second required some contortions to shade the lens with my hand.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: landscape

Building, Windows, Blinds

Wetlands, Winter Fog

Riparian Thicket, Yosemite Valley

Forest, Afternoon Light

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