Tag Archives: landscape

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Grove Near Conway Summit

October 10, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Newly fallen leaves litter the ground among softly lit trunks of aspen trees in a grove near Conway Summit in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California.

During my one hour (!) of fall aspen photography in the eastern Sierra on Sunday, I spent most of the time in one small grove of trees up the road to Virginia Lake from highway 395 at Conway Summit just north of Lee Vining. If you leave 395 and head up the road to Virginia Lakes, this is the first grove you encounter on your left – not far up the road and at a point where a small dirt road heads off from the main paved road.

I’ve photographed this grove before, but frequently I’ve arrived a bit after the peak. If anything, on this visit I was possibly a few days early. There were still a good number of green leaves in the grove, and across the road another large grove was completely green. However, here there were some great colors ranging from green to red and orange and yellow. I wandered up the hill through the grove and came to this spot where the ground was relatively clear but partially littered with fallen leaves, and a clear view of the many interesting shapes of the tree trunks was available.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

San Francisco Buildings, Foot of Market

October 8, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Forms of large downtown San Francisco buildings near the foot of Market street in morning light.

Near the foot of Market Street, close to the Ferry Building and the Bay, the morning light coming across the water lit these buildings in a special way – something to do, I think, with the low angle of the light, the fact that the fog was just clearing, and the blue sky with thin clouds above. Although the buildings are in direct sun, the light is partially softened and interrupted by the remaining fog clouds over the Bay to the east. When I shot this I had a pretty good idea that it would end up as a black and white photograph.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gdanmitchell
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/gdanmitchell
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gdanmitchell

keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, black and white, market, street, embarcadero, building, tall, skyscraper, architecture, form, structure, window, column, reflection, light, shadow, morning, sky, cloud, shadow, texture, tower, rail, balcony, landscape, travel, bay

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

San Francisco Buildings, Morning Light

October 4, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on a maze of buildings in downtown San Francisco, California.

I’ll interrupt the landscape and nature photography for a bit here to post a series of photographs made on a mid-September morning in San Francisco – one of my periodic (very) early morning Caltrain trips up the Peninsula to the The City to shoot on foot in the downtown area.

On this morning I arrived on the 7:02 a.m. train to find – no surprise! – fog along the San Francisco Bay waterfront. I headed along the Embarcadero past familiar subjects including the South Beach Harbor and the Bay Bridge, then turned up Market Street into the main downtown area. The fog was clearing back from the bay and the light was wonderful – a mixture of foggy gray, early morning blue, and intermittent shadows from clouds near the edge of the clearing fog bank.

There is a huge variety of potential subjects in downtown San Francisco on a weekday morning, but I decided to focus on the almost abstract forms on the buildings in this early light.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gdanmitchell
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/gdanmitchell
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gdanmitchell

keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, window, wall, reflection, sun, light, shadow, pattern, structure, perspective, busy, complex, skyscraper, urban, light, stock, landscape, archtecture, design

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

Mount Conness, Early Evening Thunderstorms

October 3, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Early evening thunderstorms above Mount Connesss, as seen from near Vogelsang High Sierra Camp, Yosemite National Park, California.

As most of California was heading back home on Labor Day, I was heading to the Sierra Nevada for a late-season four-day pack trip into the Yosemite National Park back-country around the Fletcher Lake/Vogelsang High Sierra Camp area. I got off to a very late start and didn’t get on the trail up Lyell Canyon until nearly 5:00 p.m., so it was dark when I finally arrived at the Ireland Lake trail junction to make camp and fix dinner – and, a bit later, to be serenaded by coyotes.

The next day I headed up the Ireland Lake trail to spend a night at Evelyn Lake and then move the following day to Fletcher Lake, the location of the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp. The situation at Fletcher Lake exemplifies much of what I love about late-season Sierra backpacking. During the high season this is a very popular place: a few dozen people stay at the facilities of the high sierra camp and many more backpackers camp nearby – it can be a very busy place! But the high sierra camp shuts down after Labor Day (they were dismantling the tents when I arrived) and the number of backpackers drops dramatically.

But for a photographer, many other special things happen at this time of year as well. While some may lament the passing of the rich green plants of these meadows, I love the golden color that lasts for a few weeks between early September and the coming of the first snow only weeks later – and the spots of green you do find are even more special. The weather cools and there is something special about the light that I can’t quite define – perhaps it is the lower angle of the sun or maybe some change in the weather conditions.

This photograph was made in the early evening on the day I arrived at Fletcher Lake. My usual practice is to set up camp and have an early dinner and then grab the camera equipment as “golden hour” approaches and go to work. I had been focused on the camp chores and hadn’t noticed these clouds until I picked up the camera! Here two large cells, perhaps beginning to dissipate as the day ended, were towering above Mount Conness and the Sierra crest.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Web: G Dan Mitchell Photography
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gdanmitchell
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/gdanmitchell
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gdanmitchell

keywords: mount, conness, johnson, peak, early, evening, late, afternoon, thunderstorm, cloud, towering, blue, sky, rain, virga, light, fletcher, lake, vogelsang, high, sierra, nevada, camp, range, mountains, alpine, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, travel, scenic, landscape, nature, meadow, brown, gold, lodgepole, tamarack, pine, forest, rock, ridge, backpack, camp, fall, autumn, color, season, stock, september, boulder

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