Tag Archives: license

Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cottonwood, Red Rock Canyon

November 4, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A fall color-tinged cottonwood tree grows in the depths of a red rock canyon, Utah

It is time to begin the Utah posts — I already have perhaps a month of photographs to share. (I still have more photographs from my late-summer back-country Yosemite shoot in the queue, but they can wait for a bit.) Utah, especially the southwest portion that I have visited frequently during the past few years, is an intriguing place for this California photographer. After decades of happily photographing my increasingly familiar home territory, it has been a special experience to work in a place where almost everything is new to me. I’ve gone there will few specific expectations, and I’ve made a point of not seeking out the familiar icons — though I have stumbled onto a few of them. (Yes, I do have a photograph of the Watchman. ;-) Compared to the gray tones of California granite, the red rock country of the Southwest is absolutely wild. Combine that rock with intense colors of green plants, yellow/gold fall foliage, blue sky and the effect is very different from what I’m used to shooting.

On my recent visit I managed to get into a number of canyons and gulches, which are perhaps the most magical of Utah places. In many cases, including the canyon where I made this photograph, the visit often begins in a place that looks nothing like this canyon scene — some dry, shallow wash or perhaps out on the flatlands above the canyon, where the air is dry and warm. I follow a path downstream and soon the wash becomes deeper and the walls rockier, and before long these walls rise to become cliffs and the world outside and above disappears, replaced by cool and moist air and water in the bottom of the echoing canyon. Trees and brush grow here, and sometimes you are caught up short when you encounter the sacred traces of people who made this world their home centuries ago. This photograph was made in such a canyon. At a stream crossing I made an almost random decision to climb up onto a higher route around a bend in the stream rather than following the the stream along the bottom of the canyon. As I crossed the slightly higher area I looked down into this world of red rock where a solitary cottonwood tree grows against the curving patterns of the rock.

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

Peninsula, Trees, Evening Light

November 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Evening light comes to a tree-dotted peninsula on a subalpine lake, Yosemite National Park

A subalpine Sierra Nevada lake like this one, where I photographed over the course of six days in September, is both a comforting source of familiarity and an opportunity to seek and discover new things. Anyone who has spent much time in the Sierra back county is familiar with lakes like this one. It is set in a very shallow bowl between higher ridges in most directions, a low and rock ridge in another, and a forested valley holding its outlet stream. This one is entirely surrounded by forest, dense and growing right to the shoreline in places, and sparse and rocky in others. A walk around the lake — and I made quite a few of these walks! — reveals marshy sections, places steep and rocky enough to make passage challenging, rocky outcroppings, views through trees, small granite islands, and more.

These walks almost inevitably brought us to the far end of the lake, near the marshy outlet, where this granite peninsula extends into the lake and supports ground cover and a few isolated trees. As we explored and photographed individually, it was not unusual for us to run into one another in this spot where there are so many interesting possibilities. The peninsula was a bit of an enigma for me. Its visual appeal was immediate — the individual trees standing in the light, the granite rocks, the open views of surrounding terrain, and its path away from the shore and out into the lake. But once there, I discovered that it was not as easy to photograph as I might have expected! Despite its obvious appeal, there were challenges — how to find an effective background, getting just the right light, and placing the individual components of the scene into a pleasing composition. On this evening I shot with a wide-angle lens and decided to work the curving shoreline that faced the late-day light.

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Urban/Street

Urban Flower Hunter

November 2, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Photographing flowers in a Chicago urban garden

In this photograph a woman kneels to make close-up photographs of flowers in an urban garden at Chicago’s Millennium Park. Not just any woman, by the way, but my wife! Aside from that obvious factor, there are several other things that I like about this scene and this photograph, some of them photographic and others more about the facts of the image.

Most people would pass right by such an urban garden. Some will notice it and perhaps look a bit. But a person who stops and looks close, as Patty does, can find a whole world to see in such a small place. In this photograph I also like the juxtaposition of the sharp angles and structures of the downtown Chicago skyline, with colors muted by hazy afternoon, and the wild and unpredictable organic forms and colors of the bit of garden. It doesn’t hurt that her red top complements the greens, either!

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Urban/Street

Chicago L Train

November 1, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A Chicago L train crosses a downtown bridge.

Since I’m not a Chicago regular, much less a Chicago native, I get to report the obvious here — these things are all new to a visitor who is still discovering the town. Actually, I was already familiar with the Chicago L, the city’s elevated railway system, from my previous short visits. The L trains, many of which have a bit of the same attractive worn and dated quality of the New York subway system cars, travel on elevated tracks above the downtown area. The car in this photograph is on a bridge crossing the Chicago River in the downtown area.

I don’t know the whole story, though I think it involves the historic paths of railroads into the downtown area, but there are areas in downtown Chicago with multiple street levels. For example, if you drop down to some sections of the Riverwalk from the main roadway level, you arrive at another system of roadways that runs underneath. Add the L on top of that, and there are three transpiration layers in places.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: license

Cottonwood, Red Rock Canyon

Peninsula, Trees, Evening Light

Urban Flower Hunter

Chicago L Train

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