Tag Archives: light

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

Southwest Sky

June 29, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning clouds above the landscape of Capitol Reef National Park

On this October morning we were up early, but not quite early enough — though it turned out fine in the end. We awoke before sunrise, with a plan to head down along the east side of Capitol Reef National Park along the Waterpocket Fold. We hoped to be a good distance down this route when the sun rose, but we got up later than expected. We were far from our goal when the dawn arrived.

Our location was, in some ways, not the spectacular sort of place that we had envisioned for sunrise. However, there were absolutely beautiful clouds to our north, and the dawn light’s color could probably make any subject look good. So our immediate goal became quickly finding any place that looked like it might have photographic potential — and to find it NOW! Within a few minutes we found a short side road, drove a short distance to a hilltop, parked, and piled out of the vehicle, more or less already in the act of setting up tripods and cameras. We had only a few moments on special light on the clouds before it began to fade to daytime light.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Eastside Dawn

June 26, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Dawn light on the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada near Long Valley

I regard myself as a bit of a sunrise connoisseur, having arisen well before dawn on many, many mornings — almost every morning, actually — and often gone out to observe and photograph at first light. Trust me, I do understand how hard it is to get out of a warm bed (or warm sleeping bag) in darkness, dress, and head out into the still-dark world. But if you can start to make it a habit there is a good chance that you’ll become addicted — and what better kind of addiction is there than to need to see the first light?

I photographed this on an autumn morning when I headed out into the valley to the east of the escarpment of the Sierra. It was, as it usually is in mid-October, very cold when we arrived. But it was also very quiet and still, and steam was rising from nearby springs and creeks as the sky began to listen and the first light touched the peaks of the Sierra. It worked its way down the face of the range, across fluted alpine faces, into deep mountain valleys, and eventually to the rounded, tree-covered hills at the foot of the range.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Snag and Forest

June 20, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary snag stands among forest trees in the Yosemite backcountry

A group of us, a band of photographers, spent a week in a Yosemite backcountry area back in the summer of 2014. With the plan of spending a week doing extensive photography of one or two areas, our equipment was brought in by pack train — we just had to walk in carrying our photographic equipment. We settled in for a few days at an isolated lake, and then we moved to a more populated area for the final few days of our visit.

The first location was a lovely little lake, set in a broad depression on a ridge above a very large valley. This spot provided us all sorts of photographic subjects — intimate landscapes, big views across the canyon to high peaks, and the forests and meadows and rocks spread around the lake itself. On this morning I had climbed up slanting granite slabs to reach a higher area, and here I found this solitary snag standing among living trees, and backed by forest running on up into the higher peaks.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Morning Light, Domes, Lake

June 13, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light on Tenaya Lake, granite domes, and Mount Conness

I have been in a bit of a black and white mood recently. Although most of my photographs today are color photographs, my roots are in black and white. Many years ago that is what I learned to develop and print, all the way back to when my father took me into his home darkroom when I was a very young kid. Until I began to use slide film, virtually everything I shot was in black and white, and so many of my early photographic heroes also worked almost exclusively in monochrome.

I order to render the conjunction of shapes and masses, curves and textures in this complex scene of the Sierra Nevada landscape rising from Tenaya Lake, it seemed to me that black and white was the right choice. I made the photograph in the morning — not “crack of dawn” early, but a bit later, when the sun’s rays were clearing the higher ridge to the right and illuminating elements of the scene right down to the lake itself. The distant mass of Mount Conness is slightly obscured by haze, and a thin layer of bright clouds pass overhead.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: light

Southwest Sky

Eastside Dawn

Snag and Forest

Morning Light, Domes, Lake

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