Tag Archives: light

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

Sierra Meadow, Evening Light

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Sierra Meadow, Evening Light
The Cathedral Range and the Dana Fork fork of the Tuolumne River

Sierra Meadow, Evening Light. Yosemite National Park, California. July 15, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Cathedral Range and the Dana Fork fork of the Tuolumne River

One of the great pleasures of the Sierra — and other places, for that matter — is “aimless wandering,” just heading out into a landscape with no specific goal in mind, but simply to move slowly and quietly and find what there is to see. This was an evening for such things, so I went to a familiar place a few hours before the end of the day and just walked off slowly into the landscape, meandering along the boundary between meadow and forest, stopping frequently to observe. Truth be told, I probably spent more time standing still than walking.

Perhaps 45 minutes before sunset I realized that some unusual “sky action” was about to take place above my location, and my meandering took on a clearer since of direction. I began to work my way back toward my starting point, a location from which I envisioned photographs of the sky and foreground landscape. But even this more purposeful walking was slow, and along the way I stopped to photograph this bend in the river, with a distant granite ridge above the meadow and forest.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrian, Bus Stop, Street

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Pedestrian, Bus Stop, Street
A pedestrian walks past a bus stop along a San Francisco street

Pedestrian, Bus Stop, Street. San Francisco, California. May 20, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A pedestrian walks past a bus stop along a San Francisco street

Living a short train ride away, I get to photograph in the streets of San Francisco on a fairly regular basis. The street is always a laboratory for exploring color and shape, light, people, architecture, urban landscape, and more. One of the benefits, in my view, of this kind of photography is that it almost forces one to think and respond quickly and intuitively, sharpening the instincts of seeing in ways that are useful for any kind of photography.

Despite the appearance, I made this photograph along a very busy street — Market Street — in downtown San Francisco. In fact, it took a great deal of good fortune to be able to place the walker in this exact spot at the instant when no cars, trucks, buses, rail cars, or other people were in the frame! The person is one subject, but the light is another – dappled light coming from behind, reflected by buildings and passing through sidewalk trees. Color is a bit significant, too, but you probably already figured that out…

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Village People

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Village People
Pedestrians waiting for the light to change, San Francisco

Village People. San Francisco, California. May 20, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pedestrians waiting for the light to change, San Francisco

A photograph like this one may or may not make sense to you. If it does, I probably don’t need to write much about it. If it doesn’t, I’m not sure that I can write enough to explain. But I’ll try. A little bit.

Walking around any large city, and especially in San Francisco, I’m on the lookout for various things: a scene, light, collections of people, individual people, color, architecture, shapes, you name it. I think the light first caused me to pause at this corner. Here much of the light is reflected from the windows of surrounding building, and it comes from almost all directions. Then, for just a moment, this collection of people, most of whom are unconnected with the others in the scene, assembled themselves into this pose, one that almost seems staged. The arrangement of the group intrigues me, but even more the contributions of the individuals is interesting.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Dust Storm, Dunes, Evening Light

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Dust Storm, Dunes, Evening Light
A dust storm rages above sand dunes at the end of the day, Death Valley National Park

Dust Storm, Dunes, Evening Light. Death Valley National Park, California. March 28, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A dust storm rages above sand dunes at the end of the day, Death Valley National Park

This was a wild evening, featuring an apocalyptic combination of tremendously strong winds, huge clouds of blowing sand and dust, periodic downpours of rain, and light that changed constantly from ominous and dark to luminous clouds backlit by sun to threads of virgo, and more. I had never seen quite this combination of conditions in Death Valley at one time.

Photography was quite challenging. Because sunset was approaching (and I continued to photograph into the dusk), it was often quite dark. The screaming winds made it virtually impossible to shoot from the tripod, so I was mostly reduced to bracing my camera against the window frame of my vehicle and working with the camera handheld. In the rough conditions I was forced to work from a distance with a long lens, since photographing inside the windblown clouds of dust and sand was not a good idea. Here the clouds and the dust above the sand dunes momentarily thinned, creating a backlit glow from the low angle sun about to drop behind mountains to the west.

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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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