Tag Archives: light

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

Colorful Granite Cliff and Trees

March 16, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A colorful High Sierra granite cliff and trees in soft light

Sitting here on a late-winter day, this late September week spent photographing in the Yosemite back-country seems so far away. (At the same time, as I watch the inevitable progress of the seasons, the upcoming summer season seems closer and closer!) Three photographers headed out to a back-country lake, where we set up a base-camp for something like nine days of photography. It might seem like photographing in one tiny area for a week might exhaust its possibilities. In fact, at the start of such a trip I often harbor such fears — but by the end of every one of them I am again reminded that it virtually never works that way. The more time spent looking in such a place, there more there is to see, and at the end of such a trip there are, inevitably, things left to be photographed on the next visit.

Not far from our camp was a rocky area that we often crossed in order to make our way around the perimeter of a nearby lake and to get to areas a bit further away. After climbing slabs the route dropped into the lower extent of a deep gully traveling down from higher terrain, and eventually I began to know these rocks and this gully very well. We had “interesting” weather during our stay, and on the day I made this photograph the light was muted by various factors including clouds and wildfire smoke.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Columns, Whitney Museum

February 28, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Columns, Whitney Musuem — Repeating forms of cylindrical columns

Repeating forms of cylindrical columns

I admit it — photographing at the new Whitney Museum in Manhattan almost felt like play. The building is interesting in and off itself, but especially interesting on the high and open outdoor terraces that thrust out from the building toward the city. Although there are no people in this photograph — in fact, I had to take some care to ensure that was the case — the location was also a prime place to photograph people.

These columns occupy a corner, up against a wall, on one of the upper floor outdoor terraces. Their positions allow light to shine on them from multiple directions and on this very cloudy day the light was soft and luminous. Although this is the sort of thing that I might prefer to shoot from the tripod, I was working in street photographer mode and therefore had to shoot handheld, carefully lining up the verticals, trying to obscure a few places where the background shone through between the columns, and then waiting for people to pass by and not be in the shot.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Klamath Basin Dawn

February 20, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Klamath Basin dawn light and clouds reflected in wetlands ponds.

Getting up early enough to drive to a location and photograph before dawn is no fun. It is not uncommon for me to have to wake up two, three, or more hours before dawn, and this is always a struggle. The alarm goes off, and I force myself out of bed quickly — otherwise there is a very real danger that my eyes will close and I’ll fall asleep before I know what happened. (I’ve done this, only to awaken so much later that my trip had to be abandoned!) In the darkness I dress for the cold, grab gear and some food, and off I go, sometimes to drive for an hour or two.

This morning’s drive was nearly but not quite an hour, but my destination was a place I had never visited before, so I was a bit concerned about finding my way around in the darkness. Arriving in the general vicinity, I soon figured out the rough lay of the land in darkness and headed off in an interesting direction as the first light appeared. And what light it was! A weather front passing to the west had scattered high clouds above the mountains to my east. The clouds turned brilliant colors well before sunrise, and the reflections of the warm tones of the sky mingled with the cool blue tones of water in the shallow ponds as I pulled up and began my wait for migratory birds. On a morning like this, standing in the cool air under a sky like this as I hear the early calls of geese and swans, I have no doubts at all about the wisdom of getting up in the darkness.

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Through the Train Window

February 16, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A moment at a passing Manhattan subway station

I was in the train when I made this photograph. I had started by making a few photographs of the reflections inside the car of people standing the aisle, juxtaposing them with the shape of the window and the lights moving past outside. Frankly, that idea didn’t work this time. But as the train moved into the station and stopped, I saw a moving tableau of passengers getting off and coming onto the train. As so often happens, they seem — to me, at least — to constantly arrange themselves by accident into interesting patterns, of shape and form and of activity.

it is hard to clearly explain what I see in a scene like this — I know what it is, though it is hard to articulate. There are three, maybe four main “characters” in the scene, and they all act without any apparent awareness of the others, in true Manhattan style. The woman in the dark coat holding the bag at the left side is facing the train and holding up both hands to make a cell phone picture. Behind her another woman in black is facing the opposite direction, seemingly busy with something she is holding. To the right a man, whose features are hidden by light blurred by the train window, is busy starting to take a camera out of his bag as he leaves the station. In the middle a woman is walking through the exit gate. The light is strange because I’m shooting through dirty train windows and directly toward the source.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: light

Colorful Granite Cliff and Trees

Columns, Whitney Museum

Klamath Basin Dawn

Through the Train Window

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