Tag Archives: light

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Morning Frost, Fog, and Trees

January 2, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Foggy sunrise light on San Joaquin Valley trees and winter frost

This is quite literally a photograph of the dawn of 2015, made as the sun rose on January 1, 2015. A group of photographer friends has developed what seems to be becoming a tradition: meeting before dawn at a central California location to greet the first sunrise of the year, and then spending the day photographing wildlife and landscape, sharing lunch and stories, and generally having a great time. (This was the third New Year’s Day we have done this.) I suppose that an added benefit of this is that getting up at 4:00 AM on New Year’s Day means that staying up to midnight the night before is not an option!

This place is often very foggy at this time of year — the sort of fog that slows you down to a crawl as you drive along Central Valley back roads. It was supposed to be clear and cold on New Year’s Day. It certainly was cold — 23 degrees at one point. But although it was clear everywhere else, we still have fog in the early morning. We headed out to a spot where we thought the wildlife and sunrise light would be great and waited for dawn. Even though the spectacular sunrise was playing out to my east, I loved the way the light and fog and frost worked together on this scene to my north.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

San Luis Reservoir, Autumn Haze

December 26, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft light and autumn atmosphere obscure the view across the San Luis Reservoir

Since I have previously described the circumstances of photographing this scene, I’ll keep this description short. The San Luis Reservoir is a huge manmade lake in central California, between the south San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley. I frequently pass by here as I travel to the Valley, the Sierra, and beyond.

On this day I had been out in the Valley photographing migratory birds and the landscapes in which they are found — my first such visit to the Valley this season. On the way back home I passed the reservoir in the middle of the day, when the bright, late-autumn sun was reflecting off the surface of the lake and making the clouds above the distance mountains glow.

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

Redrock Valley and Potholes, Evening

December 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A string of potholes descends along the bottom of a red rock valley in evening light

We had spent perhaps a couple of hours photographing this landscape, starting in the early evening when there was still direct light from the sun through high, thin clouds, and then continuing as the sun dropped behind the tall ridge to our west. There was a lot to photograph in this red rock landscape, and we alternated between working slowly when the light became less vibrant and working quickly when it momentarily become luminous.

As the evening continued and the sun set, things slowed down and the photographic work seemed to lead toward an inevitable and quiet conclusion as we spent more time just looking or talking with one another. I didn’t feel like I was quite done with this particular landscape yet, and I found myself near the top of this curving red rock valley that led past a series of potholes and into a narrow gap toward the flatlands below as the last post-sunset glow turned the scene red.

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

Canyon, Reflected Light

December 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Light reflected from sandstone cliffs along a narrow canyon passage, Utah

On my first full day of photography in Utah — as opposed to days spent traveling — my plans were a bit vague, but I wanted to end up in an area close to some very popular southwest Utah sites. I had no plans to visit the post popular of them, since they require permits and a lot of time spent getting the permits. However, I had an idea about visiting some nearly areas whose names I recognized, so I set off down a gravel road to the general area of one of them, still no knowing exactly what I was looking for. Soon I came to a short side road and a parking area labeled with a name I had heard of before, so I parked, loaded up camera gear, water, and a bit of food and set off on foot.

Almost any place around here seems to provide a sufficient number of beauties, and it wasn’t long after I set out to walk down this broad wash that I found my first red rock formations and stopped to photograph them. A bit further along the canyon briefly narrowed and bent as it passed between some sandstone walls, though which some more distant pinnacles were visible. The juxtaposition of pinnacles and cliffs and other elements was interesting, but the it may have been the beautiful light reflected on the right canyon wall that convinced me to stop and photograph here, too, before heading further down this wash to where the walls narrowed and slot canyons began.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: light

Morning Frost, Fog, and Trees

San Luis Reservoir, Autumn Haze

Redrock Valley and Potholes, Evening

Canyon, Reflected Light

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