Tag Archives: light

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake, Ridges, and Haze

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Lake, Ridges, and Haze
“Lake, Ridges, and Haze” — Hazy morning light on ridges, cliffs, and a subalpine lake, Sierra Nevada.

It is fair to say that I got a lot of photographic mileage out of this view during our stay here a few years back. I’ve shared numerous photographs of it, though in different formats, times of day, and conditions. Despite the presence of so much other visual material, it dominated our consciousness. I suppose that part of the reason is that it was within minutes of our campsite, but it is a remarkable setting, too.

I photographed this version in the morning. At the start of our visit we had quite a lot of rain, but that diminished later on, and the sky was mostly clear on this day. The view looks roughly northeast, so the sun was just clearing the ridges out of the frame to the right. This light, coming in at an angle, illuminated the atmospheric haze and emphasized the atmospheric recession of more distant ridges. It also produced what almost looks like rim light on the exposed places on the face at the left.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake in Shadow

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Lake in Shadow
“Lake in Shadow” — Morning light strikes cliffs above a shadowed Sierra Nevada lake.

For more than a decade, during most summers I have spent a solid week in the Sierra Nevada backcountry with fellow photographers, base-camped at various beautiful locations. (Travel and other things have interfered during the past two years.) These trips give us the opportunity to focus on photographing a limited area in a variety of conditions. On these trips we live in one small area for a week, and photograph only what we can walk to, frequently revisiting subjects several times.

This lake was just below our camp, and of course we photographed it many times — morning and night, sunshine, rain, fog, you name it. Most often I hoped for light that would open shadows in the landscape, but on this morning I decided to go with the shade and let portions of the image remain dark. In fact, the luminosity curve of this photograph is weighted strongly to the dark end of the scale. But I think that it captures the quiet mood here as the sun worked its way up the far valley toward “our lake.”

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Scotland, Photographs: Travel

Light Beam, St. Giles Cathedral

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Light Beam, St. Giles Cathedral
“Light Beam, St. Giles Cathedral”— Light from an upper window forms beams inside St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh.

We concluded our three weeks in Scotland earlier this year with a few days in Edinburgh. This marked one extreme on the continuum of our visit, with the opposite end defined by a week spent walking the quiet trails of the Great Glen Way. Edinburgh, of course, is not just a rather large city, but it is also a place that attracts crowds of tourists, even when we were there before prime tourist season. Since it was our first visit to the city we had to, of course, visit some of the famous sites.

On the day we arrived by train we checked into our little hotel, located on a quiet side street less than a half mile from the famous Edinburgh Castle. After getting settled we set out on foot, walking toward this landmark at the upper end of the Royal Mile. We had not done much research, which means that we got to be surprised by “discovering” places like St. Giles’ Cathedral, the subject of this photograph.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: England, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

River Ouse, Evening

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River Ouse, Evening
“River Ouse, Evening” — Early evening light on buildings along the River Ouse, York, England.

I believe that I made this photograph on our last evening in York this past June. We had spent the day wandering the central old city, occasionally in rain, and we were now headed back to our lodgings on a road that paralleled the River Ouse as it passes through the center of the city. It was a straight shot to our destination up a street we had walked a few times, but I saw a side street heading towards the water and decided to detour.

It turned out that a few others had the same idea, apparently coming to the quiet banks of the river to enjoy the evening. As we watched the end-of-day light take on warmer tones, a group (perhaps from a local school) of young people assembled on the opposite bank in front of this neighborhood of older brick buildings.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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