Tag Archives: light

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: White Mountains

Inyo Sunrise

Image November 19, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Looking south from the White Mountains toward the Inyo Range at sunrise.

On my aspen photography trip to the Eastern Sierra during week three of October I took one day off from photographing the autumn leaves and headed east into the White Mountains to visit the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. It had been a few years since my last visit, and it seemed like time. I left the town of Bishop in predawn darkness, planning to be at an overlook of the High Sierra at dawn. Dawn on the Sierra is always impressive, though the photographic challenges on this morning were many. But just at sunrise I looked back to the Southeast, across the Inyo Range and all the way to the peaks of Death Valley, to see an impressive sequence of silhouetted peaks..

From here I continued on to the higher reaches of the White Mountains, an alpine moonscape of round and very high peaks, covered in many places by the remarkable bristlecone pine forest. These trees survive in one of the most challenging environments in California, at high elevations in these dry and barren mountains. At this late-season date there was hardly anyone else there. I saw a couple of cars at the (closed) visitor center, and I was entirely alone for an hour or so at the highest, most-distant grove of trees.

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

On The Beat

Image November 14, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

NYPD officer leans against a sunny wall during the 2022 “Columbus Day” parade.

Back in early October, following our New England fall color expedition, we spent a couple of days in Manhattan. The main reason was to visit family — since we were already on the East Coast it seemed like we should do so. But it was also an excuse to spend a little more time in Manhattan, and during a more pleasant time of the year than our traditional August visits. The city felt more and more like it was coming back to life. There was a street fair outside our hotel when we arrived, and since the last day of our visit coincided with a national holiday there was a parade.

It was what New York apparently still calls the “Columbus Day” parade, though that problematic naming is sometimes combined with “Indigenous Peoples Day” and/ or “Italian Heritage Day.” New York politics are fascinating. I photographed this police officer during the parade, making several photographs as he hung out by this this sunny wall, alternately chatting up passers-by, watching the parade, and maybe just enjoying the warm sunlight.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Basin Mountain, Autumn

Image October 29, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Basin Mountain on an autumn morning, with a bit of fall color.

Unless you look closely, you might not see this as an autumn photograph, but the evidence is there. The most obvious indication is in the canyon that descends from the right of the tall peak, Basin Mountain. Just beneath the lip below the dark canyon you can spot a batch of very colorful aspen trees following the drainage into the valley below. There are some other subtle clues, too. The general golden-brown color of vegetation, including that in the high desert hills in the foreground, is typical of fall. Even more subtle is something in the quality of the light and atmosphere… which is what provoked me to detour to make this photograph.

I’ve long been intrigued by Basin Mountain, which rises to the Sierra Crest west of Bishop, California. From the east, the face of the peak is marked by a striking “basin,” and some interesting old trails switchback across its lower face. I’ve wondered what is in that basin, but I’ve never found the time to go up there. I would not typically make a photograph of such a subject at this time of day — late morning. The east side of the Sierra is often in less-than-lovely light at this time, especially if there is haze. But on this day there was merely enough haze to make things interesting, while higher clouds softened the light. So I detoured away from the start of my homeward drive to follow some backroads to this camera position where I could include the foreground hills and the peak.

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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New England

Autumn Trees, Mountains, and Valley Fog

Image October 14, 2022 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Colorful autumn trees and morning fog in distant valleys, New Hampshire.

This route across the White Mountains is — as I was warned and then witnessed — a very popular location for viewing New England fall color. While I like to investigate less well-known subjects as I get to know a place, since this was our first-ever visit to this region in the fall we started out by joining the hordes on this road. It is iconic and, as I often say, “there’s a reason it is an icon.” The autumn forests here are, indeed, spectacular and our visit coincided with peak color. (In case you wonder, it only took me a day or two to start exploring a few odd little gravel roads, too.)

While this viewpoint is popular and likely heavily photographed, on a morning like this it presents some aesthetic and technical challenges. The beautifully receding hills beyond the fog-lined valley are almost directly in line with the rising sun. This leads to flare challenges and to high contrasts between shadows and backlit foliage. Nearby trees, as lovely as they are, also impede on some of the longer views. But with the camera in just the right place, using my hand to shade the lens, and an exposure that captured scene data to be optimized in post… I think it works.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: light

Inyo Sunrise

On The Beat

Basin Mountain, Autumn

Autumn Trees, Mountains, and Valley Fog

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