Tag Archives: line

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

Granite Cliffs, Last Light

March 4, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The line of last sunset light crosses rugged granite cliffs in Yosemite National Park

Late last month I had the good fortune to spend a week in Yosemite, thanks to the Yosemite Renaissance artist-in-residence program. Their generosity provided me with a warm place to stay in the park and, most important, with time to chase photographs in the Valley and elsewhere. (With the onset — finally! — of winter weather in the park, it also gave me lots of opportunities to practice my winter driving skills!)

The Valley is, of course, filled with wonderful and well-known icons. Like virtually everyone, I photograph those, too, particularly when special conditions bring the possibility of special and different light and atmosphere to those familiar subjects. However, over time I have become more interested in other little bits of visual interest that don’t necessarily reflect the best-known features. On this evening I was at one of the most famous locations — with the promise of light snow, drifting clouds, and evening light breaking through. I make a habit of scanning the entire 360 panorama around me, even when the most obvious subject is in a 45 degree vector straight in front, and near the very end of the day a beam of sunset light passed across a rocky outcropping to my left, producing intense light on the rocks while the evening’s blue and purple colors began to fill the canyons.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Pacific Coastline, Winter Haze

February 21, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Gentle winter haze along California’s Pacific Ocean coastline south of Monterey

I have visited this coast for decades, since my parents moved to California from the Midwest when I was four-years-old. Back then we took lots of family “day trips,” and the Monterey Peninsula and Point Lobos areas were often our goals, and I became familiar with the Coast Highway Pacific Ocean interface at a young age. There was perhaps a gap when I was in college, but when our kids were old enough we headed down this way from time to time, too.

There are a few constants here: the headland cliffs plunging into the Pacific, the twisting and turning route of the highway, the little places to stop and grab a bite to eat, the long views over the ocean and up and down the coast. But other things are rarely the same twice. The light is constantly changing, from morning to evening, from winter to summer, from clear air to fog. I would most typically photograph early or late, but on this winter day there was interesting light and atmosphere right into the middle of the day when I made this photograph, looking south along the coastline as the haze gradually obscured distant hills and the sunlight’s reflection turned the oceans distant surface a brilliant white.

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

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

Shoreline Bluffs, Forest

July 19, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Forested bluffs drop straight down to the rugged shoreline along the north shore of Point Lobos

For the second time in less than a week I made it back to Point Lobos State Reserve again. After several days of very hot inland temperatures here in the San Francisco Bay Area, Point Lobos was attractive destination not only for its photogenic scenery but also for the promise of cool morning maritime fog. We encountered the fog well before we arrived, but perhaps an hour later it began to clear from the immediate coast, and I had perhaps a half hour of beautiful mixed light along the boundary between sun and fog.

I made this photograph at a location I know very well along the north shore trail at Point Lobos. When I was there late last week I photographed while it was still foggy and the soft light filled in the shadows. Today the filtered sunlight created more dramatic shadows, but a bit of lingering fog muted the intensity of the light and colors in the forest on the bluff above the rocky cliffs.

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shadow and Line Study

June 12, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Patterns of lines, curves, concrete and shadows

I have always been intrigued by and occasionally obsessed with patterns and juxtapositions and form. When I go back and look at my earliest photography from when I was in middle school or high school I can now see that even then I wasn’t just looking at things for what they “are,” but for the other things that they might also be — the aspects of them that are not immediately visible. This is simple (or so it seems) study of some lines and curves and perspective lines, made quickly while walking along the Embarcadero on San Francisco’s waterfront one morning.

Recently the discussion about realism and honesty and manipulation in photographs has crescendoed a bit, as it does from time to time. On one side are those who think that anything goes — not exactly my point of view, though I might be more “permissive” that you would expect. On the other side are members the “no manipulation” faction, who want to apply the supposed standards of photojournalism to all photographs — their job is to show truth and be completely objective and no “manipulation” is permitted. The problem with the extremes of the first position are obvious. The problems with the extremes of the second deserve a lot more thoughtful scrutiny then they have generally been receiving. All photographs lie, even those that tell truths. Some might imagine that a photograph like this one represents an objective truth, a straightforward (and straight photography) look at the true nature of a thing. But if you saw this subject, you would not likely see anything like this, and my choices (to make it black and white, to use a particular lens, to render the image in black and white, to look at this particular subset of the whole, and much more) are entirely subjective. In the end, this is still truth — but it is my very subjective truth about this subject and it most certainly is not an objective “record” of a thing.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: line

Granite Cliffs, Last Light

Pacific Coastline, Winter Haze

Shoreline Bluffs, Forest

Shadow and Line Study

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