Tag Archives: monochrome

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

River Bank and Cottonwood Trees

November 27, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A thicket of small cottonwood trees leans toward the Merced River, Yosemite National Park

When I first encountered this riverside thicket of small trees, I half-regarded them as a nuisance, believe it or not. My attention was focused on cottonwood trees on the opposite bank of the river and a bit downstream, and I was looking for a good vantage point where I could set up my tripod to photograph them. While I was intrigued by these closely-spaced trees and their beautiful autumn foliage, my initial orientation to them was affected by how difficult they made it to find a good spot for my tripod with a clear view of the other trees! (Yes, I did eventually find a small spot down by the edge of the water from which I could make that other photograph.)

After passing them I looked back and saw the way that the trees varied from almost perfectly vertical in the middle of the thicket to banding almost horizontally over the river closer to the bank in an attempt, I suppose, to find unobstructed sunlight. I knew there was a photograph in this scene but it was a bit tricky. Framing it the way I wanted required the use of a longer lens, but that introduced depth of field challenges. Initially I saw it as a color photograph, especially since the leaves on these cottonwoods were at their peak of intense autumn gold. However, working on the photograph later, it seemed to me that the color wasn’t the main story in this scene, and that a black and white rendition might do a better job of highlighting the varied yet related forms of those tree trunks, and still capture the beautiful side-light coming from across the river and down the Valley at this very late afternoon hour.

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: Architecture, Photographs: England, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brick Walls and Windows

November 19, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Brick walls and windows along a London street, late afternoon

There is probably not a whole lot to write about this photograph. As we walked some London streets that were not quite as filled with tourists, I looked up this side street and saw the beautiful series of brick walls, with all sorts of interesting interruptions of the basic form: windows, an indented darker area housing windows, conduit and a lamp, etc. Between the darker bricks further along the wall and the shadow near the camera position, there was a brighter band of sunlit bricks.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fallen Snag, Dry Tarn

November 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This year was the second of two very dry years in the Sierra Nevada and much of the west. The snowfall this past winter (2012-13) was far below normal and set records in some places. Last October and November it seemed like we might be starting a very wet season, which would have been welcome after the previous winter’s low levels of precipitation, but then the tap was shut off near the end of the year and there was hardly any more precipitation at all during the rest of the season, the portion when the majority of the Sierra’s precipitation falls. Consequently, this has been a strange summer in the Sierra. Although there may have been more monsoonal rain the usual, the effects of the depleted snow pack are obvious. The spring run-off occurred early and was anemic. By July much of the Sierra looked more like August, and I was already seeing signs of fall by early August.

With all of this in mind, it was no surprise to use to find some unusually dry conditions in the Kings Canyon back-country when we visited for more than a week in mid-September. (Though, in some ways, things were less horrendous than I might have expected. Perhaps this was a combination of going at a time when things tend to be dry anyway and, as a local pointed out to me, some recent summer rains.) On our first day at the location where we stayed to photograph for nearly a week I wandered up some nearby meadows towards a lake that I though I might want to photograph. Very close to my campsite I found several completely dry tarns. (A “tarn” is a seasonal pond fed by snowmelt, and many of them dry up each season.) This very old, sun bleached snag lay across the exposed rocks of this one, creating a stark images.

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” from Heyday Books, is available directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Railings, Rack, Sidewalk Shadows

September 8, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An accidental geometric abstraction of shapes formed by metal tubes of racks and railings and their shadows, San Francisco

On a late-Spring visit to San Francisco on the weekend when SFMOMA was last open before its two-year closing for remodeling and expansion, I arrived on the Caltrain from the South Bay very early in the morning and had time to wander the streets a bit before going to the museum. At one point I walked past a place close to the museum, a spot I have walked by many times before, and spotted this junction of lines, curves, shadows, and light and dark space.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: monochrome

River Bank and Cottonwood Trees

Brick Walls and Windows

Fallen Snag, Dry Tarn

Railings, Rack, Sidewalk Shadows

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