Tag Archives: monochrome

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People In Landscape, Photographs: Photographers, Photographs: Southern California

Three Photographers, Dunes And Mountains

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Three Photographers, Dunes And Mountains
Three photographers working the morning light atop a sand dune ridge, with desert mountains byond.

Three Photographers, Dunes And Mountains. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three photographers working the morning light atop a sand dune ridge, with desert mountains byond.

Five of us went out together to photograph in the dunes on this morning. It was only after I arrived in Death Valley that I discovered that a group of photographers and friends was down from the Yosemite area and camped nearby. We made a loose plan to meet up the next morning before sunrise and head out into the darkness early enough to be well into the dunes before the first good light arrived.

We made it out there and went to work, photographing in the predawn light, then as the sun came up, and continuing until the light began to lose its early hour magic. One fun thing about photographing with other photographers is that when things slow down a bit… we sometimes make photographs of one another! A side benefit of this is that almost all of us have in our collections photographs of some pretty interesting and talented people, and a second benefit is that sometimes they share photographs they made of us. Here my three friends are set up on the spine of a dune, working the early morning light against a backdrop of tall desert mountains.

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 and Amazon.

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

Pacific Vortex

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Pacific Vortex
Cloud patterns above California’s Pacific coastline

Pacific Vortex. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Cloud patterns above California’s Pacific coastline.

Almost every time I photograph in this location at some point I turn my camera towards these sky and ocean-scapes that are almost abstract in form. While this photograph was made along the Big Sur Coastline of California, from beside the famous US Highway One, given the lack of definite landmarks it could be almost anywhere that ocean and sky meet.

The light and atmosphere were both fascinating and difficult on this visit. A Pacific winter weather system was approaching, and this can do all sorts of things to the atmosphere. In this case a cloud shield was forming overhead, thick enough to darken the landscape but still allowing some directional light. Below there was a lot of moisture in the air, with dissipating fog banks along coastal hills and offshore haze blurring the line of the horizon.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Winter Sky, Big Sur Coast

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Winter Sky, Big Sur Coast
Winter storm clouds, fog, and light along the Big Sur Coast of California

Winter Sky, Big Sur Coast. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter storm clouds, fog, and light along the Big Sur Coast of California.

The right kind of summer day along the Big Sur coast of Central California can be beautiful in every way. Imagine a morning with a bit of fog, mid-morning clearing, then brilliant sunshine and comfortably warm (sometimes even hot) temperatures, with a fog bank appearing offshore close to sunset. The ocean would likely be calm and — this is critical — you would probably stop along the way more than once, for coffee, for lunch, and perhaps for dinner.

As lovely as that sounds, it is my least favorite season along this coast. I prefer the changing and sometimes moody conditions of winter. The surf may rise to 30 feet or higher, storms may threaten to (or actually) close the main road, winds sweep across the tall headlands, whales pass close to the shore, and clearing weather may bring towering clouds. I made this photograph on the first day of March, when another Pacific weather front was just arriving, using a wide angle lens to include the sky above a bit of the headlands landscape.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Wet Sidewalk, Shadows

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Wet Sidewalk, Shadows
Shadows and a man walking on a wet sidewalk, San Francisco

Wet Sidewalk, Shadows. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows and a man walking on a wet sidewalk, San Francisco.

Street photographs come about in all sorts of ways. Quite often my approach is to locate an “urban landscape” composition and then wait for people to populate it. Sometimes I photograph without people in the scene at all. On other occasions the person may be the triggering subject, and instead of finding a person to fill the landscape I try to find a landscape to build around the person. In other photographs the primary objects may by colors or geometry. And often it all happens so quickly that there is almost no time to contemplate before making the photograph — do it now or it is gone.

This photograph brings a few of these threads together. It was most certainly one of those “no time to contemplate” photographs. As I walked down this street I realized that the sidewalk held both reflecting water and the angles of shadows. (Every time I see something like this I remember a particular winter photograph I made in New York City a few years back.) Both I and the subject were in motion, walking along this sidewalk in the direction of the Caltrain station, so almost without breaking step I raised the camera and managed to get one frame.

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 and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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