Tag Archives: monochrome

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

Morning Light, Domes, Lake

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Morning Light, Domes, Lake
Morning light on Tenaya Lake, granite domes, and Mount Conness

Morning Light, Domes, Lake. Yosemite National Park. July 16, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on Tenaya Lake, granite domes, and Mount Conness

I have been in a bit of a black and white mood recently. Although most of my photographs today are color photographs, my roots are in black and white. Many years ago that is what I learned to develop and print, all the way back to when my father took me into his home darkroom when I was a very young kid. Until I began to use slide film, virtually everything I shot was in black and white, and so many of my early photographic heroes also worked almost exclusively in monochrome.

I order to render the conjunction of shapes and masses, curves and textures in this complex scene of the Sierra Nevada landscape rising from Tenaya Lake, it seemed to me that black and white was the right choice. I made the photograph in the morning — not “crack of dawn” early, but a bit later, when the sun’s rays were clearing the higher ridge to the right and illuminating elements of the scene right down to the lake itself. The distant mass of Mount Conness is slightly obscured by haze, and a thin layer of bright clouds pass overhead.

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: Architecture, Photographs: France, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Eiffel Tower, Clouds

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Eiffel Tower, Clouds
Thin clouds in bright summer sky above the Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower, Clouds. Paris, France. August 12, 2016. © Copyright 201 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thin clouds in bright summer sky above the Eiffel Tower

It was Paris, so I had to photograph the Eiffel Tower. It is expected of me. It is an iconic site and it is impressive in person. But I found it to be a difficult photographic subject. It is easy to photograph it, but I found it tricky to find a way to not just make a picture of the Eiffel Tower. (On the other hand, I did almost exactly that on one evening late in our visit when we had a view from an upper story towards to tower as it got dark and the lights on the tower were illuminated.)

In any case, I decided to try some relatively tightly cropped photographs of the structure, some of which were much tighter than this one. But I got lucky, and some thin, fluffy clouds floated over in the midday light, producing a soft and glowing quality in the sky, and this seemed to contrast nicely with the start, strong, and dark form of the tower.

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

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

Granite, Forest, and Lake

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Granite, Forest, and Lake
Granite slabs, mountains, and forest surround Tenaya Lake

Granite, Forest, and Lake. Yosemite National Park, California. July 1, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Granite slabs, mountains, and forest surround Tenaya Lake

This is, no doubt, a very familiar spot to anyone who has spent much time in the Yosemite High Country. It is, of course, Tenaya Lake, the big lake along Tioga Pass Road to the west of Tuolumne Meadows — perhaps the first place where the terrain really seems to fully feel like “High Sierra” in the sense in which I use the term.

Even in the busy season this lake can be surprisingly quiet at certain times. I made this photograph in the morning, early enough that the shadows were still long, but late enough that the sun had lifted high enough above the surrounding peaks to illuminate the granite slabs and the surface of the lake. A bit of atmospheric haze softened the light a bit, and high clouds passed overhead.

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

Photographs: France, Photographs: Night, Photographs: Urban/Street

Street Corner, Evening, Montmartre

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Street Corner, Evening, Montmartre
Evening on a street corner in Montmartre, Paris

Street Corner, Evening, Montmartre. Paris, France. August 8, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening on a street corner in Montmartre, Paris

In the summer of 2016, on our first evening in Paris, we went out wandering in Montmartre. We more or less had no idea where we were going, but eventually our random walk took us to a popular destination with a view over Paris, and then it was time to eat. As Paris novices it took us, believe it or not, a while to figure out where to eat. Yeah, I know. In Paris?

After eating in one of the numerous cafes in Montmartre we walked some more, mostly just wandering up and down the narrow streets to see what we could see. It was a long summer twilight and I was able to photograph on into the evening. In places there were lots of people, but on other streets there seemed to be almost no one, and here and there we found surprising and even odd little bits of street art and similar things. I want to think that this image on the wall might have been street art, but it could also have been some kind of shrine.

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 | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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