Tag Archives: morning

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspen Leaves, First Light

June 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

First morning light on aspen trees and fall foliage, eastern Sierra Nevada, California

This past fall I had exactly one day to photograph aspens in the eastern Sierra Nevada. This was a bit odd for me, since I usually spend quite a number of days chasing fall aspen color up and down the east side of the range. But this year my target was a bit further away in Utah, and we merely paused for an extra day on the “east side” on our way to that other state. Fortunately, we hit great conditions, in terms of good aspen color and fine weather that didn’t prevent us from getting up to those trees.

Very early in the morning we headed up to an area that I have photographed many times. There are a couple of iconic photographic subjects at this location, but I mostly got them out of my system some years ago and now I look for somewhat less obvious subjects when I go here. I began by shooting some trees near the outlet stream of a lake, with early morning light behind the trees. After working that tricky but beautiful light for a while, I decided to go around to the far side of the lake to where a large stand of small but densely packed aspens stands at the base of a hillside. I got there before the sun came to this spot, so I quickly schlepped my gear up the hill a ways and into the end of the grove, setting up just before the sun arrived. Before the sun’s rays hit the tree, everything had a distinctly blue tone. As the edge of the shadow arrived, the aspen leaves began to glow more and to cast shadows on the trees in the background. These shadows quickly transitioned from soft and subtle to quite contrasty and sharply defined in a matter of seconds. This photograph was made just as the sunlight arrived but before it became intense, and the soft shadows of the leaves on the slender background trunks lasted just a moment.

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: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Launch For Hire Building

June 18, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The “Launch For Hire” building, docks, and Tomales Bay as remnants of morning fog drift above the water

I shared a color version of this photograph back in March, not too long after I made the photograph. The building is an old wooden structure that sits on pilings above the waters of Tomales Bay, and is probably familiar (especially with its “LAUNCH FOR HIRE” sign) to almost anyone who passes by on the way to Point Reyes. In fact, that is precisely where I was headed. I had gone up there quite early, hoping to arrive early enough to be at Drakes Bay for sunrise. However, other sites along the way distracted me, and after I finished photographing them I found myself delayed, and the sun was rising over the Marin County hills as I drove around the bay. This photograph was made a few minutes later, after the very first light had already come and gone.

The “black and white or color?” question is a new one for those of us who started out photographing on film “back in the day.” Some of you reading this no doubt think that this context is obvious, but in a world in which some actually don’t understand, for example, how a rotary dial telephone worked, this context will likely soon become as unfamiliar as using a horse and buggy. Whether to shoot color or black and white was, only a bit more than a decade ago, a decision what was made well before clicking the shutter. Put black and white film in the camera and shoot black and white, or put color media in the camera and shoot color. (In most cases – with sheet film it was possible to choose, though that didn’t tend to be the work process of such photographers.) Now we have the odd advantage – or, sometimes, the burden – of having to decide based on the nature of the subject and how we see it. Quite a few photographers using digital media will tell you that they don’t always know for sure whether a shot will work best in black and white or color at the time of exposure. (Sometimes you do, but not always.) So we “capture” the scene in color and put off the final decision until the post-processing stage. Even there it can occasionally be hard to decide. This was one of those cases – and both the color and black and white versions live on for now.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

San Francisco Skyline, Bridge Cables

June 13, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Golden Gate Bridge Cables silhouetted against hazy morning light on San Francisco Bay and city skyline

Back in March I took a day to go up into Marin County to do some early spring photography, thinking about the possibility of shooting in the redwood forest at Muir Woods – which was, in fact, where I ended up. I left well before dawn, and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge right about the time the sun was coming up. Being a big fan of shooting in atmospheric haze of all sorts, the very thin layer of fog spreading across the entrance to the bay was enough to make me pull over and make a few photographs of the bay and the city.

This was an unusual sort of fog. We are more familiar with the banks of thick fog coming in off of the Pacific and flowing in through the Golden Gate, covering the bridge and rising over the shoulders or even the summits of the hills, often with a fairly sharp boundary between fog and clear air. This fog, however, was thin and more widespread and did not form the familiar “bank.” It was closer to translucent than to opaque, and the outline of the downtown San Francisco skyline was visible, though all details were muted. The identity of the foreground structure probably needs no explanation!

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

Dormant Oaks, Winter Mists

May 25, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Dormant oak trees silhouetted against winter morning mists and cliffs, Yosemite Valley, California

This is an alternate version of a photograph that I shared earlier. Back in February I was in Yosemite Valley briefly for the opening of the annual Yosemite Renaissance exhibition, and this gave me one day to photograph there in interesting conditions. While the most familiar images of the Valley for most people probably involve waterfalls and spring or summer sunshine on granite (with a few well-known exceptions!), my favorite conditions involve snow, clouds, mist, and perhaps even a bit of rain. All of those were present on this day!

I was up quite early, and since we stayed in the Valley it was only a matter of taking a short walk and I could begin shooting. For a place that can be impressively or even depressingly crowded at certain times of the year, it is possible to find near-solitude on a cold and wet winter morning just before dawn, even in places that would typically be quite crowded during popular times of the year. In fact, this photograph was made from a shuttle bus stop not far from Yosemite Falls! I had been photographing nearby meadows and trees when the mist turned to sprinkles and then to rain, and I went to the shuttle stop to find temporary cover under its roof – only to realize that some interesting shots might well be possible from under this shelter!

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: morning

Aspen Leaves, First Light

Launch For Hire Building

San Francisco Skyline, Bridge Cables

Dormant Oaks, Winter Mists

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