Tag Archives: national

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Dusk, From Boulder Mountain

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Dusk, From Boulder Mountain
A distant peak in sunset light beyond autumn aspens in the Boulder Mountain area.

Dusk, From Boulder Mountain. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A distant peak in sunset light beyond autumn aspens in the Boulder Mountain area.

This photograph marks a step in my process of learning about the remarkable landscape of southern Utah. I’ve written previous about how I managed to miss photographing Utah for a long time — it is a long story having to do with Sierra obsessions and family travels though less visually stimulating portions of Utah when I was very young. My first real photographic visit was in the early 2000s in the springtime… and I was taken by this landscape. On our way across the state we passed through the Boulder Mountain area, and I made a mental note to try to revisit this area’s extensive aspen groves in the fall.

A few years later we went back in autumn, on a long trip that started in the Eastern Sierra, crossed empty areas of Nevada, and arrived in Southeast Utah… where I discovered that fall colors arrive earlier there than in the Sierra. When we eventually worked our way across Boulder Mountain it was clear that we were catching the tail end of the aspen colors, and many groves were already bare. At dusk we found a location where lines of still-colorful trees alternated with bare trunks. Among the photographs I made was this one, looking toward the last light on the Capitol Reef area and higher mountains beyond.

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: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Cloud Shadows and Fog

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Cloud Shadows and Fog
Cloud shadows on the surface of the Pacific Ocean off of Point Reyes National Seashore.

Cloud Shadows and Fog. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A cloud shadow on the surface of the Pacific Ocean off of Point Reyes National Seashore.

This is a rather subtle landscape or seascape photograph, perhaps to the point of minimalism. I made it on a foggy afternoon along the interior of Drakes Bay at the Point Reyes National Seashore. The fog had thinned a bit by this time, but it was obstinate enough that it had not lifted even in the afternoon. Some light was coming though the cloud deck but it was extremely diffused — though it had enough directionality and the fog enough luminosity to lay a subtle shadow across the water below a thicker line of clouds.

Days like this one are slow, quiet, and mysterious along the Pacific Coast. The scale of the landscape diminishes to some extend and the “clear to the horizon” views are gone, as is the dome of the sky. From high locations such as the one from which I made the photograph, even the sound of the surf is muted.

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

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Three Aspens, Granite

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Three Aspens, Granite
Three autumn aspen trees standing against a granite wall, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Three Aspens, Granite. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three autumn aspen trees standing against a granite wall, Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Those of us who have spent a lot of time in the Sierra — and the story is similar for other locations — gradually accumulate “personal spots” that might not make much of an impression on others but which we greet like old friends each year. Mine include a particular rock outcropping in Tuolumne Meadows, a particular flat rock in the Yosemite backcountry where I’ve frequently placed my cook stove, a small grove of trees nestled in a bend along an Eastern Sierra road, a high and barren lake in the Southern Sierra, and quite a few more. I’ll bet you have a few such places of your own.

This little group of three slender aspen trees set against a jumble of rocks s is one of those spots. It is very accessible, but there’s an excellent chance that if you were nearby you passed without noticing. Yet virtually every autumn I end up stopping and photographing them again. (Yes, there are other photographs of them in my collection.) They are “the same,” yet they are also different every time I visit — the leaves may be green, yellow, a combination, or gone. The light may be intense in the morning or soft and blue in late-day shadows. So I return, and I photograph them again, and I mark another season with each return.

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

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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: Ocean & Coast

Pacific Shoreline, Point Reyes

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Pacific Shoreline, Point Reyes
Rugged Pacific Ocean coastline at the furthest end of Point Reyes.

Pacific Shoreline, Point Reyes. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rugged Pacific Ocean coastline at the furthest end of Point Reyes.

This photograph is literally of “Point Reyes,” as in the actual “point” after which the national seashore is named. It is a remarkable location in many ways. This peninsula extends a good distance out into the Pacific Ocean, and it forms a large bay that is protected from the ocean to the west and north. From the Point you can see south to San Francisco Bay, a good distance north along the Pacific coastline, eastward across that bay toward what would be the coast in most locations, and westward to the horizon. This section runs east-west, and its features echo those along the most rugged sections of the main Pacific coastline. But this section is short, exerting only the length of the end of the Point, and it runs not north-south. but east west.

During the past four months of the pandemic I have not ventured too far from our location in the San Francisco Bay Area, largely because such travels have been discouraged. But I’m beginning to think that I could again safely (for myself and others) venture out to the coast for some new photography before long. Stay tuned…

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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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