Tag Archives: north

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

Building, Reflections

March 5, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Portions of downtown San Francisco reflected in the windows of a tall building

This is an urban landscape photograph — while the subject is quite different from natural landscapes, I think of it is ways that are at least partially similar. Superficially, the urban world of towers and canyons presents some possibilities that are related to the mountains and valleys that I photograph in the non-urban world; I think about light and form in similar ways; and the ways I view each type of landscape can’t help but inform how I view the other.

It was only a few years ago when I understood something that intrigues me about glass-covered buildings like this one. (Yes, I’m slow sometimes…) We feel like we are looking at a building in a photograph like this, but a good part of what we actually see is not the building at all, but its form made visible by means of reflections of its surroundings, including other buildings and the sky. Here some skeletal forms help define its shape, perhaps more so than with some other buildings, but between those elements the windows themselves mostly reflect things that are not the building itself

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

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

Trees, Snowy Ledge

March 4, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The cliffs and spires of Yosemite Valley — and not always the most iconic among them — fascinate me. While there is only one Half Dome, there are uncounted intimate vignettes of ridge, ledge, spire, light, texture, color, and atmosphere everywhere — where the cliffs meet the canyon floor, up these giant walls, and along the rim of the Valley. The variety is astonishing — something that is uninteresting in one kind of light may glow in another, what appears as a featureless face in summer may acquire relief when there is snow, changing light color brings colors out of what might otherwise seem entirely gray.

In February a spent a couple of very early (and very cold!) mornings contemplating one specific area of the Valley, staring upwards as the bluish pre-dawn glow was transformed as light came to the sky and then as beams of sunlight slanted across the granite faces and ledges. On both mornings I photographed this subject — a pair of taller trees flanked by smaller trees and brush and a dead snag, and set against a particularly varied bit of cliff texture and color.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

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

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

The Shadow Line

March 3, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The boundary between morning sunlight and shadow traverses granite slabs

These slabs on the lower face of the Glacier Point apron always attract me, especially in the morning. I go way back with them — many years ago when I was, for a short time, a budding rock climber, we climbed on them, testing the limits of our trust in friction. Today, when I’m in this section of the Valley early in the morning, I always watch for the arrival of the first sun on the slopes.

I was in a cold meadow before sunrise on this winter morning. Soon the first light began to touch the cliffs along the north side of the Valley, and then trees along the upper rim near Glacier Point picked up the light. It worked its way slowly down the immense face, and the light final streamed through gaps behind Half Dome and slanted across this slope and revealed the cracks and scallops on the weathered granite.

Photographs: Abstract, Photographs: Imaginary Landscapes, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Cliff Detail

February 27, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A section of a Yosemite Valley cliff

I was in Yosemite Valley for the weekend, initially for the opening reception for the Yosemite Renaissance 32 exhibit in the Yosemite Museum Gallery next to the Visitor Center. Friday was all about the exhibit — the wonderful reception and then afterwards with my many friends among the artists in the show and others artists who have a connection to the event. This was also the seasonal peak of the annual Horsetail Fall excitement, a phenomenon that brings hordes of people to a couple of small areas… but consequently brings a degree of solitude and quiet to many other parts of the Valley.

In any case, my visit was also an excuse for photography. On my last morning there I was up an out in the 17 degree chill before sunrise. I headed to a nearby clear area from which I had an unobstructed view of some of the mighty cliffs. As I photographed I alternated between subjects that were typical landscape material — trees on ledges, morning light slanting across granite, snow and ice — and more abstract images focusing a sort of disembodied landscape and isolation striking bits of pattern and color high on the cliff walls.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: north

Building, Reflections

Trees, Snowy Ledge

The Shadow Line

Cliff Detail

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