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Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Autumn Color, East of the Sierra

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Autumn Color, East of the Sierra
Fall color spreads across hillsides in mountains east of the Sierra Nevada.

Autumn Color, East of the Sierra. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Fall color spreads across hillsides in mountains east of the Sierra Nevada.

After photographing autumn color in the Eastern Sierra for a few decades, I still return every year and remain fascinated by the subject. After all of this time I “discover” new subjects and new ways to see old ones every time. But eventually I figured out there’s more to fall color than just the familiar locations, and I branched out in various ways. Now I occasionally head east from the Sierra, toward basin and range country. I’m not certain whether this location qualifies geologically as basin and range, but it most assuredly is not the Sierra.

Over the past few years I’ve explored this area, going beyond even the parts of it that are somewhat known to photographers — heading out on some narrow little dirt tracks just to see where they go. This fall I ended up on a narrow road that descended toward a canyon, and across the valley was one of the more extensive blankets of autumn color that I’ve seen in California. The trees are not large, but they stretch on for great distances.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Sea of Dunes

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Sea of Dunes
Undulating patterns of overlapping sand dunes extending into the distance.

Sea of Dunes. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Undulating patterns of overlapping sand dunes extending into the distance.

Sand dunes occupy a tiny fraction of Death Valley National Park but are one of the most common photographic subjects. They loom large in our sense of the place, perhaps because sand dunes evoke of a sort of alien landscape. But they also present a visual blank slate that is open to diverse interpretations. We can approach them as “grand landscapes” or as intimate landscapes, as abstractions of shape and color, as backdrops for photographs of people and wildlife, and more. I think I began by seeing them as grand landscapes but now find it more interesting to seek out little fragments of form and light.

Perhaps because it makes everyone a bit uneasy we don’t speak a lot about the extent to which photographers treat dunes as a photographic starting point for visual experimentation. By this I mean to acknowledge that most interesting, compelling photographs of sand dunes involve a lot of “interpretation,” much of it done via post-processing techniques. To be sure, I regard this as conceptually legitimate and even necessary, and I embrace it in my own photography— I egard post-processing to be as integral to photograph-making as setting up the camera and clicking the shutter.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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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: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

People Standing By Window

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People Standing By Window
Two people stand against a dark wall next to a window, Museum of Modern Art.

People Standing By Window. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two people stand against a dark wall next to a window, Museum of Modern Art.

This photograph comes from a Manhattan visit a few years back. We usually are there for at least a week each year — though we have not been back since before the start of the pandemic. We miss the place! We have some traditions when it comes to these visits. One is to indulge me in a lot of “museum time.” (The amount of time I’m willing to spend in such places occasionally makes me the butt of family jokes.) We visited the Museum of Modern Art on this visit, and the photograph comes from there.

I’m often a bit surprised — though by how you’d think I would not be — by how interesting I find museums as photographic spaces. They are full of interesting and sometimes unusual architecture, and they are often designed to incorporate a lot of investing lighting, especially natural lighting. In many cases there is some sort of central atrium or similar that creates a tall, vertical open area… and that provides some wild and off-kilter angles of subjects that would look quite different if photographed on their own level. Here a pair of people stands at the base of a stairway, positioned in the angle between a nearly-black wall and a window.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrian Landscape

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Pedestrian Landscape
A few through upper story windows toward street level pedestrians and geometries.

Pedestrian Landscape. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A few through upper story windows toward street level pedestrians and geometries.

This is one in a series of photographs from this spot and of this scene, mostly made on this visit to San Francisco, though there are a few made on other dates, too. The photograph is, obviously, made from a location up high in an urban building — high enough that it was possible to get a nearly vertical perspective on the street below.

There are a few things going on here that were interesting to me as I photographed. I’m photographing through the tinted glass of a modern building. Recently I’ve been interested in the effects of glass on iight and subjects in situations where its presence isn’t obvious. Here it lens an unusual, cool tone to the colors of the scene. As I photographed small numbers of people passed by on the sidewalk. It was interesting to watch their interactions as they approached and passed on another. In addition, from this perspective things in the scene that would ordinarily be almost invisible become central, especially the various kinds of geometries throughout the scene.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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.