Tag Archives: orange

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

Merced River Boulder, Autumn

November 21, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A large boulder is exposed by low autumn water levels in the Merced River

On the final two days of October this year, I did what I often do at this time of year – make a visit to Yosemite Valley to photograph fall colors. As is the case with fall colors in many places in the west, the transition seemed to come a little earlier than usual, and this might have been just a bit too late for some colors (big leaf maples) and perhaps a bit early for others (cottonwoods) but overall a fine time to be in the Valley. (This season was a bit strange in many places in the west, including many where I often photograph. For example, the arrival of the fall aspen color was early, though it did hang on for a good long time.)

This scene along the Merced River says “autumn” in ways that are both obvious to anyone and perhaps less so unless you know the Valley a bit. In the obvious category are the colors of trees along the banks of the river, mostly big leaf maple and oak in this photograph. Other aspects include the very low water level and the quiet flow of the river. In the spring this section of the Merced can be a wild flood of snow melt runoff that rises toward the top of the large boulder – but so late in the season, especially in a very dry year like this one – the river has a much gentler and quieter personality. The light is also different – with the low sun angle there is no direct light at the bottom of the canyon here and none on the section of valley wall visible in the distance. The atmosphere has some of the same feeling that the river has – a bit hazy, little air movement, and at times a softer quality of light.

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Photographs: England, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brick Wall, London

October 11, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A painted and weathered brick wall beneath a London overpass

I have only a general recollection of where I made this photograph. I think it was on the south side of the Thames, probably somewhere beyond the Millennium Bridge and in an area of older narrow streets where we walked both to kill some time before an appointment and to wander and see what we could see.

There is, obviously, nothing all that exotic about this wall. In fact, I’ve likely photographed similar subjects in the SF Bay Area. I think several things caused me to stop and shoot it. First, to be honest, I was in a shooting mode – in other words I was shooting quickly and shooting a lot of frames. But beyond that, I was intrigued by the lights, muted by the narrow street and the fact – again, if I recall correctly – that this was shot near the edge of an underpass of some sort. Bricks often intrigue me, but here the layers of paint applied to the bricks, which really shouldn’t be painted, probably covers something that we are not supposed to see. The larger underlying area of black paint contrasts with the Halloween orange that must have been added later. But now new stuff has already been added to the wall on top of the old cover-up job.

Photographs: England

London Sunset

August 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Sunset over London, England

We had walked across to the south side of the Thames River earlier on this afternoon – I think it was the day that we visited the Tate Museum, which is located near the south end of the Millennium Bridge. We had been in this area earlier on the trip when we saw “A Midsummer Nights Dream” at the Old Globe Theater, and I had wanted to come back in the evening and try to time it so that I could be along the river during the golden hour and perhaps into the early evening. Sure enough, when we were ready to start out walk back across the bridge to where we would catch the Underground back to our hotel the light was just starting to get interesting. In this case, “interesting” included not only the normal golden hour light show but also the somewhat thick and humid atmosphere found here.

My main thoughts were to photograph the skyline to the north and south of the bridge, and to continue shooting as the evening lights began to come on. But when I saw this sun in the hazy sky I put on a long lens that did what I would do in the Sierra Nevada back home – I made a sunset photograph! However, the landscape in this image is distinctly British and distinctly London, with the most obvious feature being the BT Tower at the left.

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

Maple Leaves and Sandstone

July 13, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fallen autumn maple leaves lie on pink sandstone slabs in the high country of Zion National Park

Wind is not usually the photographer’s friend, at least when the photographer is shooting natural subjects that include foliage. Later on this trip we were stymied by strong winds when shooting in the Escalante River Canyon, as the trees and leaves were being whipped around in the gale. But the same winds that create these problems – and I was experiencing some of them with tree photographs on this day, too – also bring down the autumn leaves and in the right conditions can create a thick carpet of the wild fall colors.

This photograph, like quite a few I have shared recently, was made in the bottom of a wash where leaves tend to collect, but by means of water flow and, as here, due to the wind. These maple leaves ranged in color from yellow-gold through orange to almost red, and here they littered the rocks in the bottom of the channel. Like spring flowers, these colors are a fleeting thing, and the leaves on the ground quickly blow away or turn brittle and brown.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: orange

Merced River Boulder, Autumn

Brick Wall, London

London Sunset

Maple Leaves and Sandstone

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