Tag Archives: park

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Building Detail, Bodie

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Building Detail, Bodie
Building Detail, Bodie
“Building Detail, Bodie” — An old building in the Bodie ghost town.

Yes, there really is snow falling in this photo. You might be able to see it a bit if you click on the thumbnail to see the somewhat larger size. I was caught – somewhat pleasantly – by surprise when I encountered this rather cold weather at the end of May in 2006.

Update 2025: Bodie is a large ghost town east of the Sierra Nevada that is a California State park. The place is maintained in state of arrested decay — not restored to be like new, but not allowed to decay and disappear like typical ghost towns. It is located in pretty tough country — the sagebrush desert of the western edge of Basin and Range territory. It can be very hot and dry out here in the summer, but it is also one of the coldest places in the West in the winter. On this visit I caught a surprise late-season light snowfall.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Spring Snow Flurries, Bodie

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Spring Snow Flurries, Bodie
Spring Snow Flurries, Bodie. Bodie, California. May 27, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of late spring snow flurries in the ghost town of Bodie, California. Bodie is the famous and relatively well-preserved ghost town in the silver mining area of the high desert east of Yosemite National Park. (Posting the series of Rhyolite photographs made me realize that I have some older photographs of Bodie that haven’t been posted here yet.)

keywords: bodie, ghost, town, california, usa, desert, abandoned, buildings, mine, mining, state, park, houses, sheds, windows, walls, hill, cloudy, black and white, porch, landscape, scenic, travel, history, stock

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Spring Oak Leaves

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Spring Oak Leaves
Spring Oak Leaves. Calero Hills, California. March 8, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Some people might say I shouldn’t admit it, but there was an element of serendipity – actually, I made a mistake – in this photograph. (Some who imagine that all photographs should coalesce in the photographer’s mind in their final form before the shutter is clicked won’t want to hear about this.) I was working with a long lens and wide aperture to narrow the depth of field. My plan was to shoot the colorful foliage in the foreground and throw everything beyond out of focus. I set up, let the camera autofocus… and it focused on the “wrong” branches – the branches that are in focus in this shot. “Wait a minute,” I thought, “I kind of like the way that looks!” Instead of an in-focus foreground with everything else OOF, the middle ground is in focus and objects closer and farther away are OOF. It ended up being my favorite version of this scene; I like it more than the shot I was planning on.

keywords: spring, oak, tree, branches, leaves, bright, colorful, yellow, green, calero, santa clara, county, park, california, usa, nature, stock, landscape, morning

Photographs: Central California

Calero Trail, Spring

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Calero Trail, Spring
Calero Trail, Spring. Calero Hills, California. March 8, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A spring morning on a hillside trail through oak grassland of the Calero Hills in central California. This is representative of the start of what I call “the impossibly green” season in central California when for perhaps a month the grasses, trees, and wildflowers go absolutely wild following the winter rains.

keywords: calero, trail, santa clara, county, park, trail, fire road, spring, new, grass, buds, leaves, sun, sunshine, blue, sky, shadows, meadow, forest, hills, clouds, hike, hiking, outdoors, nature, branches, trunks, oak, california, usa, stock