Tag Archives: people

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People In Landscape

Evening Overlook

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Evening Overlook
Two people watching the early evening view of immense desert mountains from a high overlook.

Evening Overlook. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Two people watching the early evening view of immense desert mountains from a high overlook.

Late in the day during my recent Death Valley visit I went to this overlook. It is more typically a place to photograph the sunrise, which comes from camera-left and illuminates the big ridges in the distance. But I had a free evening, not a morning, so I figured it was worth a shot. I arrived before sunset, and I made this photograph before the sun had dropped behind the western ridge, though the haze and high clouds softened the light a bit.

I’ve never been able to quite describe in words the experience of standing on a very high point in such a vast landscape. From here one can look 5000′ down into Death Valley or look 6000′ up toward the highest peak in the Panamint Range and simultaneously feel “on top of the world” and very, very small in the presence of such immensity.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People

Waiting for Sunrise

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Waiting for Sunrise
Four people await sunrise in California’s Central Valley.

Waiting for Sunrise. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Four people await sunrise in California’s Central Valley.

Waking up in the darkness, perhaps many hours before sunrise, strikes many people as being somewhere between barbaric and impossible. They literally cannot imagine themselves doing it, and perhaps they never have gotten up early enough to watch the first light appear. The odd thing is that most of us who do get up “that early” understand that the reward of watching sunrise makes the discomfort well worth it. In fact, it seems to us that NOT getting up for sunrise is the tragedy.

This was an exceptionally brilliant pre-sunrise experience, though it did not last long at all. In fact, friends of ours who arrived only a little later found the skies mostly gray. But the clouds in the east, leading out toward the Sierra crest, where as brilliantly colorful as I have ever seen them.

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

Woman in Central Park

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Woman in Central Park
A women stands on a brick square in Central Park.

Woman in Central Park. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A women stands on a brick square in Central Park.

As we walked through a busy section of Central Park on an October morning, I saw this woman walk through this square alone, pause as if taking stock of the surroundings, then eventually move on. Originally, the bright pink color of her outfit caught my attention, along with something about her demeanor, but I sacrificed that color for this monochrome rendering of the scene — since I like the way that a black and white image translates that color to almost white.

This is one of those photographs that asks more questions than it answers. I cannot tell you “what it means,” or even quite explain why it works for me. I think that there is something a bit noble about her, something about her standing apart from the rest of the crown in the park, but also something more than a bit uncomfortable about the image. and her place in it.

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 | Twitter | 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: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

The Urban Wilderness

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The Urban Wilderness
“The Urban Wilderness” — People climb on a rock outcropping at The Lake, Central Park, New York City.

This photograph comes from a well-known, popular rock outcropping along the shore of The Lake in Manhattan’s Central Park. I made the photograph on an October morning as we killed time before heading to the airport for our flight back to the West Coast. We wandered across the park, down the East Side to the Columbus Day parade, and then back to our hotel. One thing that struck me about this scene was how familiar the appearance of the people climbing the rocks was — I could find a similar scene in the Sierra..

I enjoy the parallels between photography of the urban and natural worlds. There’s no denying that they are rather different, but I think there are similarities,. too, and I’m able to apply my experience photographing the natural world to urban photography. It is possible to see the human presence in the city as almost a kind of wildlife — and photographing people and wild life can be challenging in similar ways. The city also presents a landscape, and the same principles that work in wilderness can work here, too. ( I sometimes think that the particular landscape in this photograph, with those ridiculously tall and slender buildings, may have more I’m common with movie depictions of cities on distant planets!)

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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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