Tag Archives: photo

Photographs: Croatia, Photographs: Death Valley

Ruins, Dawn, Rhyolite

May 15, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Cloud-filtered dawn light washes over crumbling ruins in the ghost town of Rhyolite, Nevada with Death Valley National Park, California and snow-capped Telescope Peak in the distance.

(More of my Death Valley photographs)

Looking back through my photos from Rhyolite in early April of this year, I found this image of several ruined and crumbling buildings against the backdrop of Amargosa Valley, Death Valley National Park and Telescope Peak, and an cloudy interesting dawn sky. One reason I thought I’d share this one is that it is a somewhat different image of the Rhyolite ghost town in that it doesn’t really include any of the iconic structures – just a more typical scene of buildings in a state of ongoing desert decay.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Spring Lupine Blossoms, Point Lobos

May 14, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Spring lupine flowers blossom at punta de los lobos marinos, Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

The weather was quite foggy at Point Lobos when I photographed these blooming lupine plants along the bluffs near the punta de los lobos marinos in late April. This is actually very interesting light for wildflower photography because diffused light decreases the harsh highlights and brings out a bit more detail in the shadows, even though color balance can be a bit tricky. There were several big clusters of tall lupine plants along this bluff, and I picked one and spent some time photographing it. While sometimes the problem can be finding enough good flowers to get a shot, here the problem more or less the opposite – the flowers were so thick that it was hard to compose a shot that let the foreground flowers stand out a bit from the background!

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: point, lobos, california, usa, spring, monterey, peninsula, carmel, coast, pacific, state, reserve, park, nature, lupine, wildflower, flower, foliage, plant, blossom, bloom, lupine, leaf, nature, scenic, stem, petal, cluster, season, color, stock, yellow, pink, white, purple

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rocky Inlet and Surf

May 13, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Surf washes through a rocky inlet at Point Lobos State Reserve, California.

Yes, yet another photograph from the Day of No Tourists at Point Lobos in late April – when almost no one was there due to the closure of Highway One for the Big Sur Marathon. This little inlet/cove is not far from where I photographed the harbor seal family. I’m pretty certain I’ve visited this exact feature before, but this is the first time I’ve tried to photograph it. (I have photographed some very nearby features – they are actually visible from the same camera position.) The light was very flat – it was overcast and gray from fog – and the colors of these particular rocks did not look like they would work well in a color image, so I decided to go with black and white here. The use of a rather dark neutral density filter – that’s what allowed the long exposure – also alters to color balance in some odd ways. I made several exposures of this spot since it is virtually impossible to predict just how a long exposure of water will turn out.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: point, lobos, california, usa, spring, monterey, peninsula, carmel, coast, pacific, state, reserve, park, nature, rocks, wave, surf, pattern, time, long, exposure, ocean, black and white, monochrome, diffused, blur, inlet, rocky, stock

Stories

A Somewhat Humorous Yosemite Story

May 12, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

When I’m out photographing I cart around the typical pile of stuff – the big, squarish bag of camera bodies and lenses and accessories, the tripod, the works. And when I photograph in popular places I make it a habit to offer to take photographs of folks with their P&S cameras. You know the scene – the family traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to get to some beautiful place, but one member of the family is missing from every photo since someone has to hold the camera. (The embarrassing thing is that sometimes I don’t understand how to operate these little cameras, but that is a story for another post.)

Put the two together and some surprising and odd conversations can ensue. Last Saturday I was in the Happy Isles area of Yosemite Valley looking for dogwood trees in bloom when I saw a mother about to snap a photo of (I presume) her daughter, so I asked if they would like me to use their camera to take a picture of the two of them together. I put down my bag and left the camera on the tripod and made the photograph. The woman inspected the photo, seemed to approve, then looked at me and my stuff and asked, “Hey, you aren’t Mr. Adams, are you?”

Sometimes it is so hard to avoid saying the wrong thing in reply, but I think I more or less succeeded… ;-)

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: photo

Spring Lupine Blossoms, Point Lobos

Rocky Inlet and Surf

A Somewhat Humorous Yosemite Story

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