Tag Archives: photo

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake and Rain, Dusk

October 1, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

A late-evening rain shower above the smooth surface of a rocky Sierra Nevada lake

From our camp site at a narrow point in the canyon among all of these lakes, we more or less had the option of going upstream to a group of several nearby lakes that were visible from our camp, or of going downstream and around a bend to an equally large group of lakes that were about 10 minutes away. The choice was often difficult – we didn’t always go the same direction, sometimes we might go upstream in the morning and downstream in the evening, or vice versa as the mood would take us. This, again, is an advantage of remaining in one area for an extended time – in our case we camped here for six nights with the primary goal of exploring and photographing.

On this evening I decided to go up-stream. Early on the trip I had made a very brief visit to what we regarded as the “upper lake” – though, in truth, there was one more further up the drainage that was likely inaccessible to us. On that first visit I had taken a direct route to the outlet stream of the lake and had then looked around a bit at this lower end before the light faded and I headed back to camp. On the evening when I made this photograph I started earlier, and instead of taking the direct route I went more slowly and wandered a bit, exploring the very interesting terrain among the lakes. Somewhat to our surprise, light rain cropped up again late in the day, and by the time I was approaching the upper lake there were showers here and stronger showers further down the canyon. Just before actual sunset, the sky turned intense pink as a bit of rain fell on the lake, imparting purple and pink tones to the landscape, and far down the canyon there was a faint glow from an area where the clouds cleared and a bit of blue sky shone through.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Ridge in Sun, Lake in Shadow

September 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light from a nearby ridge is reflected in the wind-rippled “blue hour” surface of an alpine lake still in the shadows.

In this area of many, many lakes this almost seems like “yet another anonymous lake,” though it is a bit special in that it was a very short walk from the place where I was camped for six nights this late summer in the Kings Canyon National Park back-country. I could get out of my tent, wander up the hill toward a nearby ridge, and be at this location within perhaps five minutes or so. Consequently, I visited this lake several times, though always in the early morning hours when its surface was still in the shadow of a nearby large granite dome.

I’m fascinated by the very blue light found in the shadows of large mountains, domes, and cliffs. This lake is set in a somewhat deep bowl with a ridge of granite slabs along two sides, and a very tall glaciated ridge topped by a large dome on the other. These features prevent the direct sunlight from reaching the surface of the lake until some time after sunrise, and the cold, blue light remains here longer than in other locations. It was literally cold when I arrived on this morning, and gusty winds were periodically stirring up ripples on the lake’s surface. I decided to contour around one side of the lake to a point where I could gain a bit of elevation above its surface and where the warmer colors and diffused shapes of a nearby sunlit ridge were reflected, refracted, and otherwise distorted.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: England, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Paint and Handrail, Tower Bridge

September 29, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shiny blue and black paint on a wall and a handrail on the Tower Bridge, London

I made this photograph in quite the jet-lagged state – though I had recovered a bit from my initial bout that left me unable to do anything but sleep for an hour or two right after we arrived at our hotel in Kensington. I had a laugh-worthy plan to minimize jet lag – and like most such plans it failed miserably. I figured I would just move my wake up time an hour earlier every day as the trip to approached, and I was actually getting up very early in the morning right before we left. (I can report that it is very quiet and peaceful at 2:00 a.m… ;-) What I failed to consider was that I was also reducing the length of every day by one full hour for the better part of a week before travel… and almost entirely by losing sleep. Obviously, I had a big sleep deficit going by the time we left. On top of that, I was basically completely unable to sleep on the flight over – which is odd, since I can usually sleep on planes.

We arrived in London, took the underground to Kensington, got a bit lost, finally found our hotel, checked in… and I was so jet-lagged that I was incapable of doing anything at all useful. I slept for an hour or two and managed to achieve a state of modest consciousness. If nothing else, I was so tired at this point that I had little problem sleeping that night. So we got on the underground and took the train to the station by the Tower Bridge and walked across it. I was so out of it that I didn’t realize until a few days later than I had completely switched north and south directions! Somewhere I probably have some photographs of the whole bridge, but being the sort of photographer I am, I spent a bit of my time pointing that camera at odd things like this pattern of shiny blue paint, stone, and a black railing.

Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Urban/Street

Narrow Street, Cyclist

September 28, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A bicyclist disappears around a corner on narrow cobbled streets of Salzburg, Austria

During our July 2013 three-week travels to London and parts of Germany and Austria, we ended up in Salzburg on several occasions – despite the fact that we weren’t actually staying there. We spent a week near Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, staying with a bunch of family members at a rambling old farmhouse. We spent most of the time there in Bavaria, but on a couple of occasions we ended up in nearby Salzburg, plus out train arrived at and departed from the Salzburg station.

The old part of Salzburg combines, as many places we visited also did, some beautiful old history and lots of very wonderful old places with a whole lot of touristy stuff! I wonder how Mozart might react to discover that fast food places are now a short distance from the place in which he was born! Several times we walked away from the main, popular area and walked through some narrow and twisty streets leading away from the tourist sites. As we walked down this narrow and curving street, a cyclist suddenly passed by, and I had just enough time to lift the camera and shoot as he leaned around the corner at the end of the street.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: photo

Ridge in Sun, Lake in Shadow

Blue Paint and Handrail, Tower Bridge

Narrow Street, Cyclist

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