Tag Archives: pink

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

Cedar Breaks, Evening

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Cedar Breaks, Evening
Soft evening light on the formations of Cedar Breaks National Monument

Cedar Breaks, Evening. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah. October 5, 2010. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft evening light on the formations of Cedar Breaks National Monument

This was only my second photography trip to Utah — the first had been not long before this when we visited in spring. (When I was very young, my family used to drive through Utah on trips between California and the Midwest, but I was hardly aware of the landscape.) This time we aimed for autumn, leaving the eastern Sierra at the beginning of October and heading across Nevada (not the usual route!) to western Utah and staying near Cedar Breaks National Monument for a few days at the start of our visit.

I did not know much about Cedar Breaks, and one thing that surprised me was the abrupt break between the wildly colorful and sculpted pink rock of the canyon and the flat and relatively plain high country to the east. A road travels along this boundary, and it took me a while to figure out how to photograph the area — the high flatlands seemed plain and the canyon dropped away into the western light. But that light from the west turned out to be the key. Near the end of our visit we were along the southern edge of the chasm late in the day when high, thin clouds softened that light from the west, and from here, rather than photographing straight into it, I could focus on the textures and colors made visible by the light sweeping across from the left.

As you consider this beautiful scene, also consider that such areas in Utah are currently threatened by radical anti-environmental Utah politicians who seem hell-bent on giving away our shared public lands to special interest extraction industries. It is simply astonishing that people who live in a place of such beauty could be so blind to it. Consider supporting the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in their work to defend these treasures.

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 and Amazon.
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Photographs: Events, Photographs: People

Girls Rule

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Girls Rule
Mom and daughter in pink at the San Jose Women’s March

I have posted a collection of photographs on my gallery site from events during the weekend of the 2017 Women’s March, including “Bridge Together Golden Gate” on Friday, January 20 and the San Jose Women’s March on Saturday, January 21. The nationwide — and even international — events of the Women’s Walk were, as far as I can tell, unprecedented.

My photographs that document the event will be shared in a separate gallery that I posted earlier this weekend. Among the many remarkable things I saw at the Women’s March, was a kind of torch passing between generations, from an older generation from the era of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement to their daughters and even to granddaughters. I saw groups where all three generations were represented. I photographed this mother and daughter (or so I assume) as the crowd was gathering more than an hour before a march of 25,000 people began.

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 and Amazon.
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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: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Arrival of Geese, Dusk

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Arrival of Geese, Dusk
Geese land in a wetland pond at dusk

Arrival of Geese, Dusk. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 3, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese land in a wetland pond at dusk

In an earlier post I alluded to my occasional good fortune in being the recipient of unanticipated events while out photographing, in this case the unexpected arrival of a dusk flock of geese right in front of the spot where I was standing and quietly watching the dusk light fade, thinking that I had finished my photography for the day. In that last moment, a flock took to the air a good distance away across wetland ponds, expanded the circle of its flight, and without warning began to land in the pond next to my position.

The relationships between luck and skill and preparation are complex, but there is no denying that luck plays a role in photographing the natural world. While I could tell that the sky was becoming beautiful, and while I am prepared to make technical and esthetic decision about how to photograph things as they happen, the fact that this flock took off in the dusk light and then landed perhaps fifty feet from my position is certainly nothing for which I can take credit. It does pay to be prepared, to have done this enough times to have a good chance of making the right decisions quickly when the opportunity arrives and, perhaps most of all, to be out there in the field as much as possible. One moment like this one makes it worthwhile.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens, Earth Shadow, Morning

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Aspens, Earth Shadow, Morning
“Aspens, Earth Shadow, Morning” — The earth’s shadow and predawn light on aspen groves east of the Sierra Nevada

On a cold and clear morning in mid-September earlier this year I left my camp in the Sierra and headed east, past Mono Lake and on out into the mountains east of the Sierra Nevada and east of US 395. I did not have a specific goal in mind, but I thought I would do a bit of early season aspen color reconnaissance in preparation for planned visits to photograph fall color a few weeks later. I gradually worked my way further out from the Sierra, stopping from time to time and poking around the ends of various gravel roads. Finally I found one that looked promising and took it.

I knew that I had previously seen aspens atop ridges in the general area of this road, and I had made a note to come back this way in the fall. I don’t typically expect to see much fall color by mid-September in the Sierra, but I soon found quite a bit of it — a whole mountain top was covered with small trees that were beginning to turn colors almost uniformly. I took a short spur road to an overlook and parked — from here there was an almost unobstructed view of a big section of the Sierra crest. It was cold enough to let me know that autumn wasn’t far away as I waited for the sun, beginning to photograph in that lovely predawn period of warm colors when the earth’s shadow can be seen in the darkened atmosphere just above the horizon.

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.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.