Tag Archives: rain

Photographs: Southern California

Patio, Rain and Fog

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Patio, Rain and Fog
Patio, Rain and Fog

Patio, Rain and Fog. Getty Center, California. December 20, 2009.© Copyright 2009 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Diners at an outdoor eating area at the Getty Center.

This is a photograph from about five years ago, when we spent a rainy and foggy winter day at the Getty Center in Southern California. When one thinks of the Los Angeles area, more typically the thoughts are of sunshine and warm temperatures, but this winter day was not at all like that. It was not warm, and the constant light to moderate rain also included foggy conditions at this ridge-top location. The design of the Getty buildings and the grounds has fascinated me for a long time, and this provided a new way to see the place.

At about the time I made this photograph, quite a few people were seeking shelter from the wind and rain in this outdoor covered courtyard area where the upper room section appears to be supported by tremendously tall and thing columns clad in rock.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Umbrellas and Fog

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Umbrellas and Fog
Umbrellas and Fog

Umbrellas and Fog. Getty Center, California. December 30, 2009. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People with umbrellas walking through a foggy garden

This is a photograph from about five years ago when we made a winter trip to Southern California and ended up spending a day at the Getty Center. From the time our oldest son went to UCLA I have been a fan of the Center, at least as much for the architecture and the grounds as for the art displays. (The art is wonderful, too, and they have a special focus on photography that often takes me back there.)

This was just the sort of day when normal people might not want to visit the Getty: it was cold and rainy and eventually the rain mixed with fog. I had a wonderful time photographing the fog-obscured architectural landscape and made many photographs with people passing through it. In fact, I came back from this single day of shooting with a group of photographs I like a great deal. At this moment I happened to be in an upper courtyard in a place that overlooks the garden as groups of people carrying umbrellas approached the sharp bend in the walkway from both directions.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Tree, Reflecting Puddles After Rain

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Tree, Reflecting Puddles After Rain
Tree, Reflecting Puddles After Rain

Tree, Reflecting Puddles After Rain. Yosemite National Park, California. September 9, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small pine grows from a crack at the end of a small rainwater pool reflecting golden morning light from overhead mountains

Among those who have visited this place, the small tree in this photo has perhaps become almost iconic — though, in truth, if you look you can find such trees all over the high Sierra. Each seems to me, upon reflection, to be a bit of a small miracle. Like this one, they often manage to grow in incredibly challenging circumstances. In addition to the usual stresses of the high country, these trees found themselves sprouting in a world of almost unbroken granite, perhaps finding barely enough water and soil in small cracks or shallow rainwater pools to get get started, but then constrained by these conditions to lives of very slow growth and a marginal existence. I missed it, but a friend who was there with me pointed out that this is actually a mature tree, producing seed-bearing cones and likely quite old.

The location is such that the tree is in shadow for a long time in the morning. I have photographed it at other times of day when the light is “better,” but I also like soft shade light and thought I’d give it a shot. Above and beyond this slab and the tree there are higher granite walls, and they catch the morning sun — and from just the right angles that golden glow is reflected in the pools around the tree, here filled by rain from the previous day.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Cascades, Tuolumne River

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Cascades, Tuolumne River
Cascades, Tuolumne River

Cascades, Tuolumne River. Yosemite National Park, California. September 8, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Tuolumne River crosses cascades past rain-dampened granite to begin its descent into the Tuolumne River Canyon

We had some “interesting” and somewhat surprising weather on this early September back-county Yosemite visit. We were out for nearly ten days, and before hitting the trail many of us had been following long-range weather forecasts. As photographers, we were actually hoping for some “interesting” weather, but nothing appeared to be coming our way. A few days from the end of the trip, as we moved from one location to another, we were surprised to find ourselves under a huge plume of wildfire smoke, which we later found out came from the “Meadow” fire that quickly burned out of control in a somewhat different area of the park.

That evening we were in camp after dark, sitting around and talking and doing the usual camp stuff, when we were completely surprised by a flash of lightning in the sky to our southeast. Since we had not seen anything remotely suggesting rain or thunderstorms earlier in the day we weren’t quite sure what to make of this… but within a short time we started to pick up some rain. Overnight we all had plenty of opportunities to hear rain pattering on the roofs of our tents. When we awoke the next morning, a decent amount of rain had fallen, and there were still clouds around. It turned out that the rains continued off and on through them middle of the day. Between showers we headed out to make photographs, and as one shower approached a couple of us headed back to camp. Topping a ridge on a shortcut route, we had a clear view of the rocky terrain through which the Tuolumne River cascades into the upper Tuolumne Canyon, with the rocks still wet from the rain.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.