Tag Archives: red

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Leaves and Red Metal Door

June 13, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Leaves grow against a red metal roll-up door in the Fremont District of Seattle, Washington.

In early May I was in the Seattle area of three days on non-photographic business, and fairly busy with those other affairs for much of time that I was there. However, when I happened to mention online that I was in that area, someone let me know that there was going to be a “Seattle Photowalk” the next evening. The plan was to meet in the Fremont area (“under the statue of Lenin” – it’s a long story…) and then wander about for the next four hours, ending up at the Gas Works Park at sunset. I couldn’t pry open a full four hours in my schedule, but I did manage to find one hour, so I made plans to meet the group.

I arrived at the appointed starting time and place and found a small group of photographers ready to go. After the obligatory group photo (indeed, beneath the statue of Lenin!) we split up and began to photograph. I think that I may have been in Fremont once before, perhaps a dozen or more years ago, since the general area seemed a bit familiar, but as far as photography went I had no specific ideas at all about what I would find. The area does have an interesting “worn” quality – at least the parts that aren’t trendy new corporate buildings – so I figured that I could probably find something. And having only one hour to photograph an area I’d not scouted, I knew that I’d better get to work! It only took me a few minutes – and this is typically true – to get into the “seeing” mode and start to find potential subjects. Shooting mostly with just a 50mm prime I wandered up side streets, alleys, and a few driveways, looking for odd bits of shape and color. This branch was growing across the sliding metal door on a small eating establishment that was apparently closed for the day.

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

Sandstone Formations, Morning

June 4, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light illuminates fins, towers, cliffs and ridges in Arches National Park, Utah.

After the better part of a week photographing in Utah in early April, the day came to start the long drive back to California. But on the last morning I rose very early and made one last trip up from Moab into Arches National Park to photograph in the morning light. I started up on the ridge around the Windows area, looking for suitable sandstone formations to frame the setting full moon. (Still not sure whether or not the photographs of that subject are going to be share-able or not – we’ll see!) From there I headed back toward the Petrified Dunes area from which a panoramic view of many subjects is available – the towers and spires and arches up on the ridge near the Windows, the La Salle Mountains in the distance, and the huge sandstone formations down in the Wall Street area.

This photograph includes a more distant view of the latter area. Most often I think we view these features from close up, and look up at them from below. And when we are close to them we are more likely to consider one or perhaps a couple of them at once. However, from this elevated and more distant vantage point, the individual features and formations are seen more clearly as part of the larger landscape. From front to back there are first some isolated sandstone features standing alone and apart. Beyond them are the walls of the, well, Wall Street area, which are largely intact but have eroded away in some areas. Next there is a narrow canyon, in shadow in this photograph, and beyond that a wider and more solid wall running down from left to right. This one is thicker and there is a bit of a plateau on top where it appears that plants grow. Then there is yet another valley, another ridge, and the sequence continues on beyond the upper edge of the photograph.

Photographs: Nature

Red Tulip, Green Grass

May 29, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

In Memoriam: Joyce Emerson

Red Tulip, Green Grass - A bright red tulip grows among grass and weeds, Seattle, Washington — A bright red tulip grows among grass and weeds, Seattle, Washington

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

Tree and Sandstone Cliff

May 28, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

If this photograph looks familiar, it may be because it is! A few weeks back I posted another photograph of more or less the same subject but in landscape orientation rather than portrait orientation. There are, no doubt, many examples of interesting trees growing out of surprisingly small cracks in the faces of sandstone cliffs in Zion and other similar areas, but I spotted this one in the “Big Bend” area of Zion Canyon, where I had stopped to photograph some spring cottonwood trees along the Virgin River.

I love the juxtaposition of the rich greens of the tree with the reds and browns of the sandstone cliffs. In many ways, these are two of the main colors of this part of the Southwest – with the addition of the blue of the sky. That palette of green, red, and blue is everywhere. And there is actually a bit of the blue here, too. The interesting coloration of the dark areas of the rock seems to be partly the result of reflections of the blue light from the blue sky that was above and behind my camera position.

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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

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: red

Leaves and Red Metal Door

Sandstone Formations, Morning

Red Tulip, Green Grass

Tree and Sandstone Cliff

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