Tag Archives: red

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Sunset Fog and Clouds

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Sunset Fog and Clouds
Sunset fog and clouds above an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake after a storm.

Sunset Fog and Clouds. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Sunset fog and clouds above an Eastern Sierra Nevada lake after a storm.

As I do my year-end traverse of photographs from the preceding year I often find things that were left behind. This is one of those photographs. It comes from a weeklong backcountry photographic sojourn in the Eastern Sierra with a group of friends/photographers. We set up a basecamp and photographed the heck out of our surroundings during that week, devoting more time to the area than we could on a typical point-to-point backpacking trip.

Since I’ve told the story here before, I’ll keep it short — but we lived through the worst summer rain storm I’ve experienced in the Sierra. Twenty-four hours later the storm finally cleared late in the day, and this bit of late sunset light lit up the layers of clouds and fog to the east. It was an astonishing evening, and my photographs individually contain only parts of the remarkable whole.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pizza Jack’s No. 2

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Pizza Jack's No. 2
“Pizza Jack’s No. 2” — The dilapidated Pizza Jack’s No. 2 storefront, San Jose, California.

Perhaps there was once pizza at Pizza Jack’s No. 2, but it looks like those days are gone. Though the string of holiday lights along the roof seems sort of festive — perhaps left over from a previous year? The building is in an “interesting” area of town, one that exists between better neighborhoods in one direction and lots of urban redevelopment in the other. This area is one with a lot of potential, but also a lot of abandoned and run-down stuff that probably won’t be here much longer.

This may end up being an unusual example of a photograph that I’ll release in both color and monochrome versions. For obvious reasons, I was thinking “color!” when I made the photograph, but in post it became clear that it also works in monochrome, though with a rather different effect. There’s an old adage about going to black and white in photographs where the color doesn’t tell the story. Here, color does tell at least one important story, but darned if it doesn’t work without the color, too.

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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

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: New England

New Hampshire Leaves

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New Hampshire Leaves
A patch of autumn leaves along the Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire

New Hampshire Leaves. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A patch of autumn leaves along the Kancamagus Highway, New Hampshire

While it may seem that autumn is almost over, the autumn photography season isn’t bound by the calendar. I can find subjects in the Sierra that suggest autumn to me as early as the end of August, and it isn’t unusual to find some autumn red, gold, brown, and orange colors in parts of California all the way into January. All of this is by way of explaining that I’m not done with the autumn photographs yet!

This photograph comes from our October visit to New Hampshire, where we photographed New England fall color for the first time. After years of listening to fellow photographers rhapsodize about autumn in his region, we were overdue for a visit. I made this photograph… next to a parking lot! We had stopped to make some photographs of the larger landscape, but the soft light on the leaves caught my attention. This small vignette suggests the wildly diverse colors of the autumn leaves in this region.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

The Storm Clears

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The Storm Clears
A Sierra Nevada summer storm clears at sunset.

The Storm Clears. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A Sierra Nevada summer storm clears at sunset.

Before I get too far into the background of this photograph, has anyone else noticed that the ways to title a photograph of (yet another) clearing storm are… limited? That aside, this was one of the most spectacular Sierra backcountry evenings I have experienced. After essentially two days of rain, some of it extremely heavy, the storm finally began to break up in the late afternoon, and we were able to venture out. I began by photographing post-storm fog drifting around the valley, but before long the thinning clouds to the east began to put on a wildly colorful show. As that finished I turned my attention back toward the ridge to our west. The fog and clouds there were breaking up, too, and the very last sunlight of the day back-lit clouds above the crest.

This was not an easy photograph, both to “capture” at that moment and to work with in post. As you may be able to imagine, technical challenges included a very wide dynamic range, great contrasts in coloration, the position of the drifting fog, and more. Among other compensations, now when I look at this photograph I am transported back to the sights and sensations of that wonderful evening.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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