Tag Archives: red

Photographs: Chicago, Photographs: Urban/Street

Red Car, Blue Building

October 25, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A red car waits in front of a blue Chicago building

This was a surprise grab shot near the end of a day of photographing, as we walked back to our Chicago hotel to get ready to go out for dinner. Most of the surroundings were not terribly conducive to photography at this point, being in the middle of a very neat and tidy hotel and business area, but here the organized forms seemed right for a photo, with the perfect vertical columns of blue shaded light and the single spot of red from the car parked in the driveway and, if you look closely, a single person in front of the car.

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

Lake Shore, Autumn Bilberry

September 29, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A harbinger of Sierra Nevada autumn, red bilberry plants carpet the shoreline of a sub-alpine lake

This photograph evokes, for me, that special feeling of the end of summer in the high country, when the awareness of the changing seasons is heightened and there is an odd combination of relaxation as the pace of mountain life slows and a feeling that the time of year when access to such places is easy is rapidly coming to an end — and that in a matter of weeks places like this one will be snow-covered and largely inaccessible for another year. It is also a time, perhaps for these very reasons, when the recognition of the natural cycles of seasons and lives becomes more acute.

The red carpet on the close ground along the shoreline consists of small bilberry plants. This small plant is normally easy to overlook. It stands perhaps an inch tall, often in clusters in clear areas along lakes and among trees. During the summer it is, frankly, just another little green thing among many. But in September it transforms into something that you cannot help noticing, especially if you look across a patch into the sun — backlit bilberry suddenly becomes flaming red. Beyond the near shore, trees scattered along a rocky peninsula and small islands catch the last warm and soft light of an “almost-autumn” evening.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Red-tailed Hawk

August 3, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A red-tailed hawk sits in the branches of a tree above a San Joaquin Valley marsh

While photographing migratory birds in the San Joaquin Valley, I often see these raptors. Occasionally they will fly overhead, sometimes disturbing the flocks of winter migratory geese and setting off quite a commotion among the flock. More often I see them perched in trees, seemingly doing nothing at all, but perhaps actually watching for prey from their high perches.

I have never had a good, close, and clear view of one in the wild, despite running into them regularly. Those in flight are often not only in motion but also too far away to see details or to capture an effective photograph. Many other times when I’ve seen them in trees they have also been too far off, or else they were perched where the branches hid the details of their form. This specimen was a bit more cooperative, perching on a tree alongside a levee road as I drove by, and then remaining there patiently as I quietly exited my car and made a few photographs.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Red, White, and Blue Hour

August 1, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last red sunset light falls on a forested ridge in front of snow topped Half Dome in blue dusk light

This past winter I was in Yosemite Valley for a few days for the opening of the Yosemite Renaissance Exhibit, and I had many opportunities to head out and photograph the Valley in beautiful foggy, cloudy conditions, with a bit of snow still remaining from earlier storms. (I also had a great time meeting up with plenty of other friends and photographers who were also there for this event and a simultaneous film festival.)

Sometimes I know what I want to photograph in the Valley, and I simply to look for that thing, often knowing exactly where to go find it. But in conditions such as those of this weekend, which included a lot of clouds and changing light, sometimes it was impossible to know for sure what the conditions were going to do. See fog developing? Head for a high place or a meadow. Possibility of sunset color? Perhaps one of the well-known Valley views. Clouds swirling around the upper ridges? Get out a long lens and shoot from innumerable locations. Soft sunlight? Perhaps time to photograph trees and granite. On this evening a number of us ended up at that most iconic of iconic Yosemite locations, Tunnel View. For the last few years, I’ve been playing a slightly different game at Tunnel View when I end up there, often shooting with very long focal lengths and trying to pick out small bits and pieces of the larger scene. I had been doing that and had pretty much wrapped up for the evening, since the light seemed to be dying behind clouds to the west, and in fact I was loading equipment into the car when my wife said, more or less, “Look at that!” A band of intensely red end-of-sunset light had found its way through a gap in the clouds to the west and suddenly cast an intense glow across this ridge standing between me and Half Dome. So we have red (of sun on ridge), white (of snow) and blue (of the blue hour light on Half Dome and the clouds above).

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: red

Red Car, Blue Building

Lake Shore, Autumn Bilberry

Red-tailed Hawk

Red, White, and Blue Hour

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