People along the sidewalk along 7th Avenue near Penn Station on a summer evening in New York City.
This is another night photograph made while walking along 7th Avenue around twilight, the time when there is a mixture of dim light still coming from the sky and the garish artificial lights of this urban area. The blue light in this image comes from a nearby blue “marquee” sign that runs along the side of a nearby building and right onto the sidewalk. I was attracted not only by the figures in the scene, but also by the combination of this intense blue light and the “pool” of warmer light that lit the two people.
This and the other photographs made this evening were shot “on the fly” as we walked. In some cases I took the time to raise the camera, compose and shoot – but in others I shot quickly without raising the camera to my eye. This photo is, I believe, in the latter category.
These photographs would have been more difficult to make in the era of film SLRs – not impossible, but certainly challenging. Here I was able to shoot at ISO values between 800 and as high as 3200 and still get decent image quality.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Sunset light illuminates tall columns of the Standard Hotel along the High Line Elevated Park in Chelsea, New York City.
This is another photograph from our Friday evening walk along the High Line Elevated Park in Chelsea. We walked under the Standard Hotel, which straddles the park at this point, just as the warm and saturated pre-sunset light was peaking. Given the quality of the light and the beautiful evening, I was surprised that there were no people on the other side of the plexiglas wall – there were certainly plenty of us enjoying the evening along the walkway of the park.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Morning light strikes buildings above the curving urban canyon of Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan.
We were in this area of lower Manhattan for several reasons on the morning of the last full day of our New York City visit. We made a stop at the nearby World Trade Center site – it is difficult to explain all of the reactions that I had to this. The last time I visited (close to New Years Day 2000) we stood on top of one of the buildings to see the nighttime view – and now there is a void in that place.
We were also there to visit our oldest son who was working that day in an office on Maiden Lane – and, later on, to join the throngs walking out onto the Brooklyn Bridge. (This was our first day of clear, blue sky weather.) I made this photograph as we approached that street a bit early, giving us some time to look around a bit. Oddly, when I visit the very narrow and twisty “canyons” of this part of Manhattan, with the very tall buildings towering immediately above and following the curves of the old streets, I always think of different sorts of canyons, for example the sort that I frequently visit in the Sierra. It occurred to me that the same light falls on both types of canyons. You can bet that I would have my camera out if light like that shining on the front of these curved buildings appeared in “my” Sierra!
Evening sky over the Great Western Divide reflected in an unnamed alpine lake, Sequoia National Park, California.
I don’t know quite what to say about this area of the Sierra located just east of the Great Western Divide in the upper reaches of the Kern River drainage – I’ve been very close to here on many previous trips, but I never quite managed to hop the intervening ridge even though I’ve thought vaguely about visiting this area for decades and I once passed through the lower reaches of it, more or less by accident and completely unaware of what was just upstream.
A group of us traveled over Kearsarge Pass (11,700’+) and Forrester Pass (13, 200′) to arrive in the upper Kern at Tyndall Creek along the JMT. (I think the general area is also known as the “bighorn plateau.”) I’ve been here on several previous occasions while heading to or circumnavigating Mt. Whitney. While I’ve gone east (to exit over the very rough Shepherd Pass at 12,000′) I’ve not really explored west and north of this area. Our general plan on this trip was to rectify that, specifically by visiting remote and very high Lake South America. After wandering up a mosquito-infested valley, climbing its headwall, and then dropping to a lake just below the saddle we made it to Lake South America. We had originally planned to stay here overnight, but the very barren and rocky surroundings didn’t attract us in the end, so we decided to head on to the west and south.
After a bit of a walk on a somewhat rough trail (which got much rougher later on) we arrived at a series of timberline lakes overlooking the Great Western Divide, which towered above us to the west. There is much I could say about this area, but I’ll limit myself to a few comments… and not name the specific location we visited. We finally found a sandy camping spot between a few lakes and tarns – it was surrounded by stunning alpine views ranging from the lakes themselves and the surrounding rocky meadows and clumps of trees to the jagged and high peaks to our west. The next morning we followed a very faint trail down the canyon, passing almost continuously through astonishing scenery featuring intimate, granite-surrounded meadows and small lakes.
I must go back. It won’t be easy. I’ll want to carry a bit more photography gear than I carried on this trip, and I’ll want to stay a day or two longer. And the location is two to three days from the nearest trailheads, all of which take you over some very high passes.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
(Basic EXIF data is available by “mousing over” large images in blog posts. Leave a comment if you want to know more.)
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
