Tag Archives: road

Photographs: People, Photographs: Sports

Bob Roll, Tour of California

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Bob Roll, Tour of California

Bob Roll, Tour of California. Sacramento, California. February 14, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Former professional bicycle racer and current cycling commentator Bob Roll near that Astana team van before the start of the prologue stage of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California in Sacramento, California.

I photographed Bob Roll as he queued up more or less with the rest of the crowd to wait for Lance Armstrong to emerge from the Astana team van to warm up before the prologue stage of the 2009 Tour of California. For those who don’t follow cycling, Roll was a professional bicycle racer back in the days of the 7/11 team, the first great American cycling team. Since that time he has become better known as a television bicycle racing announcer working on the Versus broadcasts of major cycling races.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Cycling Week at the Blog

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The Amgen Tour of California comes to my part of the world every February, and I take advantage of the opportunity to shoot a different sort of subject than those more typically found here. So the next week or so may be a sort of “cycling week” at my blog as I post photographs of the first few stages.

Yesterday I attended the first event, the prologue time trial stage in Sacramento, California. While in some ways a time trial can be the least exciting type of cycling race given that it is purely one rider at a time against the clock, on the other hand this type of event provides tremendous opportunities to photograph the riders – and this is largely what I concentrated on yesterday. Before the race I photographed groups of riders doing their pre-race circuits of the course and then I shot a number of them as they warmed up by the team vans. Later, during the race, I picked a few good spots and photographed riders as they came into view one by one.

Today’s stage runs from Davis to Santa Rosa. The original plan was to be at the starting line in Davis and then head on over to Santa Rosa, but the weather today is just plain awful. We’re foregoing the start in Davis but we’ll try to be at the finish line in Santa Rosa when the group comes in later this afternoon.

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Half Dome, Sunset – Olmsted Point

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Half Dome, Sunset - Olmsted Point

Half Dome, Sunset – Olmsted Point. Yosemite National Park, California. September 8, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sunset light on Half Dome as viewed from Olmsted Point along the Tioga Pass Road.

Sometimes I can’t help myself and I have to stop for this classic view when driving back from the Sierra via Tioga Pass Road. I drive past this spot at least a dozen times each season, so I’ve perhaps become a bit jaded – and I’ll only stop when the light seems extra special.

Here the very late light is illuminating Half Dome while the lower canyons have fallen into deep shadows on this late summer evening.

keywords: half dome, olmsted, point, tioga, pass, road, yosemite, national park, evening, sunset, alpenglow, tenaya, canyon, valley, ridge, mountain, peak, scenic, travel, landscape, forest, sierra, nevada, california, usa, stock

Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Fog, Trees, and Rocks at Sunset – Olmsted Point

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Fog, Trees, and Rocks at Sunset - Olmsted Point

Fog, Trees, and Rocks at Sunset – Olmsted Point. Yosemite National Park, California. October 5, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening fog forms over rocky forest near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

Another unexpected photograph from my trip to the eastern Sierra to photograph aspens during the first weekend of October. Late on Sunday afternoon I made a spontaneous change in plans and instead of heading north to return to the Bay Area over Monitor Pass (and photograph the aspens on the top of the pass at sunset) I decided to instead head home over Tioga Pass and through the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite. To be honest, the fact that the drive would be at least an hour shorter was probably the major factor. As I crossed Tioga Pass nothing really caught my attention as a photographic subject so I kept going. I passed through Tuolumne just a bit too late for any of the photos I had in mind – the light was just a bit too far gone on the meadow itself – so again I kept going.

Soon I noticed some thin fog-like clouds forming around some of the higher peaks. It occurred to me that this was probably from moist air from the previous day’s rain/snow condensing as the temperature dropped, and I began to suspect that something interesting and surprising just might happen to the atmosphere. As I arrived at Tenaya Lake a fog bank lay ahead at Olmsted Point. I chuckled to myself as I drove past this famous viewpoint for admiring Half Dome, now with a view that extended about 100 feet into the thick fog. However, a couple hundred yards further up the road I realized that the fog was very thin above this ridge and that the setting sun was softly illuminating the forest and rocky outcroppings beneath the fog. I quickly pulled over, grabbed my pack and tripod and charged up a nearby hillside into the forest, trying to find a spot where a bit of this light was still shining – and realizing that I had only a moment to catch it.

keywords: fog, tree, rock, meadow, boulder, erratic, glacial, brush, mist, sunset, evening, twilight, october, fall, autumn, yosemite, national park, tioga, road, olmsted, point, landscape, scenic, stock, california, usa, mountains, sierra, nevada