Tag Archives: shadow

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

Light on Granite

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Light on Granite
A gesture of light falls across an irregularity in the granite face of a Yosemite cliff.

Light on Granite. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A gesture of light falls across an irregularity in the granite face of a Yosemite cliff.

There is a tendency for people to regard the landscape as a fixed and even a permanent thing. The mountain will be there when you go back to it in a year or ten or a hundred, so the photograph “captures” a thing that is unchanging. This is, of course, incorrect, and on multiple levels. Supposedly permanent things change constantly — in fact, the forms by which we know them today are the result of profound forces of change that are ongoing. (One reason that climbers wear helmets is that rocks fall…) But changes on much shorter scales are of tremendous interest to those who photograph (or just like to view) than landscape. They range from annual (what is it like [i]this[/i] year?) to seasonal. Some of them obviously occur on a daily basis — and photographers think about those a lot. Light and atmosphere vary in profound and often remarkable ways.

In so many cases, timing is everything. For some, calculating that timing is a key. I just read a friend’s report on a night photograph that he had “figured out” over a year ago — it required him to be in a certain place during a narrow window of time with conditions that were just right. I am impressed! For others — including my friend — even more critical is being attuned to what is happening right now or in the next few minutes or hours and then being ready to respond. I share all of this here with this photograph as the effect of light on this granite face was tremendously transitory. The time between the bulk of the face falling into shadow (and leaving the thin strip in sun) and the complete loss of light was perhaps measured in seconds, and certainly little more than a minute. (This is another photograph from my artist-in-residency sponsored by Yosemite Renaissance this past winter and spring.)

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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Dunes, Evening Light and Shadows

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Dunes, Evening Light and Shadows
A simply composition of sand dunes, evening light, and shadows

Dunes, Evening Light and Shadows. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A simple composition of sand dunes, evening light, and shadows

This is, obviously, a very simple, minimalist composition, made among the sand dunes of Death Valley National Park in the early spring.

We had wandered out onto the dunes near the end of the day, with a plan that allowed sufficient time to reach our goal while light remained, and even to do a bit of photography along the way. During the final few minutes of the day that light changes very quickly, with the color warming, the shadows deepening… and all of a sudden the light is gone.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Dunes, Blowing Sand

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Dunes with blowing sand in afternoon light, Death Valley National Park

Dunes, Blowing Sand. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dunes with blowing sand in afternoon light, Death Valley National Park

For this photograph I returned to my file on as-yet-unfinished images from this year’s end-of-March visit to Death Valley. We were there for the better part of a week, visiting various areas of the park ranging from some quite popular spots (such as the dunes in this scene) to some that were a bit more off the beaten track and which required some effort to get to. The latter included some abandoned backcountry habitations and some dead-end roads into various canyons.

This scene is a fairly accessible one, though we came at it from a slightly different direction. We also arrived here in conditions that were a bit less than ideal, at least for walking into sand dunes, namely a lot of strong wind and blowing sand. I made the photograph when the sun was a bit lower in the sky, and its back-lit the dust-filled atmosphere and the little ribbons of blowing sand along the top ridges of the dunes.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Death Valley, Mountains, Morning

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Death Valley, Mountains, Morning
Morning light on Death Valley and the base of the Panamint Mountain Range

Death Valley, Mountains, Morning. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on Death Valley and the base of the Panamint Mountain Range

A few recent photographs here have focused on the intimate landscapes of Death Vally canyons. This one leaves the canyon and moves out into the open, looking from the eastern mountains across valley to the base of the Panamint range on the other side. We had driven up in to these mountains in the morning after first photographing dawn from the valley. Here we could watch the morning light traverse the valley — in the photograph it still had not made it to the low hills below our position.

At about the time of my first visits to Death Valley I had also made my first trips to Alaska. It may seem odd, given their different climates, but it struck me that the two places have a lot in common. Most of all, in both places I experiences huge spaces and immense quiet and stillness in ways that I had not really known before. (I rarely experience this in the Sierra, even above timberline, since the distances are smaller and somewhere in the landscape there will be a tree.) In Death Vally, it is hard to make sense of the scale of the landscape. The combination of huge distances, tremendously large features, and a dearth of objects of known size conspire to confuse us. Look across flats to a barren mountain and its valleys, it might seem that you could just walk there. You could, perhaps, but it might take many days.

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