Tag Archives: shadows

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Aspens and Evening Shadows

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Aspens and Evening Shadows
“Aspens and Evening Shadows” — Long evening shadows creep across aspen groves in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This photograph comes from one of those evenings when I almost packed up and left too soon. At this location there is beautiful late afternoon back-light on aspen groves in the fall, but then the sun quickly drops behind higher peaks and “turns out the lights.” That had already happened on the trees that were my primary subject, and I thought it was time to leave. But hen I noticed that the long shadows from the peaks were stretching across the trees and the rolling hills of this Eastern Sierra landscape.

It is hard to know when to stick around to see what will happen versus when it is time to move on to a different subject. I wish there was a simple rule to apply to this conundrum, but I’ve never discovered it. Sometimes staying is the right choice, but sometimes I stick around and the light just… goes away. And, of course, sometimes when I move on I do encounter something remarkable that I might have missed. However (you saw this coming, right?) I’ve also driven or walked away to look for a better subject only to be stumped.

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: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake in Shadow

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Lake in Shadow
“Lake in Shadow” — Morning light strikes cliffs above a shadowed Sierra Nevada lake.

For more than a decade, during most summers I have spent a solid week in the Sierra Nevada backcountry with fellow photographers, base-camped at various beautiful locations. (Travel and other things have interfered during the past two years.) These trips give us the opportunity to focus on photographing a limited area in a variety of conditions. On these trips we live in one small area for a week, and photograph only what we can walk to, frequently revisiting subjects several times.

This lake was just below our camp, and of course we photographed it many times — morning and night, sunshine, rain, fog, you name it. Most often I hoped for light that would open shadows in the landscape, but on this morning I decided to go with the shade and let portions of the image remain dark. In fact, the luminosity curve of this photograph is weighted strongly to the dark end of the scale. But I think that it captures the quiet mood here as the sun worked its way up the far valley toward “our lake.”

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: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Portugal, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Souvenir Store, Lisbon

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Souvenir Store, Lisbon
“Souvenir Store, Lisbon” — The entrance to a small souvenir store on a backstreet in Lisbon.

I am realizing that I have lots of photographs of these shops in Lisbon — perhaps a series of photographs is in order at some point. We saw many of them on walks from our lodgings in the city. We weren’t too far from the train station, which meant that we were in an area where a lot of things come together — main streets, transportation, business and shopping areas, tourist stuff, neighborhoods, restaurants, with narrow streets packed with people, and these little shops.

If I can generalize, there’s a kind of continuum (and not just in Portugal) that runs form fancy, upscale shopping areas to tiny, improvised, shops like this one. We didn’t go inside, as we were passing by on our way somewhere else, but this distinctly non-fancy shop seemed to sell a little bit of everything, with the tourist-attracting knick-knacks out front.

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: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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Photographs: Europe, Photographs: Spain, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bar Bistec, Sevilla

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Bar Bistec, Sevilla
“Bar Bistec, Sevilla” — Bar Bistec, a cafe-bar in Sevilla, Spain.

On this morning we crossed the wide canal near the old part of Sevilla where we were staying, and wandered through a newer (less-old?) section of town. After visiting the farmer’s market, we walked through an area with shops and restaurants, then followed streets that paralleled the canal and took us into what one well-known travel writer might describe as “workaday” neighborhoods.

This establishment was in one of those areas. To an American it might seem odd that it was, if my memory is correct, almost next door to a large church — but that’s not so uncommon in Europe. I like several things about this subject, including the arrangement of rectangles, the colors, and the signs. But above all else is that intense daytime light of summer in Spain.

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 | Instagram | Flickr | Facebook | Threads | Post | Email

Links: Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Info.

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