Tag Archives: sky

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shoreline, Abandoned Dock, Morning

June 14, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An abandoned dock stands along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay in morning light

Things have been very busy recently, limiting my time to go out and shoot. For some time I’ve been looking forward to another of my periodic “personal photo walks” in San Francisco, and I finally had the chance today. My routine is to get up very early and catch a Caltrain to the City, arriving there no later than 7:00 AM. This is a bit before the crowds arrive, and early enough that there is still a lot of good light around. The good light is especially likely long the San Francisco Bay waterfront, where it shine toward the City from across the bay, often through mist or fog and always reflecting on the water.

This time I explored around the fringes of the Mission Bay area. This was formerly a pretty run down location, with lots of empty lots and some abandoned structures. However, recent urban development has come, and many of the formerly empty areas are now construction sites or the sites of very new and recently occupied buildings. I walked past these and looped over towards the waterfront, where some areas are surprisingly “unimproved,” at least so far. Here I found the remnants of several old piers that have been left to decay and gradually tumble into the bay. In this photograph I shot straight into the morning sun, silhouetting the rotting wood, and composing the scene to include a bit of a working pier to the left and a couple of tankers anchored out in the bay beneath the thinning fog bank.

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

Golden Hills, Desert Sky

June 13, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early evening clouds fill the sky above golden hills, Death Valley National Park, California

Today’s photograph is about as much of a contrast with yesterday’s photograph (winter in Yosemite Valley) as you can find in California, though both were made at close to the same time of the year. This photograph comes from the golden hills and broad washes along the east side of Death Valley south of the Furnace Creek Area.

Earlier that afternoon we had arrived in the park for a visit of several days. After getting settled we had a bit of daylight time still in the late afternoon and early evening, so we headed south towards these clouds. (The clouds were perhaps a harbinger of the strange weather we would have later on during our visit, including a full day of very cold weather and even snow high in the Panamint Range.) Many of the hills in Death Valley are not exactly of brilliant colors—this desert is quite different from that of, say, Utah. But in this particular area colorful formations rise from the edge of the Valley, and the rocks that have washed down carry that color out into the Valley… at least if you happen to be there late in the afternoon before the sun drops behind the tall mountains on the other side of the valley.

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

White Faced Ibises, Clouds and Sky

May 20, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of white-faced ibises is silhouetted against early spring evening sky above the San Joaquin Valley

I have what almost amounts to a tradition of making a weeklong visit to Death Valley near the end of March and beginning of April, that time of year when this desert landscape oscillates between winter and summer conditions and when the flowers bloom.. After a week or so in that austere landscape I am usually quite ready to see green and a greater density of living things. I’m also ready to get home! On a typical final day of the trip I do a bit of photography in the morning and then leave the park well before noon and start the long drive home. During the last few years I have made it my practice to leave early enough that I can just make it to one of my favorite San Joaquin Valley bird locations before the sun sets.

It has been a series of drought years in California and this was the worst one so far. When I drove do Death Valley things were still just as dry as we would expect in such a year. But while I was in the park a series of winter storms swept across the state—finally! I saw some rain and snow in DEVA, but by the time I got to the Central Valley is was clear from the puddles and ponds that a real storm had come through. I drove on up highway 99 and turned west toward my destination and found fields that were actually green. And on arriving at the wildlife refuge I was greeted by the smell of damp air and plants and the sounds of birds. What a contrast to Death Valley! Close to dusk we found a large flock of dark-colored birds in the shallow water nearby, and a closer inspection showed them to be white-faced ibises, settling in where the now departed geese would have distracted us from such quiet birds a few weeks or months earlier. As the evening wore on, large groups flew in, circled, and then descended to join the flock… including this group that passed in front of delicate dusk clouds and blue hour sky.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Evening Clouds, Tuolumne Meadows

May 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening Clouds, Tuolumne Meadows

Early season evening clouds above Tuolumne Meadows and snow-capped peaks, Yosemite National Park

Another orbit around the sun; another cycle of summer, autumn, winter, and spring; another Sierra Nevada high country summer season begins to come into view. This year’s seems to come early and leaves me with an uneasy feeling—it never really did feel like we had a winter, aside from a few stray storms here and there. But every season is different and who knows what this one will bring. Regardless, Tioga Pass Road through the Yosemite high country opened this past weekend and the high country once again became accessible, as did the eastern slopes of the Sierra. Every year when that happens, the mountains call and I must go. Sometimes, especially when the pass opens later in the season, I may have a few days and I can stay up there and explore a bit more. Other years, like the one, I have to squeeze in a quick visit between other responsibilities. But I virtually always go during the first weekend when the pass opens, and this event marks the beginning of another season that will likely stretch at least into October, when the snows fall again and the aspens change color.

The pass opened on Friday, but I had other plans and responsibilities. I had other things to do on Saturday, too, so that left Sunday. One of those Saturday activities had me returning home at about midnight, and I managed to get to bed at about 12:30… leaving just enough time for three hours of sleep before my 3:30 alarm went off. I was up, stumbling around the house in the dark to dress and make coffee, and in a half hour or so I was on the road to the Sierra. The sun rose as I entered the foothills, where I stopped to photograph some spring oak trees and green grasses, and while it was probably 7:30 or earlier when I reached the park entrance it already seemed like the day was quite far along. I turned east onto the very familiar highway 120, and eagerly watched for special places I know, looking to see how they were developing this year. Was there water in that pond? Early signs of corn lilies? Water flowing in that creek? The Sierra certainly does look dry, but this was masked a bit by the remains of a snow storm from past week, which covered the ridges with white. Eventually I made it across the range and dropped down to Mono Lake and then drove up a quiet east side canyon to sit and listen to the wind for a while before starting back. I made this photograph during the last hour of daylight in Tuolumne Meadows, as the color of the light changed and the clouds of a passing weather front assembled above the crest.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sky

Shoreline, Abandoned Dock, Morning

Golden Hills, Desert Sky

White Faced Ibises, Clouds and Sky

Evening Clouds, Tuolumne Meadows

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