Tag Archives: soft

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Blue Stairway

May 6, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A blue stairway in a softly lit alcove

In contrast to much of what I have recently shared, this photograph is not a landscape. Or perhaps it is. OK, it is. I think of photographs like this, at least to some extent, as being “urban landscapes.” In many ways (but not all) I see them in ways that are similar to how I see landscape. I’m looking for form and composition, color, effects of light, some sense of the feeling of the place, and often a quality of stillness. I also think that these photographs, like some of my personal favorite landscape photographs, attempt to look at a familiar place in an unfamiliar way. For example, there is almost nothing in this photograph to tell you that it was made in San Francisco, not far at all from some rather iconic views.

Despite the similarities to my landscape photography, there are also some obvious differences. The distinctly non-natural subject is one obvious clue. Perhaps less obvious is that these photographs are not made in the usual natural landscape manner, relying on tripods, remote releases, and sometimes plenty of time to think and consider. Instead, these are virtually always shot handheld with a small camera. I’m generally on the move when I photograph these subjects, typically pausing only long enough to frame and trip the shutter, and then I continue along. In fact, I barely broke my stride as I passed this scene and made this photograph.

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

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Scrim, Bars, Shadows

February 11, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Winter tree branches cast soft shadows on scrim window covering

I was tempted to write little or nothing about this photograph and just let it stand as is. But that would break with my tradition of posting something about every photograph! (Apologies to those of you who aren’t fans of the writing! ;-) The subject is the conjunction of a shadow and the bars of a window.

The photograph illustrates, perhaps, the usefulness of bringing a camera along even in situations where photography isn’t your main goal. We were in New York for a week in late December, and on this freezing cold winter day we did what so many do on such days — we headed for the warmth of a museum, in this case the Metropolitan Museum. Our primary goal was to see the large David Hockney show, but there were other things to see as well. At one point, while considering what to do next, we ended up in a familiar gallery off in the distant reaches of this large and confusing museum. At one end of the room was a stairwell. Southwest facing windows were covered with a sort of scrim that muted the direct light, and winter-bare tree branches cast shadows on it.

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

Desert Mountains, Evening Light And Haze

April 25, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft light and haze in the evening high in the Panamint Mountain Range, Death Valley National Park

From a high point along the ridge of the Panamint Mountains, there are stupendous views in all directions — north and south along the spine of the range, east into Death Valley and on to Black Mountains and beyond, west across the lower Panamint hills as they drop toward the Panamint Valley only to rise again and eventually culminate in the Sierra Nevada crest. Early and late in the day the low angle light sweeps across the terrain and reveals large and small features of the landscape.

On this evening it was quite hazy, probably because high winds had whipped up sandstorms in lower elevation areas. This dust filled atmosphere can seem to glow from within when back-lit, and as I pointed my camera down toward these western slopes I began to see that luminescence. In a way there is nothing special in this photograph — a nearby ridge, and intervening valley, and more ridges in the distance. But the further ridge is still in the warm-colored, evening light, whose color contrasts with the cooler blue tones of the shadowed ridges.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Cedar Breaks, Evening

February 24, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Soft evening light on the formations of Cedar Breaks National Monument

This was only my second photography trip to Utah — the first had been not long before this when we visited in spring. (When I was very young, my family used to drive through Utah on trips between California and the Midwest, but I was hardly aware of the landscape.) This time we aimed for autumn, leaving the eastern Sierra at the beginning of October and heading across Nevada (not the usual route!) to western Utah and staying near Cedar Breaks National Monument for a few days at the start of our visit.

I did not know much about Cedar Breaks, and one thing that surprised me was the abrupt break between the wildly colorful and sculpted pink rock of the canyon and the flat and relatively plain high country to the east. A road travels along this boundary, and it took me a while to figure out how to photograph the area — the high flatlands seemed plain and the canyon dropped away into the western light. But that light from the west turned out to be the key. Near the end of our visit we were along the southern edge of the chasm late in the day when high, thin clouds softened that light from the west, and from here, rather than photographing straight into it, I could focus on the textures and colors made visible by the light sweeping across from the left.

As you consider this beautiful scene, also consider that such areas in Utah are currently threatened by radical anti-environmental Utah politicians who seem hell-bent on giving away our shared public lands to special interest extraction industries. It is simply astonishing that people who live in a place of such beauty could be so blind to it. Consider supporting the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in their work to defend these treasures.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: soft

Blue Stairway

Scrim, Bars, Shadows

Desert Mountains, Evening Light And Haze

Cedar Breaks, Evening

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