This photograph comes from a visit to Southern Utah with a couple of photographer friends some years ago. We took a week to make a loop through the southern part of the state that took in Cottonwood Canyon, the Escalante area, and a few days in the Capitol Reef neighborhood. That latter location is where I made this photograph of a juniper tree in front of a massive sandstone cliff face.
Continue reading Tree, Sandstone Cliff
Every so often I think about how photographers captured images of fall “color” in the era of black and white photography, and I have to try my hand at it once again. Obviously the usual approach — finding some brilliant color and then emphasizing it in the photograph — won’t work here. Instead, contrast with darker surroundings could be one way to evoke the brilliance of autumn foliage.
Although this small black oak appears alone in the photograph, it has other oak neighbors nearby. What sets it apart apart is that it grows against a backdrop of a very dark and thick conifer forest. I’ve watched this tree for years, and the contrast can be quite compelling in the fall.
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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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Most of my landscape photographs include little or no evidence of human presence. But sometimes including a human figure can transform a photograph. (I suggest obscuring the figure with the tip of your finger to see how much it changes things.) The person obviously provides a focal point, but also invites viewers to imagine themselves in the scene.
I did not set out to include people in my photographs of Lake Manly. In fact, I positioned myself at the very edge to the lake so that I could include uninterrupted reflections. But this person walked out on a small peninsula that was barely above the water level. At first I was mildly irritated… but I soon realized that this simply gave me a different sort of photographic opportunity.
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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.
It is always a pleasure to visit the Mono Basin and its namesake lake, especially in the early morning when it is often still and quiet. I was there last week, dropping down one morning from a camp high up near the Sierra Crest. When I arrived I saw only one other car, and ts occupant was nowhere to be seen — it was as if I had the entire basin to myself!
I arrived well before sunrise and continued photographing right into the blue light of early morning. It was calm and the water reflected the blue of sky and distant mountains. I used a long lens to focus on a small section of those mountains, aligning them with a single tufa tower far out in the water.
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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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(All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.)
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