Tag Archives: stock

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

Morning, Near Olmsted Point

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Morning, Near Olmsted Point - Morning light on granite and sparse trees near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park
Morning light on granite and sparse trees near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park

Morning, Near Olmsted Point. Yosemite National Park, California. July 28, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Morning light on granite and sparse trees near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park

This is another photograph from 2011 on a late-July trip to the Yosemite high country along Tioga Pass Road. The photo was made in morning light in the general area of Olmsted Point, where a series of granite domes and ridges lines up roughly parallel to Tenaya Canyon and in the morning the brightly back-lit haze can create a sense of spatial depth and mute the details of the formations further away.

I suppose that backlit trees like this one are a bit of a theme for me – yet another Sierra subject I cannot resist photographing! The central tree is, obviously, just one of many thousands of trees right here but since it was the closest one it served as my subject. The tree is set in granite slabs topped with glacial erratics left behind when the last glaciation ended, and the slabs are mostly very solid, making the it all the more amazing that such a large and upright tree can grow here. Another ridge rises in the middle distance, and beyond it yet another ridge whose details are nearly invisible in the morning light.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Central California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Rocks and Surf, Point Lobos

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Rocks and Surf, Point Lobos - Long exposure black and white photograph of offshore rocks, surf, and fog at the Point Lobos State Reserve, California
Long exposure black and white photograph of offshore rocks, surf, and fog at the Point Lobos State Reserve, California

Rocks and Surf, Point Lobos. Point Lobos State Reserve, California. July 21, 2012. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Long exposure black and white photograph of offshore rocks, surf, and fog at the Point Lobos State Reserve, California

This photograph is from last summer and a visit to Point Lobos when I decided to work with very long exposures in daylight muted by coastal fog. A set of these photographs has sat in my raw file collection since then, as I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to render them in the post-processing stage. I used a 9-stop neutral density filter to darken the scene a great deal and permit the very long exposure that allowed the surf to blur and become diffused. However, these filters invariably have an effect on color balance that is not very lovely – they add a slight almost purple cast to the image. As I thought about them as color images, I could not find a color balance that worked – so I put them aside.

Last week, spurred by another rapidly filling hard drive, I began to go through more of my older raw files to see what could be deleted. Indeed, there were quite a few files that could go – duplicates, errors, some images that really will never live up to what I had expected them to be. But as I do every time I engage in this activity, I found several photographs that I had either overlooked originally or which needed to be processed in ways that I hadn’t thought about at the time. It occurred to me that this one might become one of my “minimalist seascape” photographs if I went for a high key interpretation in black and white.

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.

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

Corner View, 50 United Nations Plaza

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Corner View, 50 United Nations Plaza - The curved architecture of the corner of the building at 50 United Nations Plaza, San Francisco.
The curved architecture of the corner of the building at 50 United Nations Plaza, San Francisco.

Corner View, 50 United Nations Plaza. San Francisco, California. August 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The curved architecture of the corner of the building at 50 United Nations Plaza, San Francisco.

This building is located in the Civic Center area of San Francisco. To the east of City Hall – the opposite side from the Opera House, a place with which I am more familiar – is a large plaza, and beyond that as you might walk toward Market Street you may pass by this building, with its classic architecture.

I’m not familiar with the history of the building, though I assume that it might be in some way related to the United Nations Plaza. The building, which occupies most of a block, is currently being refurbished, and portions at the far end of the building are fenced off. This corner, with its columns and curving shape, seems quite formal, especially when juxtaposed with the rest of the City life in this particular area.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees and Granite, Morning Light

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Trees and Granite, Morning Light - First morning light on trees and granite slabs near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.
First morning light on trees and granite slabs near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

Trees and Granite, Morning Light. Yosemite National Park, California. August 12, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

First morning light on trees and granite slabs near Olmsted Point, Yosemite National Park.

I made this photograph a year ago, almost exactly, in August of 2011, while on a trip of several days devoted to photographing the High Sierra, mostly in the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite. A year later I do not remember all of the details of this morning, though I recall that I had gone very early to the Olmsted Point area to photograph the glacial erratic boulders and some rugged trees growing on the granite slabs found in the area. Perhaps this was among the first photographs I made, before heading off to shoot my primary subject, since the series it comes from includes the very first light to strike these trees, while its angle was still small enough to hit the trees but not the rock.

When I came upon this photograph in the old raw file archive this week, one thing that struck me is the fact that it does include a Yosemite icon (seen from an iconic angle that is often photographed), yet that icon is almost an afterthought and most certainly not the primary subject of the photograph. I posted something here yesterday about photographing icons (“Photographing Icons or Not”), and one of the ideas that you might take away from that post is that it is possible to see iconic sights in ways that do not necessarily repeat the familiar iconic views. (Not to fear, I have the iconic view of this subject, too.) I’m willing to bet that I was thinking a whole lot more about the warm first light on the foreground trees, the way it contrasted with the cooler blue tones of the deep canyon and shadowed ridges beyond, and the texture and shapes of the foreground granite slabs that are so characteristic of this part of the Sierra.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.