Tag Archives: stone

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel

Window and Plants

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Lush plants grow around a window of a stone building in Barbizon, France

Window and Plants. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lush plants grow around a window of a stone building in Barbizon, France

Today I continue with my back-and-forth between photographs from a lengthy summer visit to several European countries and a following week-plus backcountry Sierra Nevada photography trip. Today it is back to Europe. (Anyone getting whiplash yet?)

Near the end of our trip we joined members of our extended American and European family for a week at a house in the French countryside near Fontainebleau. We have been doing something like this every other summer for the past few years — we get together, hang out, cook and eat, travel around a bit, and generally have a good and slightly lazy time. To be a bit more specific about our location, we were (just barely) walking distance from the village of Barbizon, which gives the appearance of being a sort of artist community, or at least a place where people attracted to that identity have chosen to live. It is a lovely little village and we visited several times, including near the end of the trip when I made this photograph of the plant-covered window of a local building.

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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: France

Le Cirque de Venise

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Le Cirque de Venise
A stone wall, a weathered door, and an advertisement for a circus, near Barbizon, France

Le Cirque de Venise. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A stone wall, a weathered door, and an advertisement for a circus, near Barbizon, France

Near the end of this past summer’s lengthy travels (from New York to London, to many areas in Europe) we ended up in France, not far from Fontainebleau, where we joined members of our extended family for a week at a big old house we rented. After all of the previous travels from place to place, typically stopping in one city for no more than four nights, it was a relief to stay in one place for a week and to have time to slow down a bit.

Near the end of this stay, one morning we all decided to walk to the nearby town of Barbizon. Like so much in France, this place was virtually unknown to me. We walked through some fields and along a country road to get there, arriving to visit the studio of the artist Millet and to have lunch. Along the way I spotted this sign for what I assume to be a traveling circus.

See top of this page for Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information and more.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Cliff Face, Detail

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Cliff Face, Detail
Abstract forms and colors of a weathered and stained Sierra Nevada cliff

Cliff Face, Detail. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Abstract forms and colors of a weathered and stained Sierra Nevada cliff

As I do almost every summer, I headed into the Sierra Nevada backcountry with a group of friends and photographers over the past week and a half of so. The group has been doing this since about 2001, and I began to work with them nearly a decade ago, eventually moving from showing up as a solo backpacker for a few days to participating fully in the visits. Typically we get packed in to a location with lots of photographic possibilities — a pack string brings in a lot of the gear, while we typically carry in our camera equipment. Once set up we can “work” the surroundings intensively, looking more deeply into the landscape and viewing it in various conditions and light. This provides us with special opportunities to learn the nearby landscape more intimately than if we were just passing through or hiking in and out each day. Equally important, as we live and work together for a week we form a very special little photographic community.

This year we were (again) in the John Muir Wilderness of the Eastern Sierra Nevada. Every place has its own visual personality. In this location high mountains surrounded us and produced several hours of soft, shaded light in the morning and evening, with fill light reflected from surrounding peaks rising into the sunlight…

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fractured Granite

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Fractured Granite
A fractured granite cliff in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Fractured Granite. Sierra Nevada, California. October 9, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A fractured granite cliff in the Eastern Sierra Nevada

I made this photograph on a morning when I was in the eastern Sierra to photograph autumn subject, particularly the annual color change of the aspen trees. Being in a place where I have photographed many times, I quickly dispensed with the familiar (and even iconic) subjects in the area and then, as I like to do, simply wandered slowly with my eyes open, looking for little elements of the larger landscape that caught my eye. Although I have walked past this granite quite a few times, it may be the first time I have photographed it.

Granite (along with, as geologist friends might remind me, rocks informally referred to as granite) is ubiquitous in the Sierra, and is one of the most characteristic features of the Sierra Nevada experience. Not only is there a lot of it, but it has been laid bare by (mostly) glacial action, and it appears in its original locations and in places where the rocks have been moved by water and ice. As a person who has hiked here for decades and who spent a few years as a rock climber, I developed an intimate familiarity with this rock. It can be smooth or rough, uniform in color and texture or interspersed with veins and crystals. It can be freezing cold in winter or benignly warm on a summer day. It may be nearly white, gray, or incorporate a host of color variations. It seems to be solid and unchanging, but there is evidence everywhere that it has been moved and broken and shaped.

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