Tag Archives: sun

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Trees and New Snow

March 17, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Trees with new snow in sun and shadow at the base of a Yosemite Valley cliff

During this weeklong late-February visit to Yosemite National Park (thanks to an artist-in-residency from Yosemite Renaissance) the weather was quite cold, even for the Sierra Nevada in winter, and there was light snow at times throughout the period. In many ways, this is almost idea for photography in Yosemite Valley — although the snow and cold complicate the process of making photographs, they also have some beneficial effects. Obviously, the snow changes the appearance of the landscape in many ways, and the cold weather tends to reduce the number of people who are out and about.

It had snowed a few inches in the Valley since the previous afternoon. (The storm was varied, and I work up to considerably more snow than that where I was staying, outside the Valley.) Because of the unusual cold — it barely got out of the teens — the snow stayed “dry” and didn’t immediately melt out of the trees. In the photograph you can see a bit of snow in the meadow on the Valley floor, but there was more up higher, and the trees ascending the further slope all were fringed with it.

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

Museum Windows, Shadows

February 26, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Silhouetted figures, windows, and beams of light, Metropolitan Museum

This is a second “take” on a location I photographed between Christmas and New Year’s Day last year, when we spent a week in New York. It was an exceptionally cold week, and on a few days we decided that we really needed to find indoor activities. (On other days we defied the cold and wind and walked all over Manhattan anyway.) One of the reliable options is a visit to a museum, so we headed to the Metropolitan, where we wanted to see the David Hockney show. You can’t see it in this photograph, but the museum was packed with other visitors who were also looking for a warm, indoor option.

We passed through this room twice, on our way to and from a section of the museum with relatively modern art that we wanted to view. This space is really essentially a very wide walkway, though I suspect that it could also be used for exhibits at times. The row of tall windows along the southern wall opened to Central Park and, further away, the Manhattan skyline. Lots of people took advantage of the wide window sills as a place to sit. The resulting effects of light were intriguing — backlit people in a variety of poses, the faint image of the park and city outside, and the alternative effects of shadows and reflections from the bright light streaming through the windows.

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

Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Hair, Bus, Sun

December 13, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A street vignette in San Francisco

The camera is tilted. The guy is hanging off the edge of the frame. The sun is blown out in the center of the sky. It was underexposed. Darned bus appeared in the frame. That’s street photography, and I like it. There isn’t a whole lot to say about the photograph itself — or perhaps there is more to say that will fit into two paragraphs. The fellow caught my attention as we were walking along. As he passed, with the sun backlighting his wild hair, I had just enough time to squeeze off a shot without even raising the camera to my eyes.

Doing street photography reminds me of an important thing, namely the crucial role that several things play in photography, things that don’t often get quite enough attention among some photographers, especially those who tend to gravitate to landscape photography and who (with good reasons!) like to attend to the careful calculation of many aspects of picture-making. (Don’t worry, I like to take those things into consideration, too.) The things too often left unsaid have to do with the role of luck and with the importance of being able to respond very quickly, even intuitively, at times. We simply cannot control all aspects of a photograph. In a few situations — perhaps working in the studio with inanimate objects — we can come rather close, but in almost all other sorts of photography it is as much about finding a thing and then recording it in the best way possible during the time we have to work with it. Clearly, this photograph is highly reliant on things I could not control. But, honestly, the same could be said about wildlife photography, and even about many landscape photographs.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Trees, Morning Light

March 21, 2017 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunlight illuminates trees on a spring morning at Pinnacles National Park

On this first return visit to Pinnacles National Park in about three decades — the last time I visited the place it was still called Pinnacles National Monument — I approached from the west through the small Salinas Valley town of Soledad, heading east into the low, grass-covered hills, ascending wooded valleys, and then passing through vineyard country where I had my first good views of the pinnacles. Until that point much of the drive did not bring back any memories, but that view was much as I remembered. I continued a bit further, passed the expected national park entrance sign, arrived at the kiosk, and went into the nearby ranger station to show my permit. This faculty seemed new to me, and it certainly had not been there years back when we simply drove up the end of the road and camped. This time I got back on the road and continued toward the end of the road.

One expects to simply ascend to the end of this road, but the route surprised me by descending into the valley where that old campground (now gone over twenty years) was once located. Along this descent the road passed by the beautiful California “impossible green” spring landscape of new grass, budding trees, and a few wildflowers. At one point the road turned to the right and descended, and in front of me was a high ridge with back-light flowing over its summit and striking the trees from behind. Those who know me know that I’m completely unable to resist back-lit trees, so I pulled over and paused to make a few photographs before continuing the short distance to the trailhead.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: sun

Trees and New Snow

Museum Windows, Shadows

Hair, Bus, Sun

Trees, Morning Light

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