Tag Archives: surface

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Pond, Trees, Reflected Winter Sky

July 22, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A seasonal wetlands pond reflects a tree and foggy winter sky

This is the second in this sequence of three photographs that I’m sharing this week. All three were made nearly a half year ago on a foggy winter day in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where I had gone primarily to photograph migratory birds — geese, cranes, herons, egrets, and more. Although I knew what attracted me making photographs of these three scenes, as I wrote in the commentary on the first of them, I couldn’t quite figure out how to “see” them as final photographs back then, and they sat in my raw file archive until I recently reviewed this older images and saw how I could work with them.

There is a thread (among many) in my photographs of shooting very brightly lit fog, clouds, mist, and haze. I love the way that these atmospheric conditions can seem to glow from within when the conditions are right, and I’m especially attracted to such light when it is both slightly transparent and so brightly lit that it is almost hard to look directly into it. In these three minimalist landscape photographs I have pushed things back toward that very bright end of the luminosity scale. There are some black tones in this image, but they are very small, and almost everything else is much brighter.

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

Pond, Fog, and Sky

July 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A few migratory birds on the reflecting surface of a wetland pond on a foggy morning

This is one of a series of three photographs that will appear here during the next few days. As I post each of them I will have a bit more to say about the ideas behind the series, which means that story will be incomplete until they are all posted. (It may remain a bit incomplete even after I post them all, but that is a different issue.) I’ll use the first photograph to say something about the circumstance that led to them. I’ll also point out that if your taste runs to big, monumental, extravagant landscapes… these don’t work that way. They are, I think, much more quiet, subtle, and introspective images. I have made small test prints, and I think that these may perhaps lend themselves to large prints on matte paper.

Nearly a half-year ago I was in California’s San Joaquin Valley, with the primary goal being to photograph migratory birds, but also with the companion goal of photographing the minimalist landscape, the expansive sky, and the changing winter atmosphere. At one point I saw a scene that was mostly sky — the actual sky and its reflection in large, still wetlands ponds — and light diffused by tule fog. I had a sort of intuitive idea about what I saw in these scenes (which I may describe more in a follow-up post) but I wasn’t quite certain how to interpret them in the post-camera part of the process. I looked at them shortly after making the images and then left them behind as I moved on to other work. Very recently I was going back through older photographs, came upon these, and a way to interpret them as black and white photographs immediately seemed obvious. I’ll write a bit more about that soon, but here I’ll end with the thought that sometimes photographs have to “age” a bit before I/we can see them for what they are and what they might be.

Events, Gallery, News, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

A Reprise: “Fractured Granite, Reflections”

February 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Fractured Granite, Reflection, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks — “Fractured Granite, Reflection” — The base of a rugged granite wall reflected in the still surface of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake

Today I am reprising a photograph that I shared previously since it is part of the Yosemite Renaissance XXIX exhibit opening this weekend in the Yosemite Museum Gallery in The Valley.

An exhibition of contemporary art of Yosemite and the Sierra
Saturday, March 1 to Sunday, May 11, 2014
Yosemite Museum Gallery, Yosemite National Park

The first event of the show is tonight…

The public is invited to the
Awards Reception, Friday, February 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM

Perhaps I’ll see you there!

Now, to the text of the original post, plus a more recent addition…

The base of a rugged granite wall reflected in the still surface of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake

A few days ago I returned from a 9-day trip into the back-country of Kings Canyon National Park. I was one of a group of four photographers who traveled to a remote location at about 11,000′, where we remained for more than five days, photographing the surrounding terrain morning and evening. We followed the common routine of such work – up before dawn and off to investigate and photograph some valley or lake, back by mid or late morning for breakfast, generally hanging out and doing camp chores during the midday period when the light is often less exciting, then back out in the late afternoon for a few more hours of exploration and photography before returning to camp for a post-sunset dinner. Unlike a typical backpack trip, where one rarely stays in the same place for long, we remained in the same camp for six nights, allowing us to really get to know the surrounding area very well.

With so much time, we were frequently able to return to places that we had already visited – perhaps coming back in the evening after a morning visit, returning to try again to catch a subject that didn’t have the right light the first time, or shooting the subject in various conditions ranging from clear skies to rain. This bit of interesting rock was next to a lake that I walked to on a number of occasions, and on this morning I arrived when the lake was still in shadow but illuminated by light reflected from nearby rock faces. Because it was so early the air was very still, allowing me to photograph this very sharp reflection of the fractured granite cliff where it entered the water. A bit of vegetation just above the waterline has taken on early fall colors.

Addendum: It occurred to me last week that there is a (perhaps tenuous?) connection between this photograph – with its theme of a vertical rock face above placid water – and this one by Ansel Adams that I had an early connection to: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/photographs/ansel-adams-lake-precipice-frozen-lake-and-5056399-details.aspx – I have a personal connection to the place, which I wrote about here: https://gdanmitchell.com/2010/01/14/a-photograph-exposed-submerged-boulders-precipice-lake

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.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Tree and Fog, Dawn

February 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A solitary tree reflected in the still surface of a San Joaquin Valley pond beneath winter dawn sky

This in another of those photographs that reminds me that much of what happens in a photograph is not subject to planning. We had traveled to the Central Valley to photograph migratory birds and the flat and often atmospheric landscape of this area, and we were anxious to be here since these seasonal conditions are not likely to last a whole lot longer this year. It was crystal clear as we drove into the valley but, not unexpectedly, we began to encounter thick ground fog ten or fifteen minutes before reaching our goal. It was still dark when we arrived, with just a hint of coming light to the east, and soon friends joined us and we started looking for photographic possibilities.

Our friends Michael and Claudia drove ahead as we readied our cameras, and by the time we caught up with them I saw that Michael had left the vehicle and taken off for the edge of a nearby pond, were he was barely visible silhouetted in the fog against the very early light in the sky. I made a “photographer at work” picture of him in this scene (shared here earlier), and only then started to wander that direction of myself. Unless it is the sort of fog that sits heavily and doesn’t move, fog is one of the most ephemeral and transitory atmospheric conditions. It changes continually, becoming thicker and thinner, transmitting more or less light, becoming thinner here and thicker there, and glowing with varying levels and colors of light. When I reached the edge of the water it was thick and glowing with deep pinkish-purple colors of dawn light. I found a composition that included a solitary tree and some foreground reeds and made a few photographs. This one was just a moment later in the series, but by now the fog had thinned slightly to provide a view of higher clouds to the east and the intense colors had become more subtle.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: surface

Pond, Trees, Reflected Winter Sky

Pond, Fog, and Sky

A Reprise: “Fractured Granite, Reflections”

Tree and Fog, Dawn

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