Tag Archives: texture

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shadows on Parking Lot Wall

June 22, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Shadows from light fall across a parking lot wall.

A photograph made on a walk with a body and a 50mm lens and not much else – a walk from my home. This wall has often intrigued me, as have these small lamps up near the roof line. On this day I was out in the “terrible light” time of the day – midday, when shadows are almost as close to vertical as they get around here. Not only was I attracted to the interesting slight diagonals of the long shadows, but also to the colors of weathered green paint, deep blue sky, and the messy textures of the parking lot.

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.

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

Lodgepole Grove and Boulders – Lembert Dome

June 12, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Glacial erratics and a grove of lodgepole trees along the lower slopes of Lembert Dome, Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park.

As I drove down into the Tuolumne Meadows area from Tioga Pass in the early evening I caught a brief glimpse of some interesting diffused light on boulders lying across the lower slopes of Lembert Dome and decided to stop. On a typical high-season summer evening this would be a very crowded place, but on this early June evening most people had left and I had it almost to myself.

By the time I parked and unloaded my gear and walked up this slope the light was not quite what I had seen from the car. The clouds to the west had thickened a bit and the glow that I had originally seen in the light was dissipating. I decided to stay to see if the light would come back, since I could see that the clouds might move enough to let the scene brighten a bit. In the end I didn’t get the light I had in mind, but I think this photograph may serve as a study that let me work out a few things I’ll do differently when I return to shoot this subject, perhaps later this summer.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM at 87mm
ISO 200, f/16, 1/15 second

keywords: yosemite, national, park, sierra, nevada, mountain, spring, nature, lembert, dome, glacial, erratic, polish, rock, boulder, lodgepole, tamarack, pine, grove, trees, evening, light, late, slope, texture, landscape, nature, california, usa, north america, lichen, stock

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bunker Walls, Mare Island

June 3, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Concrete bunker walls with painted sheet metal panels in evening light – Mare Island Naval Ship Yard.

I think I’ll go ahead and classify this as a night photograph, though it is on the margin of what qualifies. If you notice from the technical data that it is a 30 second exposure, you may be more convinced. Almost every time I do night photography at the historic Mare Island Naval Ship Yard across the water from Vallejo, California I start near this collection of concrete bunkers near the so-called “historic core” of the ship yard. I’ve long been intrigued by these mysterious looking structures and the foliage that now is beginning to grow around and top of them, but it has been difficult to figure out the right light for shooting them. On this visit we gathered at about 8:00 p.m. which happened to be a few minutes before sunset. As twilight came on it seemed like I might get an interesting combination of fading light from the dusk sky and some artificial light, so I wandered off among the bunkers and shot for a while. The painted-out grafitti was something that I hadn’t see here previously, but the paint patterns in tones of blue – augmented by the blue-ish evening light – seemed to make an interesting contrast with the rough and weathered texture of the concrete walls.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM at 65mm
ISO 200, f/16, 30 seconds

keywords: mare, island, naval, ship, yard, vallejo, california, usa, north america, historic, night, photography, minsy, bunker, wall, concrete, cement, metal, plate, sheet, paint, blue, gray, texture, weathered, dilapidated, worn, old, historic, panorama, grafitti, evening, light, stock, industrial, urban, stock

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Zabriskie Point Detail, Gullies and Folds

April 25, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Zabrisksie Point Detail, Gullies and Folds — Zabriskie Point Detail, Gullies and Folds

Black and white photograph of patterns of gully and hills in bright daytime light at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.

Here I decided to try a black and white high key approach to this generally very bright scene shot not in the typical early morning time frame, but about two hours or so after the middle of the day. I like the way that darker, shadowed wedge of hill on the right sits in the middle of the curving line of the gully as outlined by the lighter face in the full sun. As with several other photographs I’ve posted recently from this area, I used a rather long focal length and composed an image from a very small detail of the scene in the folded hills below Zabriskie Point.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Technical Data:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM at 330mm
ISO 100, f/16, 1/80 second

keywords: zabriskie, point, death valley, national, park, california, usa, north america, desert, geology, folds, gully, earth, hill, bright, day, daytime, light, shadow, pattern, texture, curve, angle, black and white, monochrome, travel, scenic, landscape, nature, high key, stock, southern

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