Tag Archives: three

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Sandstone Towers, Early Evening

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Sandstone Towers, Early Evening - Early evening back-light on sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park
Early evening back-light on sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park

Sandstone Towers, Early Evening. Arches National Park, Utah. April 5, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Early evening back-light on sandstone towers and desert terrain, Arches National Park.

I made this photograph within minutes of entering Arches National Park for the very first time. I have written before that this was my very first time photographing in Utah – yes, embarrassing, but true! The downside of this is that I now really wish that I had taken the time to travel here much earlier. But the upside is that I had the rare experience of encountering a completely new and, for me, unanticipated landscape for the first time.

Before departing for Utah – where we visited a veritable smorgasbord of locations – I had done almost no research beyond figuring out where the nearest lodging was. In fact, even once we were in the state I was still figuring out how to get from one location to another. There are perhaps several reasons for this approach, but one was that I do not necessarily want to go to a new place with overly strong ideas about what I should photograph nor about how I should photograph it. I prefer to get there, look around, try to get the “feeling” of the place, and begin making the photographs that I see. We arrived in Moab late in the day and checked into a motel. There was still some light left so we figured we should go somewhere… and Arches is very close! So the decision was made, and off we went. By the time we reached the Park Avenue area not far from the entrance I was stunned by what I was seeking. (It helped that we arrived at the beginning of “golden hour,” but I digress…) There were huge sandstone walls, thin fins of rock, tall towers, some with boulders perched on top – this seemed about as close to an “impossible landscape” as any I have seen. Frankly, it was overwhelming. We passed Park Avenue and drove ahead a bit to where the view opened up to this astonishing panorama, at which point we pulled out and I began making photographs, including this one that includes towers and fins backlit by the late afternoon light under thin clouds.

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

Door Number Three

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Door Number Three - A loading dock door (#3) and a dilapidated and worn side door in a concrete wall, San Francisco.
A loading dock door (#3) and a dilapidated and worn side door in a concrete wall, San Francisco.

Door Number Three. San Francisco, California. April 20, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A loading dock door (#3) and a dilapidated and worn side door in a concrete wall, San Francisco.

There is not a whole lot to write about this photograph, except that it is another in a sequence of photographs that I made in a small alley off of the Embarcadero in San Francisco, an alley that extends between buildings toward the waterfront and which has often been locked up when I have walked by there previously. Since it and several similar alley ways were open on this morning, I took the opportunity to wander into them and photograph some of the old buildings that sit on these waterfront piers, focusing mostly on small details.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Three Tule Elk, Grassland

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Three Tule Elk, Grassland - Three tule elk grazing along the headlands area at Point Reyes National Seashore.
Three tule elk grazing along the headlands area at Point Reyes National Seashore.

Three Tule Elk, Grassland. Point Reyes National Seashore, California. May, 30, 2011. © Copyright 2011 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three tule elk grazing along the headlands area at Point Reyes National Seashore.

Although I was certainly aware that there are tule elk herds at Point Reyes National Seashore, I was not thinking about them when we encountered this group. We had driven out to the Point Reyes lighthouse and other areas at the extreme end of the peninsula, and had then stopped at Drakes Beach on the return trip. Finishing up at the beach, we got back in the car and headed up the hill towards the main road. As we reached an area near the top of the hill I thought I saw something moving off to the side, but I initially failed to recognize what I was seeing because the possibility of such animals in this place was not on my mind. I thought I was perhaps seeing a fence or something similar, but I couldn’t make sense out of why the fence would be moving!

A moment later we were a bit closer and it was obvious that a small herd of the tule elk were grazing very close to the fence along the road. I got out of the car and quietly attached a long lens to my camera and began to photograph these animals. The lighting and other circumstances were nearly perfect. It was very late in the day and the golden hour light had just started, and the backdrop was either the rolling hills you see here or, if I moved a bit to one side, some higher hills further to the west. This group of three large animals was moving, along with other animals not included in this shot, away from the road and further out into the meadows. As the three of them lined up in parallel, for a moment one swung its head around and looked directly towards me.

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.

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

America’s Pastime

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America's Pastime - Baseball fans along the outer walkways of San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park, with scoreboard, commercial messages, and twilight sky.

America’s Pastime. San Francisco, California. May 26, 2009. © Copyright 2009 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Baseball fans along the outer walkways of San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park, with scoreboard, commercial messages, and twilight sky.

This photograph comes from a couple of years ago, and is one that I “found” again recently during a scan though a half dozen or so years worth of old files. I tend to be rather cautious about deleting old files, but I finally decided that some of the older files really not worth keeping – and the side benefit of cleaning out some of the photographic cobwebs is that I often rediscover photographs that I had forgotten.

We go to a few San Francisco Giants games every season. While I like the baseball, other things also draw my attention. In addition to the garlic fries and beer (!), AT&T Park also provides a lot of interesting photographic opportunities. At some point during every game I tend to just wander around the facility and see what might make an interesting photograph. Most often I use the elevated vantage points around the park to photograph San Francisco and the Bay, but sometimes I also photograph subjects within the stadium, too.

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.