Tag Archives: tree

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

Box Elder with Sparse Leaves

June 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The last autumn leaves on a box elder tree against a dark wall of Escalante Canyon, Utah

On a very cold and somewhat cloudy day in late October we explored portions of the Escalante River in Utah. This was a tough day for shooting! Not only was it cold – it was trying to snow by the end of the day – but it was also very windy, making photography of cottonwood and box elder trees and other vegetation a real challenge.

In places the river twists and turns, first going one way and permitting sun down to the river, then abruptly turning in a share s-curve and heading back the other direction. Then, as they say, “lather, rinse, repeat.” The back and forth winding course of the river continues. As we passed through one of the sharp bends, beneath very tall cliffs and in deep shade, we had to wade across the river as it flowed next to this sandstone wall. Tucked up against the wall and growing from rocky ledges were several trees, including this one that still retained just a few autumn leaves.

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: Abstract, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

My Kitchen Window

June 4, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The view through blinds hanging outside my kitchen window.

Yup. My kitchen window. Why, you might wonder, did I make this photograph? I think there might be three reasons.

First, I’ve often said that I believe that I can find something to photograph within a few feet of anyplace I might find myself. A few photographer friends could tell you stories about me shooting from basically one spot for, on occasion, hours. Right now I’m recalling a meeting with a friend in Death Valley. We went to photograph a beautiful canyon area that I had overlooked and which she wanted to show me. We set up to shoot – I was on top of a small rise. As she ran around discovering this and that and the other fascinating thing, I continued to shoot from my original spot, perhaps for as long as an hour. It’s not that I don’t like to move. I can hike as well as the next photographer. But sometimes I can find so much in a small area that I don’t want to move. And I sure didn’t have to move much at all for this shot. I didn’t even have to leave the house!

Second, and speaking of house, there is a bit of a tradition among some photographers of making photographs in their immediately living environment. Here I’m thinking of a post from, if I recall, Cole Weston that I saw recently in which he shared photographs from seemingly mundane places… including his house and maybe even his bedroom. I believe that Huntington Witherill made the initial photographs for many of his beautiful digital manipulations of flowers in a spot in his home. And on and on. So, what the heck, a shot from my home. (Compared to these other photographers, I have to admit that my “home-grown” photographs have a way to go!)

Third, I had a new camera and I was anxious to try it out. The camera is a bit of a departure from the gear I usually use. (Typically I shoot with a full-frame DSLR system.) Because of some situations in which I want to travel and shoot light and fast, I decided to pick up a Fujifilm X-E1 along with a small set of lenses. This is a small mirrorless “rangefinder style” camera with similarly small lenses. (You can read more about the camera and my initial impressions here: “Fujifilm X-E1: From DSLR to Mirrorless. Hint: I like it.”) So this was probably just about the first photograph I made with that camera.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Dogwood Flowers, Rain

May 31, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late spring rain on dogwood flowers, Portland, Oregon

We made a brief visit to Portland, Oregon over the Memorial Day holiday, and – surprise! – it rained! This was actually a welcome development for those of us who live in parched California, where we are in the second year of drought conditions. We spent most of our Portland time in the downtown area, predominantly between the main downtown and the Pearl district – where there are lots of interesting things to see, good food to eat… and, of course, Powell’s books. On the final morning we ventured out a bit further to an area of north Portland where we visited the beautiful St. Johns Bridge over the Willamette River. We wandered down below the span and its gothic-looking support towers, where we found lots of vegetation including some very lush dogwood blooms.

There is also a bit of a technical story behind this photograph. I usually shoot with a full frame Canon system, using a variety of lenses and mostly working from the tripod. But that is a lot of gear to carry on a trip like this one that was not primarily about photography. (Though, to some extent, virtually all of my travels are at least partially about photography!) So I left behind the full-on system and instead carried my Fujifilm X-E1 Digital Camera, along with the Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4 XF R Lens and the Fujifilm XF 14mm f/2.8 R Ultra Wide-Angle Lens. The camera is a mirrorless “rangefinder style” body that brings to mind the classic rangefinder film cameras. This makes for a very small and light package – and this photograph was made handheld using the 35mm prime. While my main goals with this camera are more likely to involve street or travel photography, I’m quite pleased with how it performed in this nature shot.

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

Tree, Fog, Dawn Sky

May 29, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A lone tree on pasture land of a foggy late-winter morning with pre-dawn clouds, San Joaquin Valley

Back near the beginning of March in this year that seems to have brought an early end to winter I headed out to the Central Valley to do what was likely my last migratory bird photography of the season. When I left the San Francisco Bay Area well before dawn for the trip out to the valley the skies were clear, and I was just a bit disappointed in that I prefer at least a bit of fog for this subject. The fog gods must have heard me, since as I neared my first location in a low-lying and often wet area of the valley, fog began to collect just before sunrise. It was that wonderful sort of fog that is almost opaque, but which moves around and changes enough that at least some of the time nearby subjects are visible and it is possible to see early morning clouds in the sky above.

Although my plan was to photograph birds, at first I didn’t see the birds I was most interested in (sandhill cranes and Ross’s geese), so I kept moving and eventually ended up in this flat pasture area where a few isolated trees stood along on newly green ground, with groves of trees beyond and the soft shapes of early morning clouds overhead. This soft light is a special feature of this area in the cool, damp season, and it characterizes my experience with this place. Before long the fog began to thin, the sun came out, and I found birds to photograph.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: tree

Box Elder with Sparse Leaves

My Kitchen Window

Dogwood Flowers, Rain

Tree, Fog, Dawn Sky

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