Tag Archives: trees

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Pedestrian, Bus Stop, Street

July 8, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A pedestrian walks past a bus stop along a San Francisco street

Living a short train ride away, I get to photograph in the streets of San Francisco on a fairly regular basis. The street is always a laboratory for exploring color and shape, light, people, architecture, urban landscape, and more. One of the benefits, in my view, of this kind of photography is that it almost forces one to think and respond quickly and intuitively, sharpening the instincts of seeing in ways that are useful for any kind of photography.

Despite the appearance, I made this photograph along a very busy street — Market Street — in downtown San Francisco. In fact, it took a great deal of good fortune to be able to place the walker in this exact spot at the instant when no cars, trucks, buses, rail cars, or other people were in the frame! The person is one subject, but the light is another – dappled light coming from behind, reflected by buildings and passing through sidewalk trees. Color is a bit significant, too, but you probably already figured that out…

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Late Winter, Sierra Foothils

July 6, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Bare trees, new grass, overlapping hills, and late-winter haze in the Sierra Nevada foothills

Back in late February we spent a few days in Yosemite Valley in connection with the opening of the 2016 Yosemite Renaissance show in The Valley. While we were there we also photographed in the Valley, which is always a pleasure in winter, a time of year full of special subjects and conditions.

We left the Valley to head home and had time to take a round about route that would take us past one of our favorite migratory bird locations at sunset, so we wandered a bit in the Sierra foothills around Mariposa. While driving one back road we spotted this landscape of bare trees, brand new grasses, and hills receding into the winter haze.

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

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Geese Above, Cranes Below

March 17, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Late winter flocks of Ross’ and other geese and lesser sandhill cranes in the San Joaquin Valley

Although it isn’t quite over yet, as the first day of spring approaches I have been thinking back over this winter season and especially the experiences of again photographing Central Valley migratory birds. There is far too much write about all of it in a single post, so I’ll just share a bit about the transitions and process of the season, at least as I observed it.

In the early fall I begin to look forward to this season of birds and fog and winter light, though the anticipation is tempered a bit by early season opportunities to photograph other subjects, especially the fall colors of the Sierra and elsewhere. But sometime in late October I start to think a lot about the great annual migration, and I start to watch for signs that it is beginning. This past year I think it was probably late November or early December when I made my first trip, and I recall enjoying the landscape once again but being disappointed that the birds hadn’t really shown up yet. After four years of drought I wondered if the bird population had been damaged. Then a bit later in September I began to see a few more geese, but they were not very plentiful and they were not always where I hoped to find them. It wasn’t until January that they began to be a bit more common, but soon the numbers increased and by February I was seeing absolutely huge numbers. By the time I made this photograph in late February I was frequently seeing tens of thousands of geese, along with many hundreds of perhaps thousands of cranes — which is exactly what we see in this photograph.

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

Colorful Granite Cliff and Trees

March 16, 2016 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A colorful High Sierra granite cliff and trees in soft light

Sitting here on a late-winter day, this late September week spent photographing in the Yosemite back-country seems so far away. (At the same time, as I watch the inevitable progress of the seasons, the upcoming summer season seems closer and closer!) Three photographers headed out to a back-country lake, where we set up a base-camp for something like nine days of photography. It might seem like photographing in one tiny area for a week might exhaust its possibilities. In fact, at the start of such a trip I often harbor such fears — but by the end of every one of them I am again reminded that it virtually never works that way. The more time spent looking in such a place, there more there is to see, and at the end of such a trip there are, inevitably, things left to be photographed on the next visit.

Not far from our camp was a rocky area that we often crossed in order to make our way around the perimeter of a nearby lake and to get to areas a bit further away. After climbing slabs the route dropped into the lower extent of a deep gully traveling down from higher terrain, and eventually I began to know these rocks and this gully very well. We had “interesting” weather during our stay, and on the day I made this photograph the light was muted by various factors including clouds and wildfire smoke.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: trees

Pedestrian, Bus Stop, Street

Late Winter, Sierra Foothils

Geese Above, Cranes Below

Colorful Granite Cliff and Trees

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