Tag Archives: two

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: People In Landscape

Evening Overlook

Image Leave a comment
Evening Overlook
Two people watching the early evening view of immense desert mountains from a high overlook.

Evening Overlook. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Two people watching the early evening view of immense desert mountains from a high overlook.

Late in the day during my recent Death Valley visit I went to this overlook. It is more typically a place to photograph the sunrise, which comes from camera-left and illuminates the big ridges in the distance. But I had a free evening, not a morning, so I figured it was worth a shot. I arrived before sunset, and I made this photograph before the sun had dropped behind the western ridge, though the haze and high clouds softened the light a bit.

I’ve never been able to quite describe in words the experience of standing on a very high point in such a vast landscape. From here one can look 5000′ down into Death Valley or look 6000′ up toward the highest peak in the Panamint Range and simultaneously feel “on top of the world” and very, very small in the presence of such immensity.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Nature

Two Winter Oak Trees

Image Leave a comment
Two Winter Oak Trees
Two oak trees, on opposite sides of a dormant meadow, with hazy winter light.

Two Winter Oak Trees. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Two oak trees, on opposite sides of a dormant meadow, with hazy winter light.

If you recall another recent oak tree photograph I shared, you might recognize the form of the more distant tree on the right. In that previous photograph my camera position put the sun almost directly behind the tree, thus accentuating the day’s atmospheric haze. For this photograph I moved to a spot from which I could include two trees and highlight the mass of the tree on the left along with its shadow.

I know I’ll be thrilled in a few months when this meadow is again full of tall, green grasses. (And given our recent — and welcome! — California rain, there’s a good chance that the grass will be tall this spring!) But I also love this early winter time, when the air is cool to cold, the trees have lost their leaves, and the meadows have gone dormant.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Trees, Sierra Rain

Image Leave a comment
Trees, Sierra Rain
Trees and afternoon rain in the Sierra Nevada backcountry.

Trees, Sierra Rain. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Trees and afternoon rain in the Sierra Nevada backcountry.

Photography in the rain is a challenge. Concerns range from small things (drops of water on the lens) to potential catastrophe (water damaging the electronics), with a range of intermediate issues, not the least of which is the photographer’s comfort! The challenges are compounded in the backcountry, where staying warm and relatively dry are both challenging and critical. There’s no warm car or motel room to retreat to!

After being mostly stuck in our tents during 24 hours or rainy weather, a few brief breaks were enough to coax us outside for photography and, also important, to stretch our legs. Since the rain hadn’t really stopped, I carried my backup camera and no tripod so that I could more easily deal with the inevitable showers. Speaking which, I made this photograph in the middle of one of them, managing to make a short series of photographs of these noble and tall trees growing out of a rocky rise.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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

Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Storefront, Two Men

Image Leave a comment
Storefront, Two Men
Two men at a Manhattan storefront as a Columbus Day parade passes by.

Storefront, Two Men. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Two men at a Manhattan storefront as a Columbus Day parade passes by.

Switching gears again today, this is another photograph from our October East Coast visit. The trip was primarily to photograph autumn color in New England, but we managed to spend a couple of nights in Manhattan before our homeward flight. Our visit coincided with what New York still refers to as the “Columbus Day Parade,” though the more modern designation is apparently also along the lines of Italian Heritage Day. (One bizarrely noteworthy moment was seeing Rudy Giuliani yucking it up at the front of one of the floats, but I digress…) We wandered around the periphery of the parade route, where the onlookers were in many cases more fascinating than the parade itself.

I made this photograph using one of my “blind shooting” techniques. There are lots of different thoughts about how street photographers should (or should not) interact with their subjects, and I think they all have some validity. Here I did not want the subjects to be distracted by me, so I held the camera in front of me as I walked by and made a couple of exposures without look directly at the two men. I think it paid off. I feel like there are a number of ways to try to make sense of what is going on in the scene and what it might imply, but I’ll leave it to viewers to figure this out.

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” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question. (Click this post’s title first if you are viewing on the home page.)

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