Tag Archives: usa

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

Reflection Patterns, San Francisco

December 17, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Many layers of reflections on windows of downtown towers in San Francisco, California.

I’m crazy about the “reflections of reflections reflections…” that you can find in urbanized downtown areas when the light is just right. While the shapes and forms of the buildings are, I think, somewhat interesting, what intrigued me about this scene were the almost psychedelic shapes and colors of the warped, bent, and oddly juxtaposed reflections covering almost all of the shiny surfaces of the buildings. (Of course, all of that is a bit hard to see in this small online jpg version.)

This is definitely one of the photographs in my “urban landscape” category. I have to think about the light and the shapes and distance in much the same way I might if I were photographing in a natural canyon or deep valley. However, unlike “real” landscape photography, shots are these are almost always done hand held and shot fairly quickly while wandering around on foot.

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.

keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, architecture, building, tower, skyscraper, structure, form, shadow, column, sky, cloud, angle, wires, windows, walls, stock

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

Beneath the Bay Bridge

December 15, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A pier beneath the west end of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge with downtown San Francisco, California.

The light was a challenge in this photograph, but I found the dense and somewhat out of kilter lines and forms of the pier, bridge, and downtown buildings interesting. The photograph was made from one of the piers along the Embarcadero that is used as a parking lot – extending out into the Bay a bit it gave me a view back toward the City over and through the intervening structures.

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.

keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, skyline, buildings, embarcadero, plaza, oakland, bay, bridge, concrete, steel, pier, doors, pilings, water, birds, latter, flag, cable, freeway, highway, 80, deck, upper, lower, windows, fog, sky, urban, city, waterfront, architecture, stock

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

Dry Creek and Late-Season Meadow

December 11, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Morning light illuminates a dry creek bed winding though late season meadow grasses and trees near Fletcher Lake, Yosemite National Park, California.

As the trail at Fletcher Lake heads upward to begin the climb towards Evelyn Lake there is an area in the meadow to the left of the trail where small trees have begun to infiltrate the meadow and there is now a “mini-forest” of sorts. I’ve photographed this spot – this exact spot, actually! – before, and I often like to shoot it in the morning light when the low angle sun first hits the meadow. Here a dry seasonal runoff creek winds between the trees in this section of mixed meadow and young forest.

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.

keywords: dry, creek, stream, bed, late, season, summer, meadow, plant, grass, foliage, flora, tree, small, lodgepole, pine, rock, light, silhouette, forest, fletcher, lake, vogelsang, high, sierra, nevada, camp, mountain, range, landscape, nature, scenic, travel, hike, camp, backpack, morning, winding, shadow, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, wilderness, alpine, stock

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

Creek and Meadow Above Evelyn Lake

December 10, 2009 G Dan Mitchell 4 Comments

Trailless meadow and rolling hills along a creek above Evelyn Lake in the Yosemite Naitonal Park back-country near Fletcher Lake.

This type of country, and this area in particular, is perhaps my favorite Sierra terrain. After camping and photographing at Evelyn Lake the previous night, I woke up and spent the morning doing more photography around the lake. My hiking goal for the day was barely a mile away, Fletcher Lake and the meadows near the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp. Instead of just heading up the short trail over the low ridge between the two lakes I began scoping out the easy climb up the granite slabs above Evelyn Lake. From many previous visits to the area I knew that there is a large, rolling subalpine meadow dotted with trees, streams, and boulders in the area roughly bounded by Evelyn, Townsley, and Ireland Lakes. There is no trail through the area, but it is some of the easiest and most pleasant cross-country hiking I know of.

I started by circling around the side of Evelyn Lake near the ascent, gradually angling up and across the rocky hillside. Gradually the terrain steepened and I began to follow benches and gullies up the incline, finally spotting an area just to the left of the inlet stream to the lake that looked like it would provide a good crossing to the plateau. I arrived there and saw the lower area to my right where the creek came down from the plateau, so I headed over that way and intersected the shallow gully holding this stream and several small, seasonal ponds. After stopping here to make a few photographs, I continued ambling up this little valley and eventually crossed a broad flat area, passed by a couple alpine tarns, and finally descended past Townsley Lake to reach Fletcher Lake and my camp for the night.

(Update: This morning I thought to acknowledge another reason why I like this sort of place so much. While there are so many iconic and well-known views of the Sierra, this is an example of the sort of intimate landscape that any individual back-country traveler can find. This is just “some little spot along a creek with no trail,” and I’d guess that only a handful of people come past this spot every year and not all of them stop to look at this little scene – but it is no less spectacular on that account.)

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.

keywords: trail, cross-country, creek, stream, bouder, rock, water, meadow, tundra, forest, tree, high, altitude, elevation, ridge, snow, field, talus, sun, field, vogelsang, lake, high, sierra, nevada, mountain, range, back-country, fletcher, lake, evelyn, landscape, scenic, travel, nature, wilderness, yosemite, national, park, california, usa, stock, parsons, peak, alpine

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