Tag Archives: usa

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Consumption

July 8, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Pile of trash piled on the sidewalk in front of upscale shops in San Francisco

Yesterday we drove down to Carmel for the opening reception of the Center for Photographic Art 2018 Members’ Juried Exhibition. (One of my photographs is in the show.) The show is really beautiful, and it includes one of the most consistently high quality photographs of such shows that I’ve seen. I can be a bit of a critic at exhibits (though usually quietly…), but the work in this show is of high quality both aesthetically and technically. If you are in the Carmel area between now and early August, I urge you to visit!

But what does that have to do with this photograph? As photographers we often tend to work in silos defined, at least partially, by our own stylistic preferences and by the notions of others about the style/genre of our own work. Talk to enough photographers and you’ll almost always find that landscape photographers aren’t just landscape photographers, portrait photographers aren’t just portrait photographers, photo-journalists aren’t just interested in photographing events, and so on. (There is sometimes a bit of frustration on the part of photographers who feel that their work has been too tightly pigeon-holed.) This isn’t just about photographers — it also applies to those who love to view photographic art. It is very much worth the effort to step outside of your comfort zone, look at and try to make sense of photography that deals with subjects that may not be your favorites. There is a lot more to say about this, but I’ll stop here — after all, this is just another daily photo post! ;-)

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lupine, Sunlight

July 7, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sierra Nevada lupine blossoms in late-spring sunlight

Lupine blossoms are perhaps among the most wide-spread harbingers of spring in California. These plants grow in a tremendous variety of places, from ocean to mountains, and can be small or large. Mostly they are blue, though the colors can vary, with some almost white and others, at least in the right light, heading off in the direction of magenta or even reddish.

We were in the Sierra in early June for the opening of an exhibit in Oakhurst (“Transitions — Winter into Spring: Photographs by Yosemite Renaissance Artist-in-Residence G Dan Mitchell and Friends”) and we had a full day to do something following the reception. Although we were close to Yosemite, the idea of facing the crowds in The Valley did not appeal — so we went on a “random ride,” eventually ending up back in the Lake Edison area. I photographed these flowers as we headed back in the late afternoon and as the sunlight came from a low angle.

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Seasonal Waterfall

July 6, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Mist floats above the seasonal cascades of Sentinel Fall in late afternoon light, Yosemite Valley

Tourists often visit Yosemite Valley in the very late spring and the summer, the season when the best-known waterfalls are flowing strongly — Yosemite, Bridalveil, Vernal, and Nevada falls being the most popular. They are spectacular, and they are worthy of a visit on their own. However, they are far from the only waterfalls in the Valley. (And the Valley is far from the entirety of the park!) There are many less-known waterfalls that a quite beautiful.

Many of these other waterfalls are seasonal, flowing for brief periods when the winter snow melts or coming to life mainly after storms. They tend to be quite ephemeral since the conditions that support them are often rather specific and short-lived. A number of the ephemeral Valley waterfalls are fed by streams having their origins in middle-elevation valleys that are not terribly large. As such, the bulk of winter snow melts over a short period of time… and the falls usually dry up completely. This fall is a prime example. It appears in the right conditions along the southern walls of the Valley (oddly, it is close to another, similar seasonal fall), but by summer it diminishes to a trickle and then disappears. On the day I photographed in mid-April it was flowing strongly following recent storms, producing a series of impressive waterfalls that combine to produce a spectacular drop from the rim to the floor of the Valley.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Photographs: Yosemite

Spring Trees

July 5, 2018 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A rather well-known grove of Yosemite Valley trees, with new spring foliage and photographed from the “wrong” side

Near the end of this spring’s Yosemite Renaissance artist-in-residency in The Valley the early signs of spring were appearing — grass was turning green, rivers and waterfalls were flowing, temperatures were rising, and leaves were appearing on the deciduous trees. I photographed this well-known little grove just a few days after the first spring leaves emerged, when they still had that transitory yellow-green color of early spring.

Almost anyone familiar with Yosemite Valley will know immediately where this grove is located. This photograph was not made from the typical direction — and you may be able to spot the reason it isn’t photographed as often if you just look closely. A careful scan of the scene reveals the presence of a roadway! That is often a complete show-stopper for photographs like this one, but I liked the backlit tree against that darker forest enough to give it a try in this case.

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G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: usa

Consumption

Lupine, Sunlight

Seasonal Waterfall

Spring Trees

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