Tag Archives: usa

Photographs: Cascades, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Pacific Northwest

Alpine Meadow, Artist Point

December 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Alpine meadow and mountains, Artist Point, North Cascades

Back in 2010 my brother Richard, who is a long-time resident of the Pacific Northwest, treated me to a trip up into the Cascades at Artist Point. We got lucky and had a day of largely clear skies, with the only clouds being the beautiful sort that catch the sun and allow beams of light to sweep across the landscape — not the other kind of Pacific Northwest clouds that sock things in and drizzle all day!

As a long time Sierra guy, I’m always amazed at how different things are in the Cascades and other Pacific Northwest mountains. The Sierra are, of course, mostly dry mountains. Yes, we get snow in the winter, runoff in the spring, and a few thunderstorms in the summer, but backpacking is mostly a dry weather thing and we are used to the sound of dry sand and rock beneath our boots. But here in the Cascades there are glaciers and ice caps, and the lush green plants grow right up to the snow line. On this visit we had only enough time to spend an afternoon wandering slowly around the Artist Point area, but I came back with a set of photographs that I like a great deal.

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.

Night Photography, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

New York Sidewalk, Evening

December 12, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A busy New York City sidewalk in dusk light

We are fortunate to be able to visit New York City from time to time — perhaps once a year and occasionally more often. To anyone who thinks of me a “that landscape photographer guy,” it might seem a bit odd that I also love the intense urban environment of such a place — but I do. Although it can become overwhelming eventually — as almost everyone says, “I love to visit, but I couldn’t live there.” — it is also energizing. There is so much to see and do, whether or not it involves photography.

I always photograph when I visit New York. I photograph in a different way than I do when I’m out in the American West. For example, I work with handheld cameras and tend to work while on the move. But I think that I also see the place at least a bit through the eyes of a landscape photographer, and I think of the city as a place to photograph the “urban landscape.” Although I’ve done night photography for more than a decade, recently I’ve gotten more interested in handheld urban night street photography. This photograph of a little evening street scene with pedestrians walking in and out of the light pools cast from business windows is one example.

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

Morning Reflection, Granite Ridge

December 11, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Morning light on shattered granite ridge reflected in a subalpine Lake

This is another older photograph, made on a late-season solo backpacking trip into the Yosemite backcountry back in 2010 for the purpose of making photographs. This time of year is my favorite in the High Sierra — beautiful weather, fewer visitors, no mosquitos, lovely light. In addition, and perhaps related to some of those other factors, this time of year seems slower and more relaxed.

I hiked in to this group of lakes on the first day, setting up camp late in the day. Over the course of several days I explored this lake carefully and also visited two higher lakes in this group, along with some surrounding high country. I’ve been to this place enough times now that I’ve begun to know its ins and outs, including alternate routes between places, the best times for particular sorts of light and so forth. I made this photograph in the early morning, while on a walk around the edge of the lake. The light was softened by some high clouds, and the surface of the lake was still mirror smooth.

Equipment, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Lake and Shoreline, Evening

December 11, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Evening light comes to a remote alpine lake in the Sierra Nevada backcountry.

I made this photograph from more or less our campsite on a backpacking trip to this remote area of the upper Kern River drainage in the southern Sierra Nevada back in 2010. It was a trip that combined the familiar and the new, that took me to a spot that I had first thought of visiting decades before, and which provided some surprises. The first few days of the trip covered familiar ground over a couple of high passes and dropped us into the upper Kern on the John Muir Trail. At this point we left the JMT and followed less traveled routes for the remainder of our visit.

Our first departure from the JMT was to head south of northwest into the upper Kern’s more remote areas. We were not so far out on the fringe that there were no trails, but the trails were clearly not well used and we saw very few people. The area is not easy to get to nor is it really on the route between other major points, so those that go there pretty much just go there. Eventually we worked our way over towards the foot of the Great Western Divide, to an area full of intimate meadow/rock landscapes and small lakes. Here we found a beautiful campsite that gave no hints that it had been occupied before. I’m sure it had been, but it is unusual to find such a place in the Sierra that is visited so infrequently that there are not obvious signs of the previous visitors. We set up camp, engaged in warfare with marauding mosquitos, wandered about a bit, and settled in to watch the day come to an end.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: usa

Alpine Meadow, Artist Point

New York Sidewalk, Evening

Morning Reflection, Granite Ridge

Lake and Shoreline, Evening

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