Tag Archives: usa

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Emerald Lake and Granite Benches

October 12, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A series of granite benches with back-lit trees rises above the emerald waters of a sub-alpine Sierra Nevada lake, Kings Canyon National Park

This photograph includes several features that say “Sierra Nevada high country” to me, and which immediately evoke a whole range of associations that have evolved over decades of backpacking, hiking, skiing and otherwise being in that world. The rounded granite slabs and benches rising toward more distant talus slopes are a common feature of these mountains. The small, widely spaced trees growing in the rocky terrain not far below timberline are another. The late-season brown grasses and yellow willows are a part of the annual cycle announcing that winter will soon be arriving. And everywhere, small but deep lakes scooped out by glacial action can both reveal the patterns of shoreline rocks and descend into deep emerald blue.

This is – no surprise by now, perhaps! – one more photograph from our mid-September time photographing in the back-country of Kings Canyon National Park, camped for the better part of a week in an area of many beautiful lakes near the 11,000′ level. This was an incredibly rich field for making photographs, and we were able to “work” it for the full-time and rarely walk more than perhaps 15-20 minutes from our camp. This small lake was simply one of many small lakes in this area, and I passed by it several times as I wandered up the meadows and granite of the valley above our camp.

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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Fin Dome, Storm Clouds

October 10, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Last rays of sunset light illuminate the fractured summit of Fin Dome and the Sierra crest on a stormy late-summer evening

During a week of beautiful days in the King Canyon National Park High Sierra back-country, this may have been one of the most compelling. The day began with interesting clouds and light, eventually evolved into light showers mixed with sun shine, and as sunset approached it cleared enough to give us rainbows, dramatically dark storm clouds, and golden hour light on the surrounding upper peaks.

This dome is a familiar landmark for many who pass along a section of the John Muir Trail not far from where we photographing, though that familiar view shows the opposite side of this feature. Although I was very close to it during the many days we spent photographing here, the face of the dome was often no all that photogenic. During the day the flat light did not complement it, and it is difficult to see how to compose an effective image of the thing from very close and right below it. However, on this evening we had wandered off to another location not far away, where there were many lakes and ponds, beautiful small meadows and granite formations, and more expansive views of the surrounding landscape. Shortly after we arrived there it began to sprinkle on us and we could see heavier showers distributed around the wider terrain. As sunset approached, the clouds thinned a bit over our position and the sun began to occasionally slant in from the west below the clouds, casting light beams that traversed the landscape to our east. I missed a few moments of beautiful light on this dome before I finally realized that this was a situation likely to repeat itself – and I stopped and waited for the next illumination from the west to arrive, here contrasting the warm sunlight on the peak with the darker storm clouds further to the east.

Photographs: Pacific Northwest, Photographs: Urban/Street

Buttnick Mfg. Co.

October 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

A person wearing a backpack walks in front of the Buttnick Mfg. Co. building in Seattle, Washington

OK, I admit that this isn’t perhaps an easy photograph to warm up to and, yes, the guy is way out of focus. As often happens when wandering the streets of some city – or, frankly, with other kinds of photography, too – one thing caught my attention and once I looked I saw other things… and then there was an unexpected accident. Despite rumors to the contrary, sometimes photography works that way. (To reassure some of you, photographs also work the opposite way sometimes – carefully thought out and made in a state of prolonged contemplation.)

As we walked past this corner, for some reason the name “Buttnick Mfg. Co.” caught my attention all by itself. This, and the visual appearance of the sign got me thinking about how the presentation and appearance of commercial entities has changed. Today, if “Buttnick Mfg. Co.” was starting up in this part of Seattle or almost any other relatively large city, there would be plastic signs, a carefully contrived sign designed to present and foster a particular way of viewing the firm, electronic lights, and probably a motto along the lines of, “Innovative Design and Manufacturing for Today’s Buttnick Buyer.” But this sign was probably painted by some local sign-painter and it offers nothing more than the name of the company, which is probably the name of the founder and perhaps someone who actually worked there. But, urban development being what it is, it looks to me like Buttnick is probably no longer to be found, and instead we see a group of smaller shops inside the building. (There now are electronic signs in the window and there is a SALE going on.) About that person in the photograph… while I was planning to include the people on the far side of the street as they walked in front of the building, the out-of-focus, photobombing, Seattle street person was entirely accidental – but somehow appropriate.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Unnamed Lake, Early Morning

October 8, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light and cloud-filled sky reflected in the surface of an unnamed sub-alpine lake in the southern Sierra Nevada range, Kings Canyon National Park

This may have been the morning with the most dramatic light during our mid-September trip to photograph in the High Sierra back-country of Kings Canyon National Park, when a group of four photographs spent 6 nights in a beautiful 11,000′ location not far to the west of the crest of the range. Our camp was on a small rise just above my camera position, and we spent out days either looking at variations on essentially this view or wandering about in the alpine “neighborhood,” exploring and making photographs.

I have some experience with Sierra weather and I can often make some decent judgments about what is going on and where things may be headed. However, during this “shoulder season” when the transition from summer to fall and towards winter is taking place, all bets are off! During the summer, when it isn’t just another blue sky day in the Sierra, a common pattern starts with fairly clear weather, introduces a few small clouds by mid or late morning, and then builds toward possible thunderstorms and afternoon/evening showers. But this morning began with overcast that was distinctly un-thunderstorm-like, the sort of thing that I find almost impossible to read. Were we seeing some evidence of a larger pattern related to the onset of winter-season Pacific fronts? Was it merely a local weather situation that would dissipate as the day wore on? In the end, we did end up with showers late in the afternoon – as we did on over half of the days on this trip – but on this morning the only thing I knew for certain was that the light on the peaks below the cloud-dotted sky was exceptionally beautiful.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: usa

Emerald Lake and Granite Benches

Fin Dome, Storm Clouds

Buttnick Mfg. Co.

Unnamed Lake, Early Morning

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