Tag Archives: valley

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

Granite Towers, Storm Clouds

August 9, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Storm clouds begin to clear about granite towers and spires, Yosemite Valley, California

These towers stand close to Sentinel Rocks in Yosemite Valley. The day had started out very cloudy, with light rain on the Valley floor and snow flurries around the rim of the Valley. As the day wore on the rain mostly stopped and there were breaks in the clouds, although the atmosphere stayed a bit on the murky side overall. That “murkiness” was not very conducive to a color photograph so I felt that this was more likely to end up in monochrome, as indeed it did. Because the sun is slightly behind the large towers and because the atmosphere was not completely clear, the towers took on a sort of ominous quality.

On a winter day when clouds ring the Valley I could easily spend hours with a long lens pointed up toward the rim, isolating little vignettes of clouds and trees and rock. For a place whose landscape seems to be so familiar, this provides an ephemeral alternate landscape that forms and disappears in moments. When I’m in the Valley, give me clouds!

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: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Devils Cornfield, Morning

July 30, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Early morning light on Devils Cornfield and receding ridges, Death Valley National Park

I’m a fan of shooting in the very early morning – what photographer isn’t? – and of shooting directly into the brilliant light of the rising sun, especially when that light shines through an atmosphere containing haze or dust. These conditions appeal to me in a variety of ways. The inclusion of this haze emphasizes the effect of atmospheric recession, and sometimes the most distant elements of the scene can fade to near invisibility as the atmosphere lowers the color saturation and contrast of the scene. Shadows, especially if bit of detail can be retained, can produce dramatic contrasts, and light glancing across the edges of features such as plants can be intensely colorful.

This photograph includes features of a scene that is easily accessible but perhaps one that people don’t often spend much time considering, especially at this time of day. Most photographs of the area that I see are made in fairly normal daytime light or perhaps in the warm and clear light of the evening golden hour. Here I found a slightly elevated camera position and aimed across the tops of clumps of grasses, a small nearby hill, and a succession of higher and more distant ridges leading away toward the mountains along the east side of the valley.

Photographs: Austria, Photographs: Nature

Eisriesenwelt Trail, Alps

July 27, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 5 Comments

Hikers descend the trail from the ice caves of Eisriesenwelt above the town of Werfen, Austria

Over a period of three weeks, our July 2013 visit to Europe took us to parts of Germany and Austria, and to London before that. The London portion of the trip was almost wholly and urban experience, but the time in Germany (with side trips into Austria) was quite a bit more varied. One significant difference is that while we hit our share of tourist areas, that’s not all we did since a) we were visiting relatives who are long-time residents of Germany and b) we traveled, as we often do, without a specific advance plan about what we would visit – at least beyond our fixed plan to stay in certain places on certain dates. Perhaps for this reason, and because I travel as a photographer as much as a tourist, the photographs from this trip may seem a bit eclectic and will cover a wide range of subjects.

This photograph was made at a popular tourist attraction not far from Salzburg and above town of Werfen, the Eisriesenwelt, also known as the Eisriesenwelt Ice Cave. There is a lot to say about this place – too much for this post – but I’ll give a bit of background. The cave is located far up the mountainside – more of a cliff, actually – above the town. The popular tour visits amazing underground ice formations near the mouth of the cave, though I understand that the cave system goes much farther back into the mountains. After driving up from Werfen, you walk uphill a short distance to a ski-lift style cable car system that takes you up the steep face almost to the cave… but you still have an additional uphill walk from there to the cave itself. (This being Europe, though, you can stop at the parking lot, the lower end of the tram, the upper end of the tram, and the same places going back down to sit, have a bite to eat, and drink a beer!) The trail between the upper tram station and the entrance to the cave is quite something. It traverses terrain that would scare the life out of people not used to very high and very exposed places – though a very civilized path has been built along the edge of the void, covered in some places for protection from rockfall. In this photograph, a section of the trail winds around a promontory with the deep Salzach Valley and Alpine ridges beyond.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

White-Faced Ibis

July 26, 2013 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A white-faced ibis about to land in a San Joaquin Valley marsh.

A month or two earlier I had come across a large number of white-faced ibises in this precise spot along the perimeter road around this marshland where many, many migratory birds are found this time of year. The group of them was on the ground, apparently feeding in a wet grassy area, and they were quite shy about my presence, moving back from me as I came up alongside the on the road. On the day when I made this photograph, I had not noticed any of these birds at all. In fact, I had stopped here to photograph some ducks when I happened to look up and see this single bird angling in for a landing. I swung my camera around and tracked it to its landing.

I have a few random-sounding observations about the white-faced ibis. First, unless I’m missing something, they really don’t seem to have white faces! The beak is lighter than the bird, but that’s about as close to a white face as I can can find on these birds. Second, their coloration makes them difficult to photograph effectively. They are quite dark-colored birds, though their features can have a slightly colored iridescence that seems sort of reddish to me. Because of this, if I try to enhance the shadowed areas of the very dark birds in post, this coloration can quickly start to look fake. (In fact, I’ve seen a number of photographs of these birds that attempt to make them look lighter than they are, but which instead just end up looking odd.) They do make a fine photograph in silhouette, especially when a flock of them flies overhead early or late in the day.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: valley

Granite Towers, Storm Clouds

Devils Cornfield, Morning

Eisriesenwelt Trail, Alps

White-Faced Ibis

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