Tag Archives: water

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

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring

May 9, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Spring snowmelt rushes over a boulder in a Sierra Nevada stream, Yosemite National Park.

I made this photograph at the very end of spring last year in the Yosemite Sierra Nevada. Last year was a year that began much differently that this year in California. While this is a drought year, the previous season was one of record precipitation, and the high country opened very late. Even when it did open – in this case the Tioga Pass Road opened on the mid-June weekend when I made this photograph – there was still a lot of snow and ice everywhere, and much of the backcountry was still largely inaccessible. This little bit of water cascading over a boulder is a scene that could have been found in any number of places, but this one was found in a seasonal stream that tumbled down a mountainside along the roadway.

Believe it or not, this is a color photograph! The colors are, obviously, very subtle, but they are there and they are, I think, important. In fact, when I was working on the image I thought about producing it as a black and white image, tried it out, and was surprised by just how different it looked when the colors were removed. There are some subtle brown/tan tones in the upper part of the boulder, and the water contains a range of subtle but important tones of blue and green.

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

Shoreline Fences, San Francisco Bay

May 6, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shoreline fences along the edge of the San Francisco Bay with moored boats and, in the distance, the Oakland shoreline and East Bay hills.

This photograph was made from a spot that many San Francisco Giants fans know rather well – the Third Street Bridge that is right next to AT&T Park. There were few Giants fans around when I made this photograph though, since it was quite early in he morning on a weekday. The camera is pointing almost but not quite directly into the early morning sun, which shines through a luminous morning haze over the bay on a very still morning.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: The Southwest, Photographs: Utah

Zion Canyon, Virgin River, Spring

April 29, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The Virgin River flows through Zion Canyon near Weeping Rock, Zion Canyon National Park, Utah.

On this morning we were back in Zion Canyon, following the Virgin River up the Valley to various locations. While it was still quite early we had walked up to the base of Weeping Rock, deep in the shaded area in the center of this photograph, and photographed there in the quiet shade. Then we moved a short distance up this part of the canyon where it makes a rather sharp series of turns and stopped an a place where there were visits up, down, and across the Virgin River and along the huge sandstone cliffs in all directions.

Looking around, I saw that there were some scattered clouds that were moving across the sky and alternative shading and lighting various portions of the landscape, and creating some dramatic effects, especially when the light came from behind the group of cottonwood trees along the banks of the river below me. The skeletal forms of the trees’ trunks were still clearly visible and, when the light was bright enough, they cast mirror-image shadows on the new grass below. The tops of the trees were fringed by new leaves, and these glowed brightly in the backlight coming from above the far cliffs above Weeping Rock. There was just enough haze in the air, amplified a bit by backlighting, to suggest the distance and massive size of the dark cliffs.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Sports

Sail Boat, San Francisco Bay

April 21, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A sailboat in morning light on the San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, California.

Taking a momentary break from the continuing stream of photographs from Utah, here is a photograph from San Francisco. On one of the first spring-warm days of the year, I took the train to San Francisco very early and then spent the morning wandering around with my camera and a few lenses. In many ways, this is my preferred approach to shooting in San Francisco – to travel light and walk – since there so many instantaneous and surprising subjects that come and go so quickly. This is sort of my own brand of “Photo Walk” for one.

On this morning I got of the train just after sun rise and first wandered through the China Basin area, taking time to photograph a large construction site before heading back over toward the Embarcadero to walk along the waterfront. As I walked past AT&T Park, I noticed the bright backlit and slightly hazy sky over the Bay and began to look for ways to photograph it. A moment later I found a gap in the shoreline “stuff” where I could get a clear shot of the water, and I stopped to put a longer lens on the camera. Right at that moment – lucky me! – I noticed this solitary sailboat coming into the scene from the right and by working quickly I had time to get about a half dozen shots of it against the minimalist backdrop of the bay before another boat joined it and cluttered up the image.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: water

Boulder, Rushing Water, Spring

Shoreline Fences, San Francisco Bay

Zion Canyon, Virgin River, Spring

Sail Boat, San Francisco Bay

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