Tag Archives: willow

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Pandemia, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stage Door

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Stage Door
The edge of a shadow falls across a stage door.

Stage Door. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The edge of a shadow falls across a stage door.

This photograph qualifies as part of the “postcards from pandemic” group, as I made it while on one of the long local walks that I’ve been taking in and around my neighborhood since the lock-downs began six months ago. Yes, it has been that long. The good news is that if all goes according to plan we might be almost half way to a vaccine and the beginning of a return to something like normalcy.

This photograph is also an example of something that afflicts most (though perhaps not quite all) photographers, namely an interest or even obsession with form, color, and various kinds of patterns, even when seen in mundane locations. This is a side door to a school theater — hardly an iconic subject! But as I walked past at just the right moment, the shadow diagonally bisected this very blue door, and the angles of shadows and stairways converged in interesting ways.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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

Arch and Shadows

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Arch and Shadows
A Utah red rock country arch in a shadowed canyon.

Arch and Shadows. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Utah red rock country arch in a shadowed canyon.

It can seem that improbable features like this are everywhere in Southern Utah. While many are familiar from national parks like Zion and Arches, similar features are found in less accessible places, and if you poke around enough you can experience them in relative quiet and solitude. I’ve wondered why it is this way in Utah, and I think there are several explanations including that such features really are quite common, and some that warrant national park status are in non-park areas for reasons including uneasy compromises with extractive industries.

A group of us wandered into a lovely canyon, inauspicious at the start but with sandstone walls that soon began to tower and close us in from the world beyond. These are intimate places, where your awareness is mostly confined to the space between the canyon bends in front of and behind you, and where the quiet is only broken by the an occasional birdsong and by the gentle sounds of water.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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

Photographs: Pandemia, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Benches

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Benches
Unused benches at a school closed by the pandemic.

Benches. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Unused benches at a school closed by the pandemic.

One of the regular features of my life during the pandemic has been my daily (with almost no exceptions) walks around the neighborhood. They range from “gotta’ at least do the minimum” 30-minute walks that barely get the blood-pressure up to longer walks that can be six or seven miles long — sometimes on out and back routes and other times on giant loops. By necessity, these tend to take me through some combination of residential neighborhoods, minor “downtown” areas, and some light industrial districts.

I always have a camera with me, carried in a small over-the-shoulder bag that holds a few other necessities — a bottle of water, a quick snack, phone, etc. Most often I don’t make any photographs, but every so often the urge strikes — sufficient reason to carry the camera on all those other walks. (The camera is minimal — a rangefinder-style mirrorless body with one very small prime lens.) This particular walk took me past a school closed by the lock-down, where benches that might normally be the center of a lively teenage social world were scattered forlornly.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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

Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Autumn, Eastern Sierra Valley

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Autumn, Eastern Sierra Valley
The autumn color of aspens, willows, and more comes to the valleys of the Eastern Sierra Nevada

Autumn, Eastern Sierra Valley. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The autumn color of aspens, willows, and more comes to the valleys of the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

During the past week I made my first trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada to look for the annual fall aspen color transition. Broadly speaking — even though there can be some earlier and later aspen color — I regard the first three weeks of October as being the most likely time to find good color, with the second week perhaps being the most reliable period. Over the past few years the transition has seemed to start a bit earlier, but this year it seems to be on what we used to regard as a “normal” schedule. There wasn’t much color at all during the first few days of the month this year, but it was starting to come on more strongly towards the end of the first week. It should be quite good as of this October 8 posting… but that’s a guess, since I’m back home now. (I’ll be heading back up in a few days.)

Since folks often ask me about the aspen color season (perhaps because I wrote “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide To Autumn In The Sierra.” Being ready to answer those questions was one reason for visiting early in the season. (OK, the main reason was to make my own photographs! And to make a presentation about autumn color in Mammoth Lakes.) I visited areas between highway 88 (Carson Pass) in the north and Bishop Creek Canyon to the south, stopping in quite a few other places in between. This photograph comes from one of those intermediate stops, a rugged east-side canyon that holds a lot of wonderful fall color from aspens, willows, cottonwoods, and more. (Looking for more information about the aspen color transition? Pease visit my Sierra Nevada Fall Color page.)

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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