Tag Archives: yellow

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

Green and Yellow Aspens

October 14, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A grove of green and yellow autumn aspen trees in the eastern Sierra Nevada

Since I just spent some days photographing autumn color in the Sierra Nevada, I’m going to interrupt the continuing series of early September Yosemite back-country photographs to share at least one of these recent autumn photographs. I began in the Tahoe area and this year I followed a path partly dictated by a fall color project that I’m working on, heading south through Hope Valley, then over Monitor Pass and continuing on the Bishop Creek area for a day of shooting before working my way back up into areas roughly around the intersection of routes 120 and 395 near Lee Vining.

As much as we all have “our places” to look for aspens, I was reminded again during this little jaunt that you can pretty much go anywhere in the Sierra or along its eastern slopes this time of year and quickly find tons of autumn color. I have a few favorites, indeed, and I understand that those just discovering the fall colors may want to go to “sure bet” places, but I’m having more and more fun just poking around and finding color in lots of odd little places. This location is very close to an area where many, many people were stopped to photograph some very spectacular color in a well-known place — but here, just a ways down the road, I was the only person shooting as cars whizzed past on their way to those other places.

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: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Wall, Man Walking

September 7, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A man walks on a painted sidewalk in Manhattan, New York City

I made this little “grab shot” along a narrow and curving street in New York City’s Chinatown district, probably as we were waiting for others to arrive for dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. Given the way my photographic eye works, I first noticed the pattern from the metal door and brick walls, with lines converging as the sidewalk traveled further down the street. I picked this spot because of some of the things that interrupted that pattern — the spilled paint on the sidewalk, the doors, and the utility pole.

Then I waited and watched. In almost all cases it will be little more than a moment or two before someone interesting wanders into this urban landscape and humanizes it in one way or another. I got lucky here, as this fellows attire fit with the colors of the existing scene, and I was able to photograph him just as he passed and walked across the paint-spill section of the sidewalk, with his face invisible to the camera.

Commentary, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada, Thinking Aloud

Is It Ever Too Early To Dream of Aspen Color?

July 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Small stands of aspens with autumn leaves stand in front of a talus slope, eastern Sierra Nevada.

Is it ever too early to dream of aspen color? In a word, no.

Every summer around this time I start to think about fall color, and for me that primarily means eastern Sierra Nevada aspen color. I’m not quite sure what triggers the thoughts. Sometimes when I’m in the Sierra — and I am not there right now — it can be some nearly imperceptible changes in the light, the atmosphere, the patterns of annual growth, or even the sound of the wind. It might also be something as simple as my now innate “tuning in” to annual cycles, something that I think we are all more able to do than we might imagine.

On hot northern California days like this one, it certainly does not feel at all like autumn. Yet, I know that the first real signs of the seasonally change will appear high in the Sierra in barely 8 weeks, and the aspen color will arrive only a few weeks after that.

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

Birds, Dusk

July 28, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 1 Comment

Birds in the fading light of winter dusk about the San Joaquin Valley

This is likely to at least partially a bird week as I continue to share photographs of migratory birds and their San Joaquin Valley environment from last winter. Certain responsibilities have kept me at home rather than in the field, so I’ve been trying to put the time to good use by reviewing photographs that I made during the past six month. As I move on to the next thing, I sometimes leave behind photographs which, at the time, interest me less than those newer ones, and coming back looking at them later on almost always leads to a few discoveries.

I made this photograph at the end of a long and productive day of (mostly) bird photography. We began in fog before dawn and shot through the morning as the sun came up and eventually the fog began to dissipate, leaving behind that hazy winter Central Valley atmosphere. After a midday break we returned in the late afternoon, and shot right on into the evening until the light was truly gone — perhaps just a bit past gone. After sunset as the dusk sky darkened I simply lengthened exposures to compensate and intentionally worked with the blur created by the birds and by camera motion. Even now, months later, I remember the sensations of the sky filling with what seemed like nervously active birds of many types.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: yellow

Green and Yellow Aspens

Wall, Man Walking

Is It Ever Too Early To Dream of Aspen Color?

Birds, Dusk

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