Images

Photographs: Europe, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stone Wall and Pedestrians

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Stone Wall and Pedestrians, Paris
“Stone Wall and Pedestrians” — Parisiens walk and run past a tall stone wall.

The photograph is from somewhere in Paris. We were on a walk and I was photographing as we moved, not paying too much attention to identifying locations. (That’s a characteristic of how I work when photographing the urban environment — I am so focused on it as a visual experience that I often forget to record locations or the names of places and so on.)

If a photograph can be about something, this one might be in some ways about the relationships between people and the infrastructure of the the urban environment. . To my eye, the people here look very small and transitory by comparison to the scale of the building and the angular forms of most of the scene.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

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

Morning Dunes

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Morning Dunes, Death Valley
“Morning Dunes” — Death Valley sand dunes in early morning light.

On my late-February visit to Death Valley I only photographed the dunes on one morning. The dunes are a wonderful subject, but there are lots of other things to see and photograph in this park, and photographing those subjects didn’t leave me much time for the dunes. But it would seem wrong not to visit them at least once! I arrived well before sunrise, loaded up a pack, and walked out in the dim pre-dawn light to look for a good spot to use as a my vantage point.

Eventually I climbed to the top of a long dune that provided open views in almost every direction. There are lots of ways to photograph dunes, but on this morning I went with a very long telephoto that allowed me to focus in on distant subjects and still fill the frame. I noticed the overlapping curves on this tall dune as soon as I arrived, and I photographed it several times as the light transitioned from the soft, blue predawn light, through increasingly directional light as sunrise approached, to the intense light just after sunrise.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Europe, Photographs: France, Photographs: Travel, Photographs: Urban/Street

Paris Reflections

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Paris Reflections — an "invisible" building.
“Paris Reflections” — Reflective walls around a construction produce an imagined urban landscape.

Approaching this structure was an odd experience. At first I think I didn’t even quite notice it. And then when I first did become aware of “it,”I thought I was looking at a street lined with tall buildings. But it quickly became apparent that it was an illusion, produced by a huge cube of mirror panels reflecting the surrounding neighborhood.

It wasn’t quite clear what the structure was about when we saw it. We eventually determined that it isn’t an actual “real” building, but instead was some sort of wall that cuts off the view of construction work happening inside. What in this entire photograph is “real?” The foreground asphalt and roadway, but that’s it. The rest is entirely reflections of other things in the surrounding area.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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

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

The Manifold, Detail

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The Manifold, Detail, Death Valley
“The Manifold, Detail” — Close photograph of a section of the Manifold formation, Death Valley National Park.

Even though this photograph only shows a very small area of a much larger formation, there’s a good chance that those of you familiar with Death Valley will recognize it. The feature is called “The Manifold,” and it features ribs of soft, light-colored material stretching out from beneath a layer of darker material. For this photograph I narrowed the angle of view to only include a very small part of the larger feature.

The geology of these “badlands” features some very soft material that is easily eroded. The different colors were laid down as layers a very long time ago, and since then they have been tilted and distorted. It is hard to imagine a better place to visualize the effect that flowing water has on this desert landscape.

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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

G Dan Mitchell: Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email


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