Images

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

Hazy Sunset, Florence

Image October 29, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A hazy summer sunset over the Arno River, Florence, Italy.

How about a quick return to Italy for today’s photograph? Perhaps on a warm summer evening, joining hundreds of others ascending the hills to the Piazzale Michelangelo to join the public party and watch the sun set over Florence and the Arno River. That’s what we did during our five days in Florence this summer. Despite our initial skepticism about heading to a touristy spot and seeing the crowd heading the same direction, this was one of the highlights of our visit.

This was not an easy subject to photograph. By the time we got there the most obvious camera positions were taken, besides which we really wanted to wander around a bit and take in the festivities… and purchase something from one of the several food and drink carts. The light was not initially promising, with haze obscuring the view. But as happens so often in such conditions, the haze began to glow as the evening went on, and the moments before and during sunset were filled with luminous light… and the music of nearby buskers.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

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

Morning View of the Sierra Crest

Image October 28, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Autumn view of Sierra Nevada crest peaks in the Yosemite region.

For several years I have been exploring areas east of the Sierra Nevada, partly because they are interesting (and often surprising) in their own right, but also because they sometimes afford interesting views of the Sierra crest and eastern escarpment. I often end up out here during my autumn explorations, perhaps because they are more likely to put me in a vehicle than on foot — but also because there are surprisingly impressive examples of autumn color out here.

I have spent more than a few very cold mornings in this area, waiting in the predawn dark for the first light to strike the distant peaks. Here it comes from behind me, over my left shoulder. It takes a while for the sun to clear the ridges behind me and illuminate the valleys and ridges between here and the Sierra. The peaks in this photograph stretch from the Ritter-Banner summits to some of the highest backcountry peaks in Yosemite National Park.

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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 Color, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Terraced Aspen Grove

Image October 27, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Terraced aspen groves rise toward rocky slopes in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

This aspen photograph is as much about timing as anything else — OK, it is about the trees, too. While subject choice is certainly important, picking the right light and the time of day to find it seems equally important. Because I knew that this place would remain in shadow much later in the morning, I had it on my list to visit after photographing a different subject earlier that day.

The colors of these trees seem more interesting to me when the light is a bit subdued, so I planned to arrive here perhaps a half hour or more before the sun topped a ridge behind the grove and turned up the contrast. I found a spot with a clear view across the valley and tightly framed the trees, mostly filling the frame with them but leaving just a bit of the background slopes visible at the top.

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

Resistenza

Image October 26, 2023 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Today I interrupt the nearly-continuous stream of fall color photographs to insert another from our 2023 summer travels through Europe. This one comes from Bologna, where there is a lot of “street art” and graffiti, to put it mildly. It ranges from crude text scrawling to some quite fascinating work. This isn’t precisely street art, as it began life as a poster of some sort… but if you look closely you’ll see that there are layers here.

The poster was glued to a wall and surrounded by a frame — unlike real street art which rarely would be present that way. But do note the thin band of typically-colored Bologna wall around the central element, and note that already another small poster had been layered on top of it and that it has been defaced in some subtle ways.

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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. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Images

Hazy Sunset, Florence

Morning View of the Sierra Crest

Terraced Aspen Grove

Resistenza

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